Lou keeps it in perspective
There's joy in Wrigleyville, but Cubs manager says there's a long way to go
The Cubs manager who celebrated his 64th birthday Tuesday has lived through too many of these ''showdown series.'' He had a front-row seat to all those Yankees-Red Sox bouts. He was front and center for Bucky [Bleeping] Dent breaking Boston's heart in 1978. So, no, he's not going to get too jacked up for Brewers-Cubs in August.
''So much riding in August?'' Piniella said during his pregame chat with reporters. ''I don't know. I think you are going to have a hell of a lot more riding [on the games] in the middle of September than you are now -- if we play the way we expect to play.''
Several minutes later, watching batting practice near third base, Piniella chuckled at the excitement that the media horde from Chicago, Milwaukee and other parts of the country was trying to generate at Wrigley Field.
''It's exciting,'' Piniella said, ''but you have to keep your perspective. You can't get carried away.''
And this is exactly what you want from your manager this time of year. This is why Piniella still stands out as general manager Jim Hendry's best move during a busy offseason.
Piniella continues to provide the right touch this team needs. His true value should shine in September.
A year after coolly guiding the Cubs to the National League Championship Series, manager Dusty Baker was as uptight as his players in 2004. It showed down the stretch, as the Cubs fumbled away the wild-card lead to the hard-charging Astros.
''In '04, there was probably a buzz that whole season,'' first baseman Derrek Lee said. ''This is similar. We have a chance for the postseason, the fans are excited. ... There is still a lot of baseball to play after this series.''
Getting too amped up for the last series against the second-place Brewers could leave the Cubs with a serious hangover -- and 30 games left in the season.
''There's still too much to play,'' Piniella said. ''The season started out as a walk, now we're in the jogging phase of it and when we get into the sprint phase of it, then you can really get more excited.''
So this is laid-back Lou.
Has Piniella actually mellowed his first season on the North Side?
Lee laughs at the suggestion. The Cubs' All-Star first baseman has seen too many of those famous Piniella eruptions to associate the veteran manager with the word mellow.
''I don't think Lou explodes or erupts just to erupt,'' Lee said. ''He probably would have erupted the last month or so, we haven't been too good, but when you're in first place, there's probably not going to be a lot of eruptions going on. But Lou's intense. He wants to win. He's a passionate guy, that's just Lou.''
But these days, Piniella is tempering his temper.
Maybe one reason Piniella is reserving his excitement for this Brewers-Cubs series is because, well, his team hasn't exactly been playing the brand of ball a manager would like to see from his first-place team.
They just went 8-11 without leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano, who returned to the lineup Tuesday. Seven of those 11 losses were decided by two or fewer runs, meaning the Cubs could have made a sizable leap in the oh-so-mediocre National League Central instead of settling for the 1½-game edge they took into the series against the second-place Brewers.
''Actually, we're fortunate to be where we are,'' Piniella said. ''Nobody really has run away with this thing. Basically, there are probably three or four teams that have a legitimate chance at this thing.
''We held our own. We felt the loss of Alfonso. But we didn't collapse. We were below .500 and the schedule had something to do with it, too. I knew the month of August was going to be a tough month. But now we're starting to get healthy. And the younger kids that we have had here are not young kids anymore. They've had some experience, so, yeah, I like our chances, I really do.''
That's about as much excitement as you're going to get from Piniella these days.
He has no control over the fans, though.
One snapshot moment to the over-the-top expectations at Wrigley on Tuesday: Cubs starter Rich Hill struck out five of the first six batters he faced, but got booed when he couldn't get down a sacrifice bunt in the third inning.
Just remember, baseball's most important month during the regular season doesn't start until Saturday.
''What is Milwaukee or any other team?'' Piniella said. ''You've got St. Louis two games behind us and you've got Cincinnati 6½ games behind, we've just got to win baseball games, it doesn't matter who we're playing. This is an important series. But you know what? When Houston comes in [this weekend], it's going to be important. And in about 15 days from now, they're going to be much more important.''