October 16, 2019: Say It Ain’t Joe

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Next level down is the manager. Not only did the Cubs have one of the best rosters in baseball, we had one of the best managers. I don’t care what anybody says, Joe is as good as it gets. I’m not sure about you, but if you’re going to ask me my favorite Cubs manager of all time it’s Joe…10 out of 10 times. Sure, I remember Frye…loved Popeye…liked Dusty and Lou for a while, but Joe??? He’s the man. He was the right guy at the right time for our boys. He brought the perfect culture for that dugout. He helped shed the label of Loveable losers, which should never be used again. All Joe did was win, including breaking the longest drought in professional sports history. He was leading the crew up that mountain. So why was he the first to go after the season ended? Say it ain’t Joe…

You know what the last four years has looked like. Four straight winning seasons. Four consecutive playoff appearances. One World Series title. Joe was as much a part of this as anybody. The same can be said for this year. Yes, we had another winning season, but it did not result in a playoff appearance, which as we’ve already discussed, is unacceptable. Joe was as much a part of this as anybody. This is one of the reasons he’s gone. Damn that bar is high…

Did that culture that Joe helped build become stale? Did his message begin to fall on deaf ears? Did his day to day decisions become easier and easier to criticize? Have there been some Cubs ‘fans’ who never forgot how he almost bungled away 2016? Quick tip: we never get there without Joe. Those people are probably the same people who are mad that the Cubs traded Gleybar Torres….good God people. But the other questions are legit.

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As a ‘leader of people’, I sometimes feel like my ways get old and stale. My style, my message, becomes a given…it becomes a broken record. The urgency starts to disappear. How do you recapture that? Bringing in a bunch of new blood maybe; maybe that’s what the Cubs need to do? Or maybe a change in that position? Hope my boss isn’t reading. Hey…this ship is still floating. But obviously with Joe, the decision was made to move on; I’m OK with it. Kind of like the whole term limits thing…bringing in someone with new ideas, a new style, a different way of saying the same thing… I don’t know… feels like there’s value in that. There’s also value in having one of the best managers in the league in the dugout…

Did I agree with everything Joe did? No. Do you agree with everything anybody does? Bravo if the answer is yes. Bottom line is that you’re not always going to see eye to eye with somebody. But just because I stood at a holiday inn last night, doesn’t mean I’m a better manager than Joe. There was certainly a method to his madness. When it was working, nobody was complaining…well, except those folks I mentioned above. But when the wheels were wobbly, when they eventually fell off…easy target eh?

No, I’m not putting this all on Joe. Yes, just as he should get credit for the winning, he deserves his share of blame for coming up short. Enough to say goodbye? I guess so, and I guess I can co-sign on that…can’t believe I’m saying that, but that’s how I feel. Joe was the right guy at the right time 5 years ago; he’s not the right guy at this very moment for this specific team. Good luck in Anaheim Joe; happy for you. You will never be forgotten, but this show must go on…

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