During an appearance with Steve Cochran on ESPN1000 in Chicago yesterday, Lou Piniella said he believes Mike Quade deserved the opportunity to return as Cubs manager.
“Mike’s a good baseball man. He’s been in baseball for a long, long time,” Piniella said. “He got that opportunity when I left there and I tell you what, the club responded to him and they played exceedingly well. And I know it was a very tough decision for everybody in the organization choosing between Mike and other viable candidates, but you know, he deserved it.”
Quade led the Cubs to a 24-13 record (.649) after Piniella stepped down in late-August in order to tend to his ailing mother. Ryne Sandberg was the fan favorite for the job and certainly deserved consideration after being named the Pacific Coast League manager of the year in his first season with Triple-A Iowa, but Quade earned the vocal support of many of his players.
As for Piniella, he told Cochran that his mother is still fighting.
“She’s having her good days and her bad days,” Piniella said of his mother’s health. “Sometimes I’m heartened a bit and sometimes it’s discouraging. She’s going to be 91 years old now, here in December, so she’s a scrappy old gal. I needed to come home, I did the right thing and she’s appreciated the fact that I’ve been home.”
Piniella, now 67, is almost certainly done in the dugout, but he’ll resurface in the game eventually. Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner recently told the Chicago Tribune that he hopes Piniella will consider re-joining the club in an advisory role.
