Piniella era ends; another begins

We think of them in eras. The Dusty Baker era. The Don Baylor era. The Jim Riggleman era.

They begin with high expectations and higher hopes. They end ... well, with something very different, almost always.

So it was again as the nearly four-year span of the Lou Piniella era came to an abrupt close over the weekend. Like Dusty Baker before him, Piniella came to Chicago with an impressive reputation, a promising lineup and time in which to build. But also like Baker, Piniella leaves town with more memories of what might have been than of what was - albeit with some fine achievements to remember.

He took the Cubs to the playoffs twice, a record matched by only two previous managers in Cubs history - Charlie Grimm with two appearances in the 1930s and the legendary Frank Chance, who won two World Series titles in four postseason appearances. The league's Manager of the Year as a Cub in 2008, Piniella's winning percentage in Chicago of .519 is actually slightly higher than his .517 overall winning percentage in a 23-year managing career he leaves as the 14th most-winning manager in major league history.

In the stretch run of a season that has suddenly left the Cubs far behind, it's tempting to think of Piniella in terms of the dismal atmosphere of this disappointing season. But the distance of time will show something more encouraging. It is interesting to consider that even as the team limps through an almost stereotypical Cubs late-season slide, you feel a little uneasy unleashing the usual Cub derisions about perennial ineptitude or lovable losing with Piniella at the helm. He may too often have experienced what it feels like to be a Cubs fan, but he always let you know that it is no joke.

Perhaps more important than all this is the call that apparently is pulling Piniella away from the team so suddenly, the call of family. In the heat of a 162-game major league season during any seven days of which teams may well find themselves in four different cities, it's easy to forget that professional athletes have other things going on in their lives. As he left Sunday, Piniella stressed that it's "not fair to the team" to have a manager distracted by frequent trips back and forth to Florida to be with his ailing mother.

"Look, family is important," he said. "It comes first. My mom needs me home and that's where I'm going."

It's a sad way to end an era, no doubt, but a fitting one. A new era now begins with a suburban flavor. Interim manager Mike Quade was a three-sport standout when he graduated from Prospect High School in 1975. After a career that has taken him across the country and back in the trenches of baseball's minor and major leagues, he enters the Cubs management job at a difficult time. Here's hoping his era ends with something very different.