Sweet Lou and the Cubs by George Castle

Author:George Castle
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461749424
Publisher: Lyons Press

Throughout 2007, the man whom New York Times baseball bard Murray Chass called ‘the man who knows as much about hitting as any man alive or dead,” claimed puzzlement concerning why the Cubs sluggers weren’t belting homers—they hit just 32 homers combined in June and July of that season. Flustered with the repeated questions, one day he played amateur weatherman, suggesting the wind blew in different directions inside and above Wrigley Field. A year later he admitted he was an expert on hitting, but whatever he analyzed about the power shortage of ’07 he kept to himself.

Too many times to remember, Piniella might not directly answer a question, veering off the topic and perhaps returning to the original idea after the steam had been taken out of the inquiry. Stammering was another tactic to either gather his thoughts or throw off the original question. Piniella sometimes came off as a befuddled uncle, but reporters quickly figured it was the managerial equivalent of a running back’s juke. He could be the master of misdirection.

Piniella also used the politician’s tried-and-true device of throwing the question back to the interviewer and injecting his own humorous comments, breaking up the moment’s momentum by getting the entire interview room to crack up with laughter. I’ve been on the receiving end a number of times.

“He can tease pretty well,” said Larry LaRue.

One time in 2007, I asked whether outfielder Cliff Floyd, having used up his time on the bereavement list due to the death of his father, Cornelius Floyd, would be put on the restricted list.

“Yes, and you should be on it, too,” he answered with a grin.

“Did you rehearse that all afternoon?” I snapped back.

“No, it just came to me,” Piniella concluded.

Passing by near the Cubs dugout, he twice called me “Simon,” as in American Idol provocateur Simon Cowell, obviously equating the acerbic Brit to my direct-questions style. I reminded Piniella that “Simon” was the star of the show.

After that wild blown lead-turned-extra-inning victory on July 12, 2008, Chicago Tribune beat writer Paul Sullivan asked if Piniella might bring up any pitchers with Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood unavailable for the next day. “No, we don’t need any pitchers,” the manager said. “If we can’t get by tomorrow with what we got, we’ll pitch you, Sullivan.” Two weeks later, I asked a similar question, and Piniella scraped the bottom of the barrel by suggesting that I should pitch.

Showing that the long season did not dull his wit, Piniella nailed Sullivan on September 18, 2008, when he turned to the scribe in his postgame talk to confirm whether Rich Harden had thrown the most number of pitches in a start to that date. “What do you think, Sullivan, or are you falling asleep on me?” he said to raucous laughter from Sullivan’s colleagues. “You had a bad night last night. No, I’m fine. I’m going to have a bad night tonight.” And when I asked Piniella the next day if he still admired rookie pitcher Jeff

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