Saying Goodbye: Lou Piniella

Cubs goodbyes continue to flow like cheap wine. The latest might have been the most unexpected (for myself, at least.)

I never really had a strong opinion, favorable or non, on Lou Piniella as the Cubs manager. Now that his tenure is over, though, I can say with conviction that I believe Sweet Lou did a fine job as our skipper and I am happy to have had him these four years.

Some of the things he said were pure delights to a quote-loving person such as myself. He coined the term “Cubbie Occurence” for Heaven’s sake! Here, for you pleasure and mine, are an assortment of my favorite Lou quotations, gathered from throughout the years. . .

On Twitter: “You have to type?”

On Big Z, Spring Training 2009: “He reminded me with that mustache of one of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ ”

On text messaging: “Text? I’ve never texted anybody in my life, and I won’t until the day I die.”

“How about if [Randy] Wells pitches the first seven and catches the last two? That would give ESPN and the rest of the networks something to talk about.”

On the possibility of giving Kosuke Fukudome a nickname: “We will see what Ron Santo calls him.”

On Ryan Dempster’s work ethic: “When you have the energy to do what we do here and then go run Camelback Mountain in the afternoon, that’s a little ‘Rambo-ian’ for me.” …  Rambo-ian? “We’ll invent a word. What the heck.”

On Reed Johnson’s spectacular catch in Washington, 2008:  “At Wrigley Field they might have had to call a timeout to find his head in the vines.”

On getting lost driving from Chicago to Cincinnati: “Matty [Sinatro] was driving. But we actually ‘Googled’ the trip, and we were ‘Googled’ to East Liverpool, Pa. Who in the heck knows? On the sheet we had, it was ‘Cincinnati to Liverpool.’ I was thinking, I was in Cincinnati three years, and I didn’t remember a ‘Liverpool’ around the area.”

After Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter: “I’m really proud of him. We were talking before the ballgame about 90 pitches, but I told Alan [Trammell], ‘If he’s got to come out of the game, you go get him. I’m not.’ ”

Thanks for the memories, Sweet Lou! I salute you.

Addendum (8/25): Thanks to Kyle from http://www.newsy.com for sending me a link to this video which offers commentary on both Lou Piniella’s career and his future chances of Hall of Fame induction.