Looking back at new Cubs managers and their first season

Another year, another new manager for the Cubs.

Well, it seems like that.

After naming Mike Quade their full-time manager after the 2010 season, the Cubs fired Quade after only one season and named Dale Sveum the new manager.

The Cubs job was Quade’s first as a major-league manager, though he got a taste of the job after Lou Piniella suddenly retired on Aug. 22, 2010.

Sveum technically isn’t a newbie either. He managed the Milwaukee Brewers into the playoffs as the interim skipper for the final 12 games of the 2008 season. By all accounts, he ran a tight and businesslike spring training.

But Sveum is new to Chicago, and like every manager before him, he’ll need time to get used to the city, the Wrigley Field dynamics and the market size.

Having covered the Cubs full time since 1998, I’ve seen managers come and go. The first skipper I covered was Jim Riggleman, a true gentleman. Riggleman predated me, having taken over before the 1995 season.

Here is how the Cubs managers during my time on the beat fared in their first seasons on the job and how it went from there.

Jim Riggleman (1995-99)

First-year record: 73-71

First-year challenges: The Cubs were a mess during the strike-shortened 1994 season and hired Andy MacPhail as team president that fall.

MacPhail tabbed the untested Ed Lynch as general manager, and Lynch hired Riggleman, who previously managed a San Diego Padres team that was being gutted.

Riggleman had the Cubs in first by the end of May 1995. The team faded before making a late run that fell short.

Legacy: Riggleman was a good manager who was hampered by a fiscally conservative front office and a novice GM. But Riggleman was the only manager to stand up to Sammy Sosa, confronting him at the end of the 1997 season about his attitude.

The next year, Sosa hit 66 homers, and the Cubs won the wild card. Riggleman was fired after a horrid finish in 1999.

Don Baylor (2000-02)

First-year record: 65-97

First-year challenges: Baylor tried to prod Sosa into becoming a better all-around player, but Sosa rebelled, kicked up a fuss and was nearly traded.

All sides made peace, and Sosa signed a long-term deal in the spring of 2001. The team on the field foundered after an exciting season-opening series in Japan.

Legacy: Baylor had them in first place for four months in 2001, but he never won over his pitchers, and most players thought he was too aloof and couldn’t relate to them, despite Baylor having starred in the game for decades.

He was fired in the middle of the 2002 season and left the Cubs embittered.

Dusty Baker (2003-06)

First-year record: 88-74

First-year challenges: Baker actually had to tamp down expectations after he led the San Francisco Giants to the World Series in 2002.

“My name is Dusty, not Messiah,” he said upon his hiring. Baker did a good job during the regular season, guiding the team to a good finish and a division title.

But Baker had strong veterans in the clubhouse, and GM Jim Hendry got him reinforcements in July and August.

Legacy: Baker, a California guy, never seemed comfortable in Chicago. For better or worse, he’ll be blamed for the 2003 playoff collapse, especially for not calming things down in Game 6, when the Marlins scored 8 runs in the eighth inning to erase a 3-0 deficit.

Baker also gets blame for his handling of pitchers, especially Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, but Wood still speaks highly of Baker.

The Cubs finished 66-96 and in last place in 2006, Baker’s final season.

Lou Piniella (2007-10)

First-year record: 85-77

First-year challenges: The Cubs stumbled out of the gate, and the team brass met in Piniella’s office at the end of May, and Piniella assured them things would be fine.

He was right, as the Cubs rallied to win the division, only to fall in three games to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the division series.

Piniella quickly deemed that catcher Michael Barrett and shortstop Cesar Izturis couldn’t help the Cubs, and both wound up traded during the season.

Legacy: Even though he spent years with the New York Yankees, Piniella seemed overwhelmed and finally worn down by the Chicago experience.

His teams failed to win a playoff game in 2007 or 2008, when the Cubs had the best record in the National League. Piniella was accused of lifting starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano too soon in Game 1 of the 2007 NLDS, saving him for a later game that never was played.

It also seemed that Piniella became tired and lost interest in 2009 and 2010.

Mike Quade (Aug. 2010-2011)

2011 record: 71-91

First-year challenges: Quade was the hometown boy who took over for Piniella in 2010 and finished strong, building hope for 2011.

But two of the team’s starting pitchers went down with injuries after their first starts of 2011, and things never got better.

Quade didn’t have much of a chance, as he was saddled with a poor roster. He called out young players Starlin Castro and Darwin Barney while seeming to let veterans slide.

Legacy: Quade likely will go down as a one-and-done manager after the new Cubs regime let him go last fall in favor of Sveum.

Fans never warmed to Quade, in part because the team was so bad. He also found a way to get kicked out of games for odd reasons.

Still, he’s a good baseball man who should have a place, either as a major-league coach or a minor-league manager.

bmiles@dailyherald.com