Chicago Cubs Hire Dale Sveum As New Manager

George Bamberger. Tom Trebelhorn. Jim Fregosi. Gene Lamont. Tony La Russa. Lou Piniella. Jim Leyland. Joe Torre.

No, this isn’t a managerial quiz, but it does look like a list of managers ranked from somewhat unsuccessful to somewhat more successful.

I’m not going to go so far as to say that all sports shows are the same, because they aren’t, but they do tend to have a lot of things in common. One thing that all of them do whenever they’re talking about a player or a team is roll highlight clips of the player or team in question. Sometimes they will roll bad highlight clips if the player or team is in the news for a negative reason, but the highlights are usually good, and serve to add to the broadcast. Viewers don’t just want to look at the talking heads the whole time, after all.

As an example, Clayton Kershaw just won the NL Cy Young earlier today. They talked about the Cy Young on Sportscenter, and they even went and got Kershaw on the phone. While anchor Karl Ravech was talking to Kershaw, they ran the following highlights:

Sveum will be formally introduced at a Friday press conference at Wrigley Field. The first order of business will be explaining to people that the V sounds like a W, so, no, his name is not pronounced how you want to pronounce it. Not all V’s sound like W’s - if they did, we wouldn’t need V’s - but this V does, and it might take some getting used to. It took me some getting used to, and I assume everybody is the way that I am.

How will Sveum do as the Cubs’ next manager? No idea. Absolutely no idea. Even after he’s been managing there for a while, we’ll have no good idea how he’s doing. Managers. So tricky.

Sveum had a 12-year playing career that peaked with 25 HR and 95 RBI in the freakish 1987 season when players who never hit home runs did so (Wade Boggs hit 24 HR that year; his career high otherwise was 11). Sveum, a first-round pick of the Brewers in 1982, came up as a shortstop, but after a serious injury in 1988 which caused him to miss the entire 1989 season, became a utility player, retiring after 1999.

Again, there has been no comment from Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein or GM Jed Hoyer on these reports; we await further developments.

must have leadership and communication skills; he must place an emphasis on preparation and accountability; he must establish high standards and a winning culture; he must have integrity and an open mind; and he must have managerial or coaching experience at the major league level.

But what of the Cubs? Who are the likeliest men on Theo Epstein’s short list?

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t respect Ryne Sandberg (except Joe Morgan), but was it ever likely that a self-described “progressive” front office would hire someone still fighting battles from the Earl Weaver era?

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The next manager ... must have managerial or coaching experience at the major league level.

Sandberg is going to get consideration for a major-league managerial opening, but it won’t be just from the Cubs. From Ken Rosenthal:

The bold face is my addition. Many Cubs fans have been hoping for Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, who has been managing in the minor leagues for the last five seasons, to be the Cubs’ next manager. With no major league experience, this part of the statement appears to rule him out.