Despite the 66 years ”“ and counting ”“ since their last championship, few outside of northern Ohio consider the Cleveland Indians to be Major League Baseball’s longest-suffering also-rans. That title has rested for some time with the Chicago Cubs, a charter member of the National League which last celebrated winning the World Series in 1908. The only real rivals Chicago’s north siders had for the dubious title of baseball’s most frustrated fan base was Red Sox Nation, whose claim disappeared in 2004 when New England’s favorite sons ended an 86-year championship drought.
These days, the President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs is a transplant from Brookline, Massachusetts named Theo Epstein. Ten years ago, Mr. Epstein, then the modest, youthful-looking, 30-year-old Red Sox general manager, tacitly and magnanimously accepted credit for Boston’s curse-busting World Series sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, even though most of the team’s key cogs had been acquired by his habitually dour predecessor. The Red Sox won Major League Baseball’s championship again in 2007, cementing Epstein’s status as a visionary. That media-driven reputation no doubt had a great deal to do with the Cubs proposing he leave Boston to come to the Windy City and try to revive their perpetually woebegone team. Mr. Epstein eagerly accepted an offer to do just that on Oct. 12, 2011. Perhaps the handsome compensation involved ($18.5 million over five years) brought back fond memories of his days attending economics classes at Yale.
But alas, the instant success Mr. Epstein enjoyed while running the Red Sox hasn’t come as rapidly in Chicago. One of his first moves as Cub major domo was to discharge field manager Mike Quade, who had just led the team to a 5th-place finish in the six-team National League Central Division. Mr. Epstein hand-picked Dale Sveum, who had been third-base coach for the Red Sox during their magical 2004 season, to succeed him. However, after two lackluster campaigns (61-101 in 2012 and 66-96 in 2013) the decision was made to replace Sveum with Rick Renteria, a universally admired baseball man who was getting his first chance to manage a major league ballclub after over thirty years in the game. Renteria was given a three-year contract.
This past season, his first as Cubs skipper, the soft-spoken, fluently bilingual Renteria guided the team to its fifth consecutive 5th-place finish, although they won five more games than in the previous year. That was an impressive accomplishment given the team’s slew of injuries, and also because the front office (AKA Mr. Epstein) dealt away the team’s two best starting pitchers midway through the season for some prospects who may or may not help the team in the future. The reviews Renteria earned for his first year of work as Cubs skipper were by and large very good ones.
But things changed last month when one of the acknowledged top pilots in baseball, Joe Maddon, took advantage of a clause in his contract and effectively declared himself a free agent. Maddon, who has habitually kept the Rays in contention the past nine seasons despite having one of the lowest-paid teams in the major leagues, instantly became a hot commodity. Like Rick Renteria, he’s respected and admired by his players and his peers, and by all accounts he is also, like Renteria, a person of exceptional quality. However, unlike Renteria, he’s a media darling, a quote machine with a talent for keeping himself and his team in the news, and usually in a positive or amusing light. Epstein understandably had an interest in hiring Maddon, but in order to do so he had to create an opening. That turned out to be most unfortunate for Rick Renteria.
Yesterday the Chicago Cubs introduced Joe Maddon as their new manager. The team also offered their now ex-skipper another unspecified job within the organization, although there’s no word yet on whether he’ll accept it.
Put yourself in Rick Renteria’s shoes. He’s just completed Season One of a three-year deal. His employer expressed satisfaction with the job he did, but now someone more attractive has come along, so he’s being told to vamoose, although there may be a scouting position for him if he’ll agree to clean out his desk quietly.
This is the equivalent of your fiancée, who has previously expressed her unconditional love for you, throwing you over for Brad Pitt, but then offering you a job parking cars at their wedding.
At the start of the 21st century the Red Sox and Chicago’s National League team were Major League Baseball’s perennial plucky underdogs; lovable losers, if you will. But after winning three championships in the past 10 seasons, the Boston nine is now only half of that.
And thanks to Theo Epstein’s recent machinations, the Cubs are the other half.
— Full disclosure: Before becoming a high school English teacher, Andy Young was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Portland Sea Dogs, a professional baseball team managed by Rick Renteria in 2000-01. In their two years together, Young found Renteria to be an exceptionally knowledgeable and patient teacher, and a thoroughly kind and decent human being. Also, both men have had hip replacement surgery, which adds to the empathy Young feels for the recently deposed Cubs skipper.
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