Quade did it his way Wednesday night, lifting Dempster for a pinch-hitter in a scoreless duel against Jason Marquis in the eighth inning. Dempster had thrown only 79 pitches and seemed to be upset.

"He wanted no part of coming out, and he wasn't happy about that," Quade said. "And that's OK. I don't want guys happy (to leave). ... I couldn't live with myself if we're tied in the eighth we don't try and do something to win the game. It wouldn't matter who (is pitching), but it's always more difficult when it's somebody who's giving you a heck of an outing."

Read more: Cubs Thursday Headlines: Cubs Sweep by Nats in Wild Card Race

 

Read more: Pippen to be Honored by Bulls with Statue

 

 

Allow me to elaborate on my post from yesterday (which came in almost muted reaction to the Chicago magazine article on Sammy). This will require some imagination on your part. When you see Alan Shore, I want you to picture Sammy Sosa. When he talks about the legal profession, I want you to imagine he's talking about baseball. And when he describes Eugene Young and pie and embezzlement and lying, I want you to replace it all by conjuring up thoughts of Jim Hendry and retired numbers and egotism and steroids. If you can do that, you can understand how I feel about how the Cubs treated Sammy Sosa.

If you can't, well, it was worth a shot.

 

WASHINGTON -- Mike Quade isn't going to pretend he's not auditioning for the Cubs job in 2011.

"I guess," he said. "The thing to say is, 'Oh, no, no, no. But, no, it probably absolutely is. And for me, the thing you've got to be careful about is you've got to do what you've got to do. It's a generic statement, but it really is (true). I know what I've done in the past and how I've gone about it. And I've been around so many good people. You have to be yourself. You just have to approach it and do it my way and whatever happens happens.

"But in some way, shape or form, it absolutely is an audition."

Read more: Tuesday Cubs Headlines: All Quade On The Western Front

By Jordan Bernfield

Following a difficult 8-22 season, things can only look up for the UIC men's basketball team.  Judging by today's ceremonies at the UIC Pavilion on Chicago's west side, the arrow is definitely pointed in a positive direction moving forward.

Howard Moore was named the head basketball caoch at the University of Illinois at Chicago today, succeeding 14-year head coach Jimmy Collins, who retired last month.  Moore leaves the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was the top assistant for Bo Ryan for the last five seasons.  The 37-year old grew up just blocks from the UIC campus, and for that reason called this position a dream job.

"It means a lot to me to come home,"  Moore said, overcome by emotion, at the UIC Pavilion this afternoon.  "This is a tremendous situation, and this is a tremendous opportunity."

 

 

Read more: UIC Introduces Howard Moore as Next Head Basketball Coach

More than 8,000 games managed are being celebrated in that hug.

Lou Piniella came up for four games with the Baltimore Orioles in 1964. He didn't make it back to the big leagues until a six-game stint with the Indians in 1968 followed by his rookie-of-the-year campaign with the Royals in 1969. Never again has more than one season of Major League Baseball transpired without the likes of Lou Piniella.

Lou last played with the Yankees in 1984 and took over as manager in 1986. His next year off was '89 in between his time in New York and in Cincinnati, where he won the World Series in 1990. He didn't miss a single game of the regular season in between his transitions from the Reds to the Mariners or from Seattle to Tampa. 2006 was the last year Lou Piniella didn't have a full-time job with Major League Baseball, and even then he worked as an analyst for FOX.

Since he first started playing for the Selma Cloverleafs in 1962, Lou Piniella has made a living in the game of baseball. From 1962 to 2010, the man had three vacations from baseball: 1985, 1989, 2006. That's it. He had a chance to do what he loved for nearly 50 years.

Read more: Do What You Love. Now.

 

Read more: Cubs Monday Headlines: I Will Always Love Lou

Goodbye, Lou. Thanks for leading the Cubs to three winning seasons and one worth leaving early.

Lou Piniella is about to manage his last game with the Cubs and probably his last ever. He'll retire with more than 1,800 wins and more than 100 more wins over .500 as a manager. More importantly than where he'll spend the rest of this season, he will be near his mother for the rest of his life. If you have ever been there for someone in their final moments, whether it's for mere seconds or over the course of many long years, it is simultaneously painful and rewarding. (When anyone says that about being a Cubs fan, I hope they're kidding. There is no comparison. Watching losing baseball is a mild annoyance. Losing someone you love redefines you.)

In baseball terms, Lou has been a great manager for the Cubs and the Rays and the Mariners and the Reds and the Yankees. But honestly, I don't really know what that entails. It is strictly impossible to quantify what anyone else would have done with the teams Lou had. The people who didn't manage his teams have nothing but what if's and would have's. Lou did it. No one can measure what someone else would have done in his place, but what you can measure is that for 3,548 games, an owner of a Major League Baseball team entrusted Lou to do the job.

Read more: Au Revoir, Sweet Lou

 

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