Cubs' Ricketts making simple look complicated

To say it's been a very strange time in the world of North Side baseball would be a disservice to much of the last 102 years.

So let's just say it's been a curious few months for the Cubs since they allowed Lou Piniella to retire on July 20 and remain on the job another five weeks.

The move in July would have been to hire Ryne Sandberg or Bob Brenly, and let one finish the season and get a head start on 2011, unless the baseball people had no intention of ever installing either of those men as the next manager.

The reason for Tom Ricketts to wait, of course, was to see if Joe Girardi wanted to come home.

But if that were the case, then Ricketts should have made a change at GM as well, rather than force upon Jim Hendry a manager in Girardi whom Hendry had zero interest in four years ago.

If you recall, Girardi had been fired by nutty Marlins owner Jeff Loria as he was about to be named N.L. manager of the year.

But Girardi couldn't even get an interview in Chicago until he called an old friend, who called John McDonough, who in turn called Hendry and set up a courtesy chat about the Cubs' opening so that Girardi wouldn't be embarrassed at failing to get in the door.

Now Ricketts wants to wait and see if Girardi will leave a job where he gets along great with the GM, the owner, makes a ton of money, and has a chance to win every year?

Logic suggests he's using the Cubs as leverage right now, though crazier things have happened in sports and maybe Girardi would come home this winter.

But why now? Why wouldn't he return after his next monster Yankees contract runs out in three or four years, when the Cubs' bad contracts will be off the books?

Why not wait until there's a GM in Chicago with whom he can work and in a system where he will have a say in all decisions?

Seriously, what happens when Hendry says Larry Rothschild has a job here for life and Girardi says he wants his own staff?

You haven't even made it past the first day without a huge disagreement.

The job will still be here in a few years and one would suspect Girardi will still have a chance to be the first manager to win a title for the Cubs in more than a century, an albatross that seems to draw big names with Hall of Fame dreams, instead of scaring them away.

Meanwhile, the Cubs' baseball people had settled on Mike Quade weeks ago and thought they'd be able to announce it by the middle of October.

That date has now passed.

Ricketts slowed the process this week and as owner he has every right to do so. In fact, we've been waiting for him to get involved for more than a year, but it makes no sense for him to hire a manager the GM doesn't want.

Hendry's got two years left on his deal and probably less time than that to prove to Ricketts he can fix this.

Bizarre, then, that Ricketts let Hendry keep the job and now isn't letting him do the job.

This is more of the same Cubs nonsense we lived with under Tribune Co., something we thought we'd never have to see again.

For that reason, and since Ricketts chose to keep Hendry as GM, Quade makes more sense than Sandberg or Girardi.

Not only did Quade do a good job, but they can also put Quade on a short-term deal. Then, if Hendry and Quade can't right the ship, they would be replaced at the same time, with a new GM hiring his own manager.

Ricketts has made some frustrating calls since he took over and this is yet another.

If the Cubs hire a manager for three or four years, and Hendry doesn't survive, you have the next GM inheriting a manager.

That possibility only exists because Ricketts didn't clean house when given the chance.

This is not about whether you like Hendry, and it's not about who the most qualified manager is for the Cubs, because that's painfully obvious.

This is about the hope when Tom Ricketts took over that the Cubs would be run in a professional way, building from the bottom up. It's about making decisions that truly benefit the organization long term.

We had dreams of the Atlanta Braves, who more than two decades ago built a system, stuck with a plan, and kept their best prospects through some rough years while the kids grew up into winners.

They kept a GM and manager together who were in lock-step on baseball decisions, and who should both wind up in the Hall of Fame.

That was the dream for the Cubs.

Instead, you have a GM that needs a good winter in order to keep his job, while perhaps forcing him to take on a field manager he doesn't want.

That's not exactly the formula we had in mind.

brozner@dailyherald.com