The Piniella Era Is Now Over

When the media was hastily called into the interview room Sunday morning we all knew something was up and when the official announcement came almost no one was surprised. The Cubs announced that Lou Piniella would be managing his final game on Sunday and then go home to attend to his ailing mother. Piniella had pretty much hinted this could happen the day before when he kept referring to family being much more important than baseball. Even at that point Piniella and Jim Hendry had discussed the situation and they then made the final decision later in the day.

Hendry made some additional news by announcing that Mike Quade will take over for the rest of the season and that Alan Trammell will not even be considered for the vacant job next season. We attempted to get Trammell's reaction but as of this writing he has not made himself available.

Quade has managed in the Cub's minor league system and will be on Hendry's list to be interviewed during the off season but there is very little chance he will be the Cub's Manager next year.

As for the players...we looked around to talk to some of the veterans  for their reaction but the reality is that there are very few left in the Cub's clubhouse. Ryan Dempster and Shawn Marshall both indicated that Piniella was very emotional when he spoke to the players early Sunday morning and more then a few tears were shed.

Piniella's mother has been ailing down in Florida and the constant pull of him being with family and finishing out the string finally came to be too much. When his 90 year old mother took a recent turn for the worse the decision was made by both Piniella and Hendry to hurry up his retirement and thus Sunday was his last game in uniform. Piniella's career as a player, coach and manager has spanned nearly 50 years and with his mother ailing,  the man they have called "Sweet Lou" decided that enough was enough.