Lou Piniella has had a very successful baseball career both as a player and as a manager. He averaged a very solid .291 during his years as a player. As a manager, Piniella is notoriously known for his fractious ways. If a questionable call is made, you know Lou will be out there in the umpire's face. On a good note, he's a three-time Manager of the Year with a World Series win in 1990 and 6 division titles. That may be the reason why he's choosing to end his baseball career with the Chicago Cubs after this season: because his years with the Cubs were not as successful as he had hoped.
When Chicago hired him in 2007, they thought they had an auspicious future with World Series wins in sight. The Cubs won the NL Central in his first two seasons, but got swept in the NLDS each of those years. Last year they missed the playoffs, and right now they are ten games under .500 and 11 games back of the Cardinals in the division. I bet if the Cubs had at least one World Series appearance in his first three seasons in the Windy City and a winning record at the moment, Piniella would not have chosen to retire. He is 66, but I think of this more of quitting than retiring. There aren't other places where he could go and immediately compete for a title, so he decided that this season will be his last. He was given tons of talent on both sides of the ball but unfortunately wasn't able to execute.
Two possible candidates for the job seem to be former Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez and former Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg has been the manager for Chicago's Triple-A team for the last four years, and he says that he's ready for the job. Right now, his Iowa Cubs are in first place in their division. Remember, nothing will be made official until after the season, but it's no surprise that the Cubs are recruiting early.
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