CHICAGO _ It has been nearly a decade since Lou Piniella stepped foot in Wrigley Field.
He left with tears in his eyes on Aug. 22, 2010, after deciding to retire from managing during the season to take care of his ailing, 90-year-old mother, Margaret.
"I cried a little bit after the game," Piniella said during his farewell news conference in the cramped interview room behind the Cubs dugout. "I get emotional. I'm sorry."
A lot has happened since, including the end of the Cubs championship drought and the renovation of Wrigley Field and the surrounding neighborhood. And now, at long last, Piniella finally will make his return to Wrigley after the surprising announcement Saturday he'll be part of the Marquee Sports Network's coverage of Cubs telecasts.
As the man known as "Sweet Lou" liked to say: How about that?
"Just talk baseball, Cubs baseball," Piniella told the Tribune Sunday from his home in Tampa, Fla. "Chicago is a special city and Cubs fans are just great. I look forward to coming back and having fun with this thing. Thank God I don't have to make too many decisions. I haven't been back to the ballpark. I did a couple appearances for Oracle up on the rooftops, but I look forward to seeing the new Wrigley."
Piniella, 76, is one of several analysts brought in by the new network, part of a revolving cast that includes familiar names Mark DeRosa, Rick Sutcliffe, Ryan Dempster, Dan Plesac and Carlos Pena. He plans to do pregame shows for about 15-16 games, and said "once in a while they might want to sneak me in (to the TV booth) for a few innings."
The announcement was greeted with loud applause Saturday at Cubs Convention. Piniella was one of the more popular Cubs managers in recent history, helping resurrect a franchise that floundered a couple years after the 2004 collapse. Leaving without finishing the 2010 season was Piniella's only regret. He already had been told they wanted him to return in 2011.
"I always felt bad I had to leave before the season was over," he said. "I can get that off my mind now. It was important that I came home. I spent valuable time with my mom. You hate to end your career not finishing a season, but to me, it was something that had to be done. Family is always important. But I look forward to this, working with my buddies.
"The Cubs are such an institution. I never realized what I was getting into when I got there, but it was fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm so happy since I left they won a championship."
Piniella did some analyst work for Yankees telecasts on the YES Network after his retirement and later served as a consultant with the Reds. But he said he has been laying low in Tampa the last few years since suffering a stroke. Piniella said he's completely recovered and ready to get back into the game on a limited basis.
"I do a little Pilates, play some golf, a little fishing and I ride my bicycle once in a while," he said. "An old, 76-year-old guy riding a damn bicycle. People think I'm nuts."
Said Piniella when told people already thought he was nuts: "There you go."
Returning to the Cubs family was an easy decision, he said. Marquee Sports & Entertainment general manager Mike McCarthy promised Piniella he could return on his own terms, and a deal was promptly struck. Piniella admitted he hasn't watched much Cubs baseball lately but said he watched David Ross on "Dancing With the Stars" and believes Ross is a fine choice as manager.
Piniella has been following the offseason and noted the Cubs have some tough decisions to make with young stars closing in on free agency and team President Theo Epstein facing budgetary concerns in 2020.
"But every team has tough decisions," Piniella said. "It's hard to win on a continuous basis in Major League Baseball."
It may be only 10 years since he left, but it was a very different era when Piniella was managing in Chicago. The manager was the final word from the clubhouse, with little interference from the front office on lineups or in-game decisions. After the Cubs finished last in the National League Central with a league-worst 96 losses in 2006, Piniella took the Cubs to the playoffs with division titles in 2007 and '08 but they were swept both times in the Division Series by the Diamondbacks and Dodgers, respectively. Their '09 season was sabotaged by the many distractions caused by Milton Bradley and the team fell apart in '10 before Piniella abruptly left to tend to his mother.
Unlike Ross, Piniella's duties also entailed helping the Cubs get some media attention to help fill Wrigley. That request led to his famous hat-throwing ejection in 2007 that turned the season around.
Piniella usually was game for anything. In the spring of 2007 he stomped on a stuffed animal that was meant to represent a billy goat while yelling "I don't believe in curses" in a staged bit for a Japanese TV station.
"Baseball is a sport, baseball is a business, but baseball is also entertainment," Piniella said. "You know the amazing thing, when I went there, one of the things (former President) John McDonough wanted me to do is entertain. He really did. And I did. We had fun doing it. We only won a few divisions. I'm sorry we didn't do any better in the postseason.
"Truthfully, I didn't realize what pressure these kids had on them to perform (because of the drought). I should've handled that a little differently. I had played with the Yankees, and we thrived on pressure and big moments. I guess the Cubs, with the lack of success they had, I should've told them 'Just relax and have fun.' ... These kids just tried too hard and they just didn't get it done. If I had to do it over again, that's the only thing I would do over.
"But McDonough and (former GM) Jim Hendry hired me to get this thing turned around and get the ship headed in the right direction. It's a shame (the Cubs didn't win). ... But working with Hendry and the group of characters we had there, it was something I'll never forget."
