Lou Piniella

All Cub fans are familiar with Lou Piniella's managerial skills, but what kind of ballplayer was he? New Moon has gathered a few facts.

Lou played outfielder in the big leagues for 18 years. As a right-handed hitter, he recorded a career batting average of .291, hammered 102 home runs, and drove in 766 runs.

While playing for Kansas City in 1969, Piniella became the American League Rookie of the Year, hitting .282, slamming 11 home runs, and collecting 68 RBIs.

Lou Piniella

Lou Piniella isn't taking any baloney from anyone about his decision to relieve Carlos Zambrano after the sixth inning in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. Lou says that the people who criticize have the advantage of doing it after the game is over.

Lou is also unmoved by the ancient legend of the billy goat curse. This legend has many variations, the most popular of which states that a fan was not allowed to take his goat into Wrigley Field. In return, the man or the goat put a curse on the Cubbies, who have therefore not won a World Series since 1908.

Ted Lilly

With a record of 8-4 and an ERA of 3.67, pitcher Ted Lilly will lead the Cubs into this afternoon's game with the Houston Astros. Lilly's last win came on July 7, when he vanquished the Pirates.

Prior to the game, Lou Piniella was heard making hopeful statements about the present home stand. "We've worked hard to get ourselves in position," he said, "and we need to play well here."

The editorial team at New Moon thoroughly endorses this opinion. Moreover, we would like to see the Cubs play well everywhere and all the time.

We need to win some games in order to finish above .500. Ted Lilly, please throw strikes.

What If?

The Cubs have won nine of their last ten games. As they approach the break for the All-Star Game and the half-way point for the season, their win-loss average has risen to .506. They remain in second place in the Central Division, 6.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers.

At this point it becomes tempting to start playing "What If?" What if we sweep the all the games that remain to be played before the All-Star Game? What if we continue to perform come-from-behind mircles? What if the pitchers continue to improve, and what if everyone's batting average continues to rise?

But what if those things don't happen? The problem with the "What If?" game is that it makes predictions based on speculation. The best way to deal with all these possibilities is to forget them. We simply need to stay healthy and play the game the best we can.

That's all that Lou Piniella expects, and that's good enough for me.

Now Where's Lou?

The Cubs are trailing Milwaukee in the first game of a three-game series, so let's get back to something important.

I still think the best part of the Piniella-Wegner duet occurred when Lou kicked his cap. His own cap. He kicked it twice.

Now Lou has to complete four days of rehab.

It ain't fair. He shouldn't get four days for kicking his own cap. I could understand it if he had kicked Wegner's cap. But his own cap? I kick my own cap, and no one pays any attention.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem all that bad for someone to punish you by forbidding you to work. My problem is that some boss is always telling me to do more work.

Lou also got fined $4000.

That's serious punishment. I'm sorry Lou, but if you need a loan, I can't help. Four thousand kopeks is a tall pile of change.

I just checked with Pat and Ron. The Cubs now lead the Brew Boys 6-2 in the seventh.

Where's Lou?

The Cubs took off their boxing gloves and put on their baseball gloves for Sunday's game with the Braves.

They then proceeded to hammer Atlanta 10-1.

Pitcher Sean Marshall limited the Braves to only one run and three hits for almost seven innings. Cubs batters gave Marshall more than enough support, starting in the first inning, when Mark DeRosa hit a grand slam homer.

But where was Manager Lou Piniella? Was he drunk? Did he have a tummy ache? Was he in jail?

No to all the above. He was, as everyone knows, serving his suspension after Saturday's kicking and shouting match with third-base umpire Mark Wegner.

Bench coach Alan Trammell managed the team on Sunday, and Lou had to watch the game from somewhere other than the dugout.

All this may have energized the Cubs.

Maybe Lou should stay suspended for the rest of the season.

The Cubs Need More Rain

Rain delayed the start of the Cubs-Mets game Wednesday night at Shea Stadium.

For the Cubs, it would have been better if the rain hadn't stopped.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella sought an explanation for the Cubbies 8-1 loss and found it in the pitching of Rich Hill.

Having solved Carlos Zambrano's pitching troubles (the now-famous early revelation problem), Piniella must next solve Hill's troubles. If Piniella fails, Hill may get rained out permanently.

Hill's problems lie in the fact that he's walking batters and then letting them steal on him. These troubles may be more difficult to solve than Zambrano's early revelations.

It's now 3:25 PM, Thursday, in Chicago, and the Cubs just lost to the Mets by one run.

Bring on the rain.

Sunday, 3 PM

It's Sunday in Philadelphia. A ballgame may be taking place.

It's only a game. It's only a game. It's only, etc.

Good News from Rothschild and Piniella

The Cubs lost to Philadelphia on Saturday, May 12, 2007. This was the third defeat in what figures to be a long losing streak.

Before we all meet at the corner of Clark and Addison to share a tub of rat poison, Larry Rothschild, pitching coach, and Lou Piniella, manager, want to give us some good news.

Carlos Zambrano’s right arm didn’t really fall off.

It seems that Zambrano had some trouble with his “mechanics.” Before each pitch, the ace right-hander grasped the ball appropriately for the pitch requested by catcher Barrett or catcher Blanco, depending on which one came to the game.

Then Zambrano held the ball high above his head before going into his windup.

This allowed opposing batters to see what pitch to expect, which gave them a better chance of getting a hit, provided they knew how pitchers hold the ball for each kind of pitch, i.e., fast ball, curve ball, slider, stripper, etc.

Both Rothschild and Piniella told Zambrano not to hold the ball high over his head before going into his windup, although they didn’t say where they did tell him to hold it.

Just to be on the safe side, Piniella also told both catchers not to write the kinds of pitches on a chalk board and hold it up for Zambrano to read.

Bring your own spoons to Clark and Addison. I can’t do everything for you.