Mike Quade - Gone!

In my little corner of the blogosphere, 2011 has been quite a painful year when it comes to on-field results.  The Packers beat the Bears in the NFC Championship Game and then won the Super Bowl.  The Illini were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks (who at least had the courtesy to not win the championship).  And the Cubs helped the Cardinals sneak into the playoffs on the last day of the season just so I could have the pleasure of watching Ryan Theriot and Corey Patterson get World Series rings.

But off the field - wow, things couldn't be much better.  No more Ron Guenther running the Illini revenue sports into the ground.  No more Jim Hendry running the Cubs front office as if it were still 1977.  And now, the news that Mike Quade will not return to the Cubs dugout in 2012.  In truth, Quade was put into a no-win situation last year (much of which was Hendry's fault), and the 2011 Cubs wouldn't have been any good even with the ghost of Joe McCarthy managing them.  But there's no doubt that Quade was in way over his head as a major league manager, and it's nice to see Jedstein not letting this decision linger.  Instead, they've put on their hazmat suits and are getting a quick start at cleaning up the toxic mess they inherited.  The hunt is on for a new manager who will:

• "place an emphasis on preparation and accountability" (i.e. - goodbye, Carlos Zambrano!  No more standing at home plate watching long fly balls, Alfonso Soriano!)
• "establish high standards and a winning culture" (i.e. - it will be someone from outside the Cubs organization) 
• "have integrity and an open mind" (i.e.- knowledge of Sabermetrics, or a willingness to learn and implement Sabermetrics, encouraged)
• "and he must have managerial or coaching experience at the major league level." (at least they were classy enough to personally contact Ryne Sandberg to let him know he wasn't a candidate).

I have no idea whom they'll come up with to replace Quade (Terry Francona?  Bobby Valentine?  Bob Brenly?), but since everything else the new front office team has done so far has been done in a completely professional manner, I'm sure the same will apply to the process for finding a new manager.  It's exciting to see all of the positive changes happening at 1060 West Addison.  Now if only we could see some similar shake-ups at 1000 Football Drive in Lake Forest, my year would be complete.

OK, It's Officially Official Now - Theo Epstein is a Cub

The press conference introducing Theo Epstein as President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs was held this morning at 11:00, which means that the nearly two-week-long wait for Epstein to actually begin working for the Cubs is finally over.  What a fortnight it's been - I don't think I've seen this level of national media hyperventilation about an off-field sports event since the second Brett Favre unretirement announcement.  And it's not just the mainstream media:  throw in the blogosphere and the Twitter-verse, and I think the only subject that's consumed more Internet bandwidth than speculation about Epstein these past two weeks is pornography. 

In any event, with the media circus behind us, it's good to know that Epstein will now be able to begin re-building the completely decimated Cubs franchise, because there's a lot to do (replace the manager, find better players, dump the bad contracts, figure out whom he's going to trade to the Red Sox for himself, teach the front office holdovers what "on-base percentage" is, etc.)  Thanks again to the Ricketts family for going all-in on this one and giving Cubs fans a reason to believe that good things are coming our way.  Now quit your lollygagging and get to work, Epstein!

Welcome to Chicago, Theo Epstein!

The Jewish fall harvest holiday Sukkot began on Wednesday night, and to celebrate, it looks as if the Cubs have harvested themselves a GM who assembled a team that won two World Series in a four-year span.  According to reports, Theo Epstein has agreed to a five-year deal to leave the Red Sox and take charge of the Cubs. 

When Jim Hendry was fired, I said that hiring his replacement would be one of the most important decisions in franchise history, and I'll give credit to the Ricketts family - they knocked this one out onto Waveland Avenue.  It's not just that Epstein broke the "Curse of the Bambino" in leading the Red Sox to glory, it's the way he accomplished it: