This is the year - for Piniella, at least
This is the season Lou Piniella becomes an all-time baseball boom or just another Cubs managerial bust.
Expectations have expiration dates for even the most esteemed sports figures.
Yes, even Michael Jordan had one. If he didn't win that NBA title he won in his seventh Bulls season, critics would have begun questioning whether he ever would win one.
Ozzie Guillen's outspoken nature meant his act would wear out sooner than later had he not won a World Series in his second season as White Sox manager.
Now Piniella's time has come or he might be gone.
This is only Piniella's third season as manager here but this is Chicago and these are the Cubs and 36 months are a lifetime in Wrigley years.
Piniella arrived like all the others did, bright-eyed over the opportunity to be the man who ends the Cubs' slump.
Saturday on WMVP 1000-AM, Piniella admitted to Bruce Levine and Jonathan Hood that he had miscalculated.
"In Chicago it's not easy," he said. "It's a little more difficult than I thought coming in two years ago."
That from a man who played for and managed the Yankees in allegedly tough New York.
"The Cubs haven't won in a long time," Piniella said, "so there's going to be a little more scrutiny."
No kidding. The media tried to tell Piniella that on the first day of his first Cubs spring training in 2007 - but new Cub managers never listen, do they?
Piniella caused a panic back then by casually mentioning that Kerry Wood injured himself in the bathtub. He simply didn't understand the impact of that on Cubs fans.
Nor did other newcomers, players like Ted Lilly and Mark DeRosa, understand all the questions about it being nearly 100 years since the Cubs won a World Series.
Two division titles and an 0-6 postseason record later, the Cubs still are trying to come up with adequate answers.
"You gotta win, that's the bottom line in pro sports," Piniella remarked to Levine and Hood.
More than Milton Bradley or Carlos Zambrano or even Jim Hendry, Piniella has to reach the World Series this season.
As personable, engaging and humorous as Piniella can be, the laughter will decline in '09 if the Cubs suffer the same fate as the last two years - as the last 100 years, actually.
Piniella's long pauses during explanations won't be so amusing. His stubbornness regarding Alfonso Soriano in the leadoff spot won't be so tolerable. His controversial playoff moves won't be so forgivable.
Hendry, the Cubs' general manager, listened to what Piniella wanted on his roster, in most cases deferred to his field manager and generally gave him the team he requested.
Piniella wanted more left-handed hitting so the GM provided it. He wanted more versatility so the GM provided it. He wanted more speed so the GM provided it.
This is Piniella's team now. It's the team he wanted more than the team he had. It's a team comprised of players he needed more than the players he had.
"Sweet Lou" Piniella better win this year or his expiration date will become a sour issue around Wrigley Field.
You know, just as it did for other prominent Cub managers like Dusty Baker, Don Baylor, Don Zimmer, Jim Frey, Leo Durocher -