Report: Pat Listach To Be Named Cubs Bench Coach

… other than as peacemaker.

would have been an unmittigated disaster if the team does poorly, nothing quite like putting the guy you beat out for the managerial job as your #2…

Why would the Cubs put Mike Quade in that position?

“Hi Mike, you’re the manager. But we think your manager competition and a Cubs HOFer should be your bench coach to ensure to continuous media and fan speculation as to when you will be fired and he will be promoted to Manager.”

That is completely untenable.

I thought they’d hire someone with managerial experience.

I don’t see Sandberg coming back to manage the I-Cubs next season. I don’t know, but I would think that the Cubs would have offered Ryno the position. It could be that Ryno is sore about being passed over for the big club’s managerial position and wants to go to another organization. That’s pure speculation on my part.

but, I would assume they never offered him the job. It would be too awkward for Quade and Ryno. Sounds like Ozzie and Kenny, Part Deux

Hendry has said the Cubs would be happy to have him back in Iowa and if no one offers an MLB coaching job, he should probably take it.

but it is an admission they do not think Ryno is ready to manage in the bigs, or at least not as ready as Quade.

as Ryno needs big league coaching experience

I’d say this doesn’t count yet.

Although, I suppose if this story is true, there would be no points awarded anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Glad I put it nice and low!

Otherwise we’ll all have to go in and post updates to our previous posts. Talk about a mess.

Ryno’s name…they should have named him GM AND Manager…I agree, he needs to get out and see the world, see how other organizations do things, what works for them and take what worked here and start applying it elsewhere to create his own managerial style…

Then had it slammed in his face.

It’s for a team not expected to go anywhere next year, and gives him major league coaching experience.

He’s a good owner but not a great owner. He calls too much attention to himself. His teams consistently underachieve in the playoffs. I know he’s not actually out there playing the games, but the Mavericks don’t ever seem to have quite the right makeup to get over the hump and win an NBA championship. Some of that blame has got to go on the owner.

Sandberg, if anything, would have been the successor to Quade, not the replacer by any means. It would have been a Torre-Mattingly relationship.

Not the same thing at all. At the time Mattingly was Torre’s bench coach, Torre was already a major league manager of 20+ years experience and several World Series. Mattingly had also served several years as major league hitting coach before being promoted to bench coach.

It’s not even remotely comparable.

Joe Torre is 70 years old and was planning to retire soon. Mike Quade is 53 and would like to be in baseball for another 15-20 years. You can hire the successor to a 70 year old. You don’t hire a 53 year old and then hire a 51 year old to be his chosen successor.

The closest parallel would be Leo Durocher serving as a coach on Walter Alston’s staff. Alston pretty much never spoke to him and eventually, Durocher left and would become the Cubs manager.

with this at all.

1. Sandberg as successor – How was that supposed to work? The Cubs hire Quade, hoping that he fails in his 2 years?? What if Quade succeeded and was manager for 10 years? Is Sandberg still the successor on the bench? That would be stange.

2. Adding pressure to Quade would be good – Quade has been managing and coaching for 25 years. And you think now he needs incentive to win?

3. This move raises the flag that this organization is trying to be cheap – Why? Do you think that Sandberg would have commanded more money than Listach as bench coach? I doubt it.

4. It’s completely out of the blue. – Really? Not to me or most anyone that I know. It has been widely reported that Sandberg would not likely be on the Cubs coaching staff.

Because at first I thought it was comedic, but there’s a whole lot of truth in there when you look at it.

I don’t think Sandberg was even considered for this bench role. I know if I was Sandberg I would consider it a punch in the face.

Sandberg has more experience? How do you figure that? Listach has as much minor league managing experience plus time as major league coach. A major league coach is what he is being asked to do and Sandberg has never done that.

And don’t bring up the HOF credentials. It has been shown over and over that the best managers and coaches are frequently bad players. Just because a person can’t do something physically doesn’t mean that they can’t coach it. Look no further than St. Louis with Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan. Dave Duncan was a catcher. How could he ever teach pitching since he never did it in the majors? How good was Bobby Cox’s playing career?

Sandberg as a bench coach is a bad idea. It has nothing to do with Quade’s confidence.

Now, it seems likely that Ricketts, Hendry and Bush were more than willing to trade on Ryno’s popularity in order to milk maximum publicity from a phony search.

What exactly did the Cubs gain from including Sandberg in their “phony search”? Increase in ticket sales? More Cubs brand brand exposure? Merchandise sales?

Bottomline: What did the Cubs gain from this alleged extra publicity?

Quade? The guy who has been managing and coaching since 1985 in the Pirates, Expos, Phillies, A’s, Cubs organizations?

Pat Listach – 1992 ROY, with 3 years as a Cubs minor league manager and 2 years as 3B coach for the Nationals.

Or maybe you’re referring to Ari Kaplan, the Cubs statistical analyst manager that Tom Ricketts hired. Or Colin Faulkner, the new VP of ticket sales and service?

Where was it reported that Sandberg wasn’t a serious candidate? He interviewed with both Hendry and Ricketts. For what ever reason, they liked Quade better.

Damaged goods? What are you talking about? He didn’t get the job. Big deal. Look at all the retreads around the league. Do you seriously believe that Sandberg can’t get another job because he was rejected for one position after 4 measly years of experience?

Finally, if the Cubs wanted to milk publicity why didn’t they drag out the search longer or better yet hire Sandberg for the publicity value? You really are just making up stuff here.

Quade was more impressive in his interviews. Do you really think he likes losing? Do you think he can’t coach?