Chicago Cubs: Playing Tom Ricketts

The Cubs have chosen Mike Quade over Ryne Sandberg as their new manager. Let me be clear that I have nothing in particular against Mike Quade other than that, as I have noted in an earlier piece, he is Jim Hendry's guy. In fact, the team did well for the six weeks he managed them, and I do wish him well. We need to be clear, however, about what just happened and what it probably bodes for the future.

Actually, you have to hand it to Hendry. He may not be much of a GM. You can even argue that he is a pretty bad one, and I will make that argument in a subsequent post.

At the end of the day, however, the guy is one hell of a bureaucrat. Since the ownership change, he's demonstrated the ability to sway those around him, particularly Ricketts and the Cub's fans surprisingly, in way that's Machiavellian in its success and subtlety. In the process, Ricketts has lost a real chance to exert control over the franchise.

That's a pity, because Ricketts really had a chance to change things from the relative laughing-stock of baseball organizations the Cubs have become. To do so, he had to take charge immediately, minimally finding himself a trusted baseball adviser, but ideally cleaning house right from the start. But, retaining Hendry and Piniella were his biggest mistakes. 

Instead of asserting himself from the beginning, Ricketts chose to evaluate matters for a year, concentrating on raising ticket prices, repairing the washrooms, commissioning statues of macaroni, and selling bison that he just happens to produce on one of his ranches, and, aw, shucks, just trying to be the best fan he can be and hoping for the best.

I'm afraid this guy is small-time running a major market team. In this respect, he has found his ideal consigliere in the overstuffed person of Jim Hendry. Hendry has never been comfortable running a big time operation. But Hendry has always been most attuned to bottom-feeding and bargain hunting: Sometimes you strike gold there, most often not.

For Hendry though, it is all about control and who he feels comfortable being around. I'm not sure he ever felt comfortable with Baker or Piniella, but they kind of got him off the hook and shifted attention from his own feeble efforts to build a winning team.

You want a manager, OK, take these mopes. Sandberg, or for that matter Girardi or Brenly, would have meant a change of course and a shifting of attention to people on the upsides of their careers. These would be rising stars, whose success or failure would shift the attention from the GM, that might just create a power base independent of his own.

Think about it, how many GMs can most serious baseball fans name straight off their heads? I know I can't think of half-a-dozen, but, like most fans, I can rattle off twenty or so managers. That's as it should be. But it is not the world where Hendry thrives.

So, in this case, what Ricketts provided was time for Hendry to consolidate his position. Ricketts clearly doesn't know much about baseball other than that he likes it, and it is always nice to be king. Giving Hendry a year to work things out was kind of like giving Dracula a second chance to straighten up.

In retrospect, everyone should have seen this coming, although it was a shrewd play by Hendry and actually a no-lose situation for the club. I mean, who names a new manager to fill out the term of a prematurely retired manager who didn't get fired, but just decided to quit twice in one month for family reasons? Then, that GM calls him a replacement for the remainder of the season, rather than an interim or acting choice?

Chump that he is, Ricketts bought the idea. Hendry had nothing to lose here and made a pretty shrewd bet at that. 

First off, Piniella had a lot to do with the team's execrable performance, and, secondly, teams usually experience a bounce when a skipper is bounced, particularly one so obviously at wit's end as Sweet Lou. Now if you do well, hey, the team you assembled was never that bad after all and this unknown character is some kind of low-key genius. If not, if Quade is a flop, well, what do you expect from this guy anyway, he's only a stopgap, some genial mope who has been bouncing around from Pawtucket to Toledo to Pocatello for nearly twenty years?

We move on to Plan B, which might have been Eric Wedge, I guess, although some people think Wedge might have been Plan A all along until Quade surprised everyone by winning games.

What's most disappointing is that we are apparently headed for more of the same, no big changes, no accountability, small market moves from a big market team. Carry on, Brownie, you're doing a hell of a job. Anyway, we are stuck with the situation, and, as I say, you could do worse. But we ought to recognize what went on here and who came out the big winner. Not the fans. Not the owner. Not the new manager either.

As for Sandberg, well I almost never agree with Phil Rogers, but he got played here as well, big time.

The Ivy Covered Burial Ground