I think hiring Joe Girardi to manage the cubs in 2011 will be the righ choice.

He grew up a cubs fan as knows the orginaztion.

He also played on a cubs 1stplace team in 1989.

He is still young and would make the cubs contenders for years.

He has done a good job with the Yankees.

The cubs must consider him the number 1 skipper to take over from Piniella

Even though his contract is up at the end of this year, until Girardi says he is open to looking at other jobs, he is unavailable. I wanted Girardi 4 years ago, and think he would be great, but I am not even considering him an option,at this time. It would take an awful lot, for him to walk away from the Yankees.

Is it now safe to say that ARam is out of his slump??

Hendry and Lou have been a joke all season. Since spring training they collectively have made the wrong decision time after time. First of all Theriot was going to be the shortstop and Castro would come up later in the season. Lou said that and what happens Castro comes up and then they move Theriot to second which we have 15 second baseman. The Zambrano thing he hasn't pitched good all season. But because of his ridiculous contract they've ruined two pitchers. Gorzelany has pitched decent all season and he hasn't deserved to be jerked around. So two pitchers lost for the season. Pinella lost the fire last season and he can't motivate any team anymore. How many times has Dempster, Wells and Lily gone into the 7th innings with leads. Lou didn't know enough to know they run out of gas and then give up the lead. I can remember at least 10 times that has happened. For every Marmol that has come on and had a good year. They can't find a capable guys for the 7th and 8th innings. All the Stevens and Berg and Atkins and list goes on and on. Lou and Rothchild and Hendry have botched this season. The only way Hendry can redeem himself is to rid this club of the ridiculous contracts of Zambrano and Fukedome.

"The news here is announcing that Hendry is back as the GM! This is so disappointing. Why in the world would you make that announcement? Why make that decision?"

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That's easy. All you had to do was read this moron's statements regarding the team a couple of weeks ago to know he doesn't know what he's doing.

The Cubs needed an owner with guts, baseball sense, and a plan; Ricketts fails on all three counts.

With him as owner, unless he pulls his head out and dumps Hendry this offseason (yeah, I know, good luck with that), this team will be also-rans for many many years to come.

Anybody that blind, or stupid, or both regarding the mess Hendry has created has no business in baseball. Ricketts is a joke.

Lou retiring isn't the news here. Of course he wasn't coming back and if he was going to be fired it would have been a month ago. Firing him now would be a chicken-shit move and disrespectful.

The news here is announcing that Hendry is back as the GM! This is so disappointing. Why in the world would you make that announcement? Why make that decision?

This is a depressing turn of events.

Sure makes it hard to continue to support this organization with Hendry in charge.

Well that maybe true. But it can just as easily and more likely decided that he was done. Could of been mutual.

If you love doing something, even though you know that your done, you still want to do it again.

I did that with softball, started getting rundown and knew that I needed to quit playing but I still wanted to play. Just an example.

For all of you that think this is the Cubs way of gracefully letting him leave.

He was talking about retiring at the start of the season. So no that is, more than likely, not the case.

Yes, that is true but he had also hinted all season long that he would be willing to possibly comeback next season as the Cubs manager.

Makes you wonder what that was really about or did he just finally make up his mind based on the poor performance during July and the team being far out of the race.

I encourage everyone to read the CCO's twitter feed ... a lot of information

Tom Ricketts just said that Jim Hendry will be back as the team's GM for next season.

That is some of the most surprising news I have heard in a while.

I was sure JH was done. Now we have to put the rebuilding process in JHs hands.

GOOD LUCK!! 100+ and counting!!!

unbelievable!! Well we know that Ricketts doesn't know anything about baseball when he lets a sob story like Hendry continue. What's he going to do with Zambrano and Fukedome. What manager would want to deal with Zambrano.

i agree, i met Crane Kenney at the season tix holder day at Wrigely, and he is a corp flunky and i challenged him on hendry's talent evaluation. Hendry is responsible for this roster and he is getting vote of confidence??? How??

I think that Ricketts has told Lou and Hendry that they weren't coming back. Then Lou decided that the best thing for him to do was to announce his retirement. Ricketts will reassign Hendry. I think Ricketts told Hendry that you will have to clean up his mess with the contracts of Fukedome and Zambrano before he goes. I think that they can live with Soriano. I can see next year that Torre could be the manager. Sandburg is not ready yet and I don't always believe that former players don't always make the best managers. If he does I think he needs more time in Iowa. Girardi would be the best choice but I don't think he will leave New York unless they things there fall apart.

But I think it will be Sandberg either way.

My opinion, If we are going young then Sandberg would nto be a bad pick for a new manager since they have come up through the system with him and can get respect from them pretty easily for this reason.

If we are not going young, then Tramell may not be bad. Girardi maybe but not Sandberg.

Not that Sandberg wouldn't be a good coach but he always seemed like a quiet guy and it seems like he would have trouble getting the respect of veterans.

I could be wrong though, I dont know him personally.

Everytime you talk about Sandberg as the manager, you bring up that he was quiet as a player. You never mention, that he is fiery as a manager.

Whatever.

Is it just a coincidence that Tom Ricketts, just last week, had a closed door meeting with Ryno in Iowa???

I don't believe in coincidences.

Something tells me they get Girardi for next year.

Girardi would jump at it, if offered. Guaranteed.

I know someone who knows front office people and he has said told me they want experience, which would exclude Ryno. BUT, that is Hendry's thinking.

But if Hendry is gonzo too, all bets are off.

Will they retire his number?

Give him a special night?

How about one of those shaving cream pies?

I wonder if there will be any more ejections in his future. Do you think he can get out there and throw a hissy fit at least one more time. He really disappointed us here, having only one memorable one that I can remember. Guess that was just a sign that he didn't have the old "fire in the belly" any more.

He was the right man for the right time, but unfortunately he ran out of time. Now let the speculation begin.

In hindsight, I wonder if Joe Girardi would have been the better choice in '07. Girardi was my first choice, but I was happy that they hired Pinella, my second choice.

Maybe he will give the "win one for the Gipper" speach and we will win the next 12 games in a row! LOL. I know, I know, just dreamin.

In all seriousness, I agree with you Joe, I liked it when they hired him, but it is time for him to go.

I wonder if Ryno will be taking over next year?

Personally, I do not think Ryno is a shoe in but would have to think he is the odds on favorite, especially given his knowledge of the Cubs farmhands.

Let the From the wire posts commence...

Good luck in your future endeavors Mr. Piniella.

This was just to let Lou have the respect he probably deserves and go out on his terms.

This lets the team avoid the distraction of will Lou get fired. I'm sure Ricketts did not want to do that to Lou. When Lou said he would be open to returning to the Cubs Im sure though Rickets made it clear that wasnt happening.

Im sure at some point, probably seasons end, Jim Hendry will be handled just as gracefully and he will be "reassigned" other duties and a new GM put in place. Maybe he will be the special assistant to the special assistant Ed Lynch???

I do thank Lou for the beginning of his time here. He was the perfect choice as manager. Unfortunately, age caught up to him and he lost all competetive fire last year. It is time for him to go enjoy life.

when does the dunce and imbecile Hendry retire?

Not soon enough!!

Also, I think when Ted Lilly gets traded is when Big Z gets removed from the restricted lists and gets reinstated. This is mainly in my opinion in light of the fact he failed miserably as a reliever. I think in the end Big Z will be in the rotation despite JH and Lou's earlier statements.

Given the team had some surplus in starting pitching moving Lilly continues to make the most sense and he has the highest trade value on the team.

It will be interesting to see how the Cubs, fans and Big Z respond when he pitches for the first time.

Given that Lou indicated he would consider coming back next year in earlier statements makes me think that the Ricketts have suggested they are looking to move into another direction. Also, this further supports other statements that Lou will not get fired and instead will be allowed to finish out the year.

In the end that might be best for the club as they are pretty much out of the race and a shakeup will not salvage this season.

I agree with Zonk that hiring Lou after Dusty was the right decision and also agree that it is time for him to go. The team needs to move in another direction.

Now we need to wait and see if JH has anything to say.

I think though JH should not make the next hire.

This will not be resolved until the offseason though.

This way he can go out stating he's never been fired as a manager.

Just ridiculous.

Whatever.....

Not surprising, as all signs were pointing to this.

I still think hiring Lou Pinella was the right decision at the time; after Dusty, we needed a manager with fire who was not afraid to put the hammer to a couple players, and Lou is certainly that.

Just as hiring him was the right decision, his retirement also is; it's time to move on for both parties.

Lou has done enough in baseball he probably deserves a nice sendoff and ride into the sunset. I respect him, but it's time, and he apparently feels the same way.

The real question is whether Jim Hendry makes the next hire or not.

Very nicely, put, post Keith.

Hire Brenly now and let him manage the rest of the season.