“BLING!”
We were driving west on Roscoe Sunday morning, not far from the ballpark, when my phone’s text message alert went off. I was behind the wheel so Wife of Admin picked up the phone and flipped it open.
“It’s from Admin’s son,” she said as she pushed the OK button to read the message.
“Bye bye lou”
What? Did he get fired? Resign? What happened? Our minds raced … didn’t sound like either the Ricketts or Jim Hendry to fire him before the final game of a home stand. The timing was off.
Then … what a week! With D-Lee being traded to the Braves and now Lou leaving, a franchise in turmoil had, within four days, almost completely changed its look because two of the constants, the visible anchors most identified with the 2007 and 2008 division-winning team, were gone.
But we also felt bad for Lou. Whatever had happened, this was not the way a legendary major league baseball player and manager would want to end his career.
Wife of Admin punched in some letters and sent off our question: What happened?
“BLING!”
Admin’s son: Retired
“BLING!”
Admin’s son: Today his last game
I pushed radio buttons, turning it on, switching from FM to FM2 and then AM, and finally finding a station I knew would be covering the story.
Lou would be stepping down after Sunday’s game against the Braves and would return home to Florida to take care of his ailing mother. He didn’t want to end his career this way, but family came first. It wouldn’t be fair to his players, the Cubs organization or the fans to keep traveling back and forth, missing games as had happened in the recent past.
Perhaps there’s more to this, more that went on behind the scenes, but it doesn’t matter and does us no good to speculate. Anyone anywhere close to Lou’s age, including Admin, Wife of Admin, our siblings and just about everyone we know, has gone through it, is going through it or will go through it, and one thing we know for sure is that when a family crisis hits, nothing else matters at all.
We knew the game would be poignant, and hoped, as was expressed by commentators and broadcasters alike, that the Cubs would come through and win one more for Sweet Lou. But the Atlanta Braves are fighting for the lead of their division and didn’t get the memo, and so they went out and roughed up the Cubs 16-5. Slapstick fielding and batting-practice pitching made Sunday’s game yet another humiliation during a year of horrors. Perhaps in a way it was appropriate as a final bold-face exclamation that it was time for the Cubs to truly move on. And Lou, too.
From our perspective the Piniella era is another in a line of marquee managers not quite finishing the job. Durocher, Frye, Zimmer, Baker and Lou. Same story each time. So much promise … a bad team turned around … Wrigleyville craziness until the last out of the Cubs’ playoffs is recorded, and that last out is always a Cub out, as it was Sunday afternoon as the Cubs and their fans said goodbye to Lou Piniella.
All the best to you and your family, Lou. Hope to see you at the ballpark sometime soon.
And good luck to new Cub manager, Mike Quade.