Tuesday, 31 August 2010 08:56
As it if werent enough that Mike Quade led the Cubs to their first sweep in 137 years, inserted guys with the best OBPs at the top of the lineup, and got Tylermania back in the game, now he's managed to beat the unbeatable Pirates and possibly cure Big z's nephew:.
"The Cubs treated Dawson to a lopsided win, as Aramis Ramirez drove in four runs with two of their nine doubles, and Carlos Zambrano homered while evening his record at 6-6.
"Everything now is heading in the right direction," manager Mike Quade said.
Zambrano is 3-0 with a 1.84 earned-run average since being put back in the rotation following his stint on the restricted list. He was as buoyed by the fact his 11-year-old nephew in Venezuela, who is in a coma with a bacterial infection, is doing much better after a grim prognosis last week.
"My nephew is getting better every day," he said. "It was a miracle in my family. He's not out of intensive care yet, but he's much better than 4-5 days ago when he was diagnosed with a 5 percent chance of (living)."
But even though he's rivaling Annie Sullivan in the miracle department, Quade doesn't expect anyone to hand him the manager's job:
"I hope the overall picture is taken into account, but I'm not doing the evaluation," he said. "Some of that I'm sure will be in the mix. Look, there are a lot of good baseball people out there and I get a chance to do this in front of people. We're going to try and win every ballgame obviously, and I'm sure wins and losses will be a part of it. To what extent, that's for the people evaluating me to answer."Quade took a moment to look around the ballpark during the national anthem, thinking about how fortunate he is to have finally reached this position. It has been a long road to Wrigley, but the wait was worth it."It's not just about being here," he said. "But it's about where I've been, and I've been damn near everywhere, so this is a pretty good place to end up right now."
