let's get back to what matters...

with iran on the verge of explosion (or implosion) and american medical association worried more about their paychecks than their patients health I am taking a vacation from important events to focus on really important events...

thus, without further delay. the cubs are tanking and sweet lou is severely disappointing.


The following blog entry was posted by Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune on today's date...

Piniella admitted he had no answers, but he still has a job -- for now

No converter box required . . .

Lou Piniella said he was out of answers. The Cubs manager admitted he didn’t know what to do, what to say, nothing. So, the hitting-challenged Cubs managed by a hitting-centric manager fired the hitting coach.

But the hitting-centric manager didn’t fire the hitting coach. No, that act was done by the general manager who failed to supply the team with a respectable offensive backup at third base in case the clean-up hitter got hurt. I guess Aramis Ramirez’s injury was Gerald Perry’s fault.

Mark DeRosa was traded. That’s Gerald Perry’s fault.

Alfonso Soriano is gimpy and unable to hit anywhere in the lineup that requires discipline. He was a free-swinger before the Cubs paid $136 million and he remains a free-swinger, only hobbled, which has made him a worse outfielder than ever, if you can believe that. That’s Gerald Perry’s fault.

Geovany Soto showed up fat and bad. That’s Gerald Perry’s fault.

Kosuke Fukudome looked awful in spring training, started the season great, then began his batting average death spiral, all of it for the second straight year. That’s Gerald Perry’s fault.

Milton Bradley got hurt and angry the way everybody except the Cubs knew he would. That’s Gerald Perry’s fault.

The surprise is that the Cubs didn’t blame Gerald Perry for the parking meter disaster in the city, too.

Yeah, I know, Perry was made a scapegoat. Can’t fire 25 players, so you fire a coach or manager, blah, blah, blah.

Thing is, you wouldn’t have to fire 25 players. Just bench a couple of them. Hold them accountable. That would be the manager’s job. Piniella said Perry’s firing was tough on him because he worked with the guy for six years on two teams, but apparently it wasn’t worth sitting down Soriano, for instance, until he got healthy. Nor was it worth benching Fukudome until he proved in batting practice that he could stop that silly spinning thing that Piniella even commented on -- commented on but didn’t send a message. Nope, Piniella’s players don’t seem to be held accountable. Not enough, anyway.

And whether Piniella knows or cares, he’s coming off as someone who’s just counting days until the Steinbrenner family files adoption papers.

Here’s some utter lack of urgency from the manager in Rick Morrissey’s column today:

"Just relax and let it happen," Piniella said of his players. "It's not the end of the world if you don't. You're still going to get a paycheck. Your dog will still like you."

Yeah, get that paycheck. Not the end of the world if you’re stealing money. Nice message.

But wait. There was more: "Three years from now, nobody's going to give a damn anyway."

How precious. The franchise whose fans deal with the 100-year itch everyday hear the manager say no one will “give a damn’’ in three years. Yeah, 1969, 1984, 2003 -- who in Wrigleyville remembers that? Who gives a damn about those seasons? [colin side note - although I was ten years from birth, I remember 1969's tragedy. my first childhood memory involves mom's spaghetti sauce, bad tv trays, a gatorade soaked glove, fucking steve garvey, and a ground ball between the legs of leon durham leading to a crushing defeat. 2003 I remember for the best few months of my life...brought quickly to a halt by a disastrous 8 run 8th inning. I went home and cried that night - we knew game seven was lost.]

It was obvious from the start that Piniella wasn’t in touch with the concept of Cubaholism. He often commented with surprise on the intensity and fatalism and regular recitation of history. He tried to distance his current team from the franchise’s legendary failures. Fine. But now he looks and sounds as if he’s distancing himself from the urgency to win. There are a lot of people who think he doesn’t care enough.

If Piniella wanted to make it clear that every pitch of the season matters and that nothing less will be acceptable, then he had a chance to make a point by yanking Bradley when he lost focus and lost track of outs and threw that ball into the stands in the eighth inning Friday.

But no. Bradley stayed in the game. Afterward, Piniella made a joke about learning how to count. All I know is that almost a year ago to the day, Philadelphia’s Charlie Manuel benched then-reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins in the middle of a game for not hustling. Manuel made a point.

Piniella apparently just made another tally mark on the wall.

some day we'll go all the way...