Do you want to see Lou Piniella back in a Chicago Cubs uniform this season? Maybe you believe he would order Jim Hendry to purchase the contract of a Triple A pitcher rather than give yet another start to lefty reliever James Russell. Or perhaps you miss the days of helpless shrugs and overuse of the word “look” in post-game press conferences. In any case, if you’re dying to see Sweet Lou back in Cubbie blue, check out this commercial for Pepsi Max:

Watch carefully because he’s not on for long. And you can probably guess the angle of the joke that the good folks at Pepsi are going for. Piniella made the news today as he was part of a media tour promoting the commercial spots, which were obviously made in collaboration with MLB. Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald got some great quotes from Lou.

For instance, when asked why he wore a Cubs uniform, Piniella said, “… there was nobody represented from the Chicago area, so it was natural. I would have chosen my last uniform, the Cubs. It was mutual.” On his difficult last season, he taps his arm and points to the bullpen: “We had to rely on too many young kids, and they weren’t quite ready for it. We lost games we really should have hung on to.”

In addition, Lou gave the dreaded vote of confidence to the Ricketts Ownership Group, saying, “The Ricketts family is going to do a really, really nice job. I’m really impressed with Tom and his two brothers and his sister. They’re going to do a fine job. They’re learning the business of baseball. It doesn’t come overnight.”

If you’ve followed the Cubs closely, you know that none of these quotes are particularly earth-shaking. Piniella was generally quite stubborn at sticking to certain talking points with the media and was maddeningly adept at replying to any questions he didn’t want to answer by merely summarizing the play or issue in question. His successor Mike Quade is a little more thoughtful in that regard, though that carries its own risk.

In retrospect, Sweet Lou as a manager was much like any big-name free agent acquisition. The first year of his contract he took a while to get warmed up but showed flashes of his previous managerial success with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds. During the second year of his deal, the Cubs got that last bit of water from the stone. In 2008, he truly was the classic Sweet Lou — the George Pattonesque field general leading his troops relentlessly through the regular season. (Let’s leave the playoffs out of it.)

Thereafter, however, he went into steep decline mode. The 2009 season was doomed to be an exhausting slog thanks to widespread injuries and, well, Milton Bradley. And, by 2010, Piniella was pretty much done. Even he admits, “Maybe I should have gone home a little earlier. I tried to see it through. It just didn’t work out.”

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Lou Piniella worked for three ownership groups during his tenure in Chicago, but the former Cubs manager believes the team now has the right leadership in place.

“I had three different ownership groups in four years. That’s hard. Really hard,” Piniella said Monday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “Things changed and rather rapidly, and rightfully so. Any owner that comes in has the right to do what they want to do.

“But they’ve got the right owners over there now as far as the Cubs are concerned. The Ricketts family, they are good people, they care about the Cubs and the franchise. Give them a little time. They’re going to get it done for the city of Chicago and for Cubs fans.”

Winning hasn’t come quickly under the Ricketts, who bought the team from Sam Zell and Tribune Co. before the 2010 season. The Cubs have spent three days above .500 since the start of last season.

As his former team tries to find its way under his former third base coach, manager Mike Quade, Piniella said he has no regrets about his time leading the Cubs.

“I enjoyed it,” Piniella said. “I did the best I could. I thought we did a pretty good job of changing the culture and making winning important. I wish that we could have done a little better, but it’s not because I didn’t try and my coaching staff [didn't try]. I had a bunch of really good professional coaches, and they did the best they could.”

Piniella led the Cubs to the playoffs in his first two seasons, but they were swept in the first round by the Arizona Diamonbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers. After finishing second in the National League Central in 2009, the Cubs were 51-74 when Piniella retired in August to go back home to Tampa to care for his sick mother.

Piniella, who is an advisor for the San Francisco Giants, said he is proud of his Cubs career.

“I went there roughly five years ago and took over a team that lost close to 100 games [96 in 2006],” Piniella said. “We turned it around. We just didn’t get it done in the playoffs.”

Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.

MLB Network analyst Kevin Millar, who was one of the Chicago Cubs’ last cuts heading into the 2010 season, said Monday that there was something lacking in Lou Piniella’s managing style last year.

And Millar believes it may have negatively impacted the team.

“I didn’t get a chance to play with Lou, but I mean, there definitely was something missing,” Millar said on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “You have to have more organization and know who is going in the game that day.

“Listen, I played 12 years in the big leagues, and I sat there for nine innings in a spring training game and didn’t know if I was playing or not playing. There’s just common courtesy, to use an example personally. You know, ‘Hey listen you’re going in the fifth inning after Derrek Lee.’ OK perfect. So you know to go get loose in the fourth or whatever it is. It’s little things like that. The line-ups were a big issue.”

Efforts to reach Piniella, who currently is a special assistant to San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean, were unsuccessful.

The Cubs held a meeting last season to ask Piniella to post the lineups sooner.

“We like to know when we play,” Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano said Monday. “We asked him in Atlanta, ‘Let us know when we play, and when we have a day off.’ And he said, ‘Yes,’ but he never did it. That doesn’t make everybody comfortable.

“[Mike Quade] is different. If you’re off on Friday, he told me like two or three days before. So that makes me play more hard for him, because he has a lot of respect for me. And he knows what he wants, and he knows how to treat the players.”

The Cubs finished 75-87 last season. Piniella retired from managing on Aug. 23 and was replaced by Quade.

“I’ll tell you right now, Mike Quade is a baseball guy,” Millar said. “The first thing speaking with [Cubs pitcher Ryan] Dempster [is] he loves this guy. It’s a different feel.

“Nothing against Lou Piniella, he managed a lot of years and you get to the point where you don’t think about those things, but it was a little frustrating from the player’s side — period. There were no line-ups, Lou didn’t know who was playing and who was going in, and it gets old. So then what happens … you get guys in bad moods, and then what happens is you’re kind of like, ‘Whatever.’ That’s the way the Cubs kind of played to an extent.”

Piniella was 316-293 in nearly four seasons with the Cubs. He led the team to back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time in 100 years, and he’s a three-time manager of the year who guided the 1990 Cincinnati Reds to a World Series titles.

“Like I said, I never played a 162-game season with Lou Piniella, so I can’t comment [on how many other players shared the same sentiment], I was in there trying to make the club,” Millar said. “But there was something missing. Guys were talking about it and the whispers and that’s the stuff that brings down a club.

“I mean you want to talk baseball, you want to talk how you’re going to beat this guy today. You want to go out there and root each other on. You don’t want to worry about why this isn’t going on, what’s he doing here, what’s this going on and that’s the simple thing of a line up, get it up. It should be up there at 7:30 in the morning. Guys have to prepare. This is the major leagues, and that’s what people forget. You have to prepare, there has to be a mind set — period.”

ESPNChicago.com’s Bruce Levine contributed to this story.

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Former Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella told ESPN 1000′s “Talking Baseball” on Saturday that he is excited to stay involved in baseball in his new position as adviser with the San Francisco Giants.

“I had chances to join a few organizations [or] do some work on television, but this made good sense to me,” Piniella said. “First of all, [Giants general manager] Brian Sabean and I have been friends for a long time. But more important than that, I get a chance to just do baseball and at the same time be able to come home just about every night and I’ll be able to get out of the house every night. ”

Piniella said his duties will involve scouting American League clubs for the World Series champions. The fact that he’ll be able to stay in Tampa and do the job, Piniella said, was key to his accepting the position.

“The good thing about it is we got six or seven teams in this area for spring training and [Tropicana Field] is only 20 miles down the road,” Piniella said.

Piniella retired as Cubs’ manager during the 2010 season, his fourth year in Chicago, to return home to Tampa, Fla., and help his ailing mother. He also spent time away from the Cubs due to the death of his uncle in July.

Piniella acknowledged that his fourth and final season in Chicago wasn’t the success he hoped it would be.

“It was very difficult for me and it was difficult for the players,” Piniella said. “I was gone quite a bit. With coming home, with my uncle dying and my mother’s [health situation] … I think the players sensed that at times I wasn’t there to give them the 100 percent support that basically a manager should.”

In spite of a trying 2010 season, Piniella left Chicago as one of the most successful managers in franchise history. On the whole, he is proud of his accomplishments.

“I came over there four years ago and the team had lost 97 games and in two years we won 97,” Piniella said. “The big thing is that we didn’t get as far as we wanted to in postseason.”

Piniella had extensive praise for new Cubs owner Tom Ricketts and general manager Jim Hendry.

“The whole thing here basically is that I had four wonderful years [in Chicago],” Piniella said. “Last year wasn’t successful. I was happy to see Mike Quade come in and do a really nice job and he was awarded with a two-year contract. I’ve talked to Mike and I hope he does well, and I wish the players well. I enjoyed my four years with them. We had some ups and downs, but that’s part of the course. Nothing goes absolutely smooth. I wish the players well and I hope the Cubs do well and prosper. And I think from talking to Tom [Ricketts], his brothers and his sister enough during the course of last summer, their heart is in it. They want to see this thing get better and better.”

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CHICAGO — 2010 was a bizarre season.

The Cubs never got above .500, but the starting pitchers led the National League in quality starts. They homered in 20 consecutive games, yet ranked 10th in runs scored.

Raise your hand if you predicted Carlos Silva would go 8-0 in his first 11 starts — or if you knew Opening Day starter Carlos Zambrano would make nearly as many relief appearances (16) as starts (20). Who knew Aramis Ramirez, a career .286 hitter, would post a .207 average in the first half — or that Lou Piniella would leave before the season ended?

For Mike Quade, the ’10 season was an opportunity. He took over for Piniella and the team responded with a 24-13 record, giving Cubs fans hope for next year.

Carlos Marmol saved more than half (38) of the Cubs’ 75 wins in ’10, and set a Major League record by averaging 15.99 strikeouts per nine innings. The Cubs did have trouble early on getting to Marmol, as the team lost relievers John Grabow, Angel Guzman and Esmailin Caridad to injuries. The team was 22-32 in one-run games, and the 32 losses were the most in such situations in the Major Leagues.

Looking back at 2010 MLB Year in Review • Game prospering • Final standings • Statistical leaders

The season did produce some milestones. Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee each hit their 300th home runs, doing so two days apart in June. Ramirez finished with 25 home runs and is one of six Cubs to have six or more 25-homer seasons.

The first year under the new owners, the Ricketts family, was a learning experience — and ended sadly in December with the death of legendary broadcaster and former Cubs third baseman Ron Santo. His funeral, though, resulted in a reunion between the Cubs and pitcher Kerry Wood, who gave the team a hometown discount to return for one more year.

“God bless No. 10, who had something to do with this,” said Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, who talked to Wood after the funeral about coming back.

The right-hander, known as “Kid K,” will be back in ’11 in the bullpen. But let’s take one more look at some of the Cubs’ 2010 story lines.

5. Piniella’s early exit and Quade’s strong finish

Starting in Spring Training, Piniella made it clear he didn’t want his job status to be a distraction. This was the last year of his contract and he fully expected to finish the season. What he didn’t anticipate, was how much the deaths of George Steinbrenner and an uncle would affect him. Plus, he had to deal with his 90-year-old mother’s poor health. On July 20, Piniella announced he would retire at the end of the season — but he moved the date up and went home to Tampa, Fla., after the Aug. 22 game. Third-base coach Quade was promoted and seemed to revive the team. After 17 seasons managing in the Minor Leagues plus 3 1/2 years on Piniella’s staff, Quade was finally promoted to a big league job. His performance was rewarded on Oct. 19 with a two-year contract.

4. Zambrano’s roller-coaster season

Carlos Zambrano was the Opening Day starter for the sixth straight year — but after four starts, he was shifted to the bullpen. The Cubs needed relief help and to make room for Ted Lilly coming off the DL. But Zambrano wasn’t comfortable there and moved back to the rotation on June 4. That didn’t last long, as a dugout tantrum on June 25 resulted in a three-game suspension and stint on the restricted list. Zambrano underwent anger management therapy, and returned to action and the ‘pen on July 31. He was starting again by Aug. 9 and finished 8-0 with a 1.41 ERA in his final 11 starts. The animated and emotional “Big Z” somehow finished 11-6.

3. Starlin Castro’s dazzling debut

The Cubs’ offense was scuffling, and on May 7, help arrived in Castro, 20, who was batting .376 at Double-A Tennessee. The slender shortstop made quite a first impression in his Major League debut vs. the Reds, hitting a three-run homer in his first at-bat and adding a three-run triple. The six RBIs were a Major League record for a debut game, and he was the third youngest ever to homer in his first career at-bat. While he hit only two more homers the rest of the season, Castro finished the season with a .300 average — good for 10th place in the National League. Defensively, Castro made dazzling plays but also youthful mistakes, and was charged with 27 errors.

2. Tyler Colvin’s bat attack

Colvin won a spot on the Opening Day roster with a strong spring, but it was difficult for Piniella to fit the rookie in the outfield. When he did play, he produced — batting .315 in his first 59 games. Colvin’s season ended prematurely on Sept. 19, when he was struck in the chest by a broken bat, resulting in a collapsed lung and prompting debate on the merits of maple bats. He ended his first full season with 20 home runs, fourth most by a Cubs rookie and second among NL rookies.

1. Departures of Lilly, Theriot, Fontenot and Lee

At the Trade Deadline, the Cubs were in fourth place and 11 games back in the NL Central. It was time to look ahead and Lilly and Ryan Theriot were first to go, getting traded July 31 to the Dodgers for Blake DeWitt and two Minor League pitchers. On Aug. 11, Mike Fontenot only needed to walk down the hallway from the visitor’s clubhouse to the home quarters, as he was traded to the Giants when the Cubs were in San Francisco. One week later, Lee was dealt to Atlanta and a chance at postseason play for three Minor Leaguers. His first game for the Braves, strangely enough, was at Wrigley Field on Aug. 20.

Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. She writes a blog, Muskat Ramblings, and you can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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CHICAGO — 2010 was a bizarre season.

The Cubs never got above .500, but the starting pitchers led the National League in quality starts. They homered in 20 consecutive games, yet ranked 10th in runs scored.

Raise your hand if you predicted Carlos Silva would go 8-0 in his first 11 starts — or if you knew Opening Day starter Carlos Zambrano would make nearly as many relief appearances (16) as starts (20). Who knew Aramis Ramirez, a career .286 hitter, would post a .207 average in the first half — or that Lou Piniella would leave before the season ended?

For Mike Quade, the ’10 season was an opportunity. He took over for Piniella and the team responded with a 24-13 record, giving Cubs fans hope for next year.

Carlos Marmol saved more than half (38) of the Cubs’ 75 wins in ’10, and set a Major League record by averaging 15.99 strikeouts per nine innings. The Cubs did have trouble early on getting to Marmol, as the team lost relievers John Grabow, Angel Guzman and Esmailin Caridad to injuries. The team was 22-32 in one-run games, and the 32 losses were the most in such situations in the Major Leagues.

Looking back at 2010 MLB Year in Review • Game prospering • Final standings • Statistical leaders

The season did produce some milestones. Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee each hit their 300th home runs, doing so two days apart in June. Ramirez finished with 25 home runs and is one of six Cubs to have six or more 25-homer seasons.

The first year under the new owners, the Ricketts family, was a learning experience — and ended sadly in December with the death of legendary broadcaster and former Cubs third baseman Ron Santo. His funeral, though, resulted in a reunion between the Cubs and pitcher Kerry Wood, who gave the team a hometown discount to return for one more year.

“God bless No. 10, who had something to do with this,” said Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, who talked to Wood after the funeral about coming back.

The right-hander, known as “Kid K,” will be back in ’11 in the bullpen. But let’s take one more look at some of the Cubs’ 2010 story lines.

5. Piniella’s early exit and Quade’s strong finish

Starting in Spring Training, Piniella made it clear he didn’t want his job status to be a distraction. This was the last year of his contract and he fully expected to finish the season. What he didn’t anticipate, was how much the deaths of George Steinbrenner and an uncle would affect him. Plus, he had to deal with his 90-year-old mother’s poor health. On July 20, Piniella announced he would retire at the end of the season — but he moved the date up and went home to Tampa, Fla., after the Aug. 22 game. Third-base coach Quade was promoted and seemed to revive the team. After 17 seasons managing in the Minor Leagues plus 3 1/2 years on Piniella’s staff, Quade was finally promoted to a big league job. His performance was rewarded on Oct. 19 with a two-year contract.

4. Zambrano’s roller-coaster season

Carlos Zambrano was the Opening Day starter for the sixth straight year — but after four starts, he was shifted to the bullpen. The Cubs needed relief help and to make room for Ted Lilly coming off the DL. But Zambrano wasn’t comfortable there and moved back to the rotation on June 4. That didn’t last long, as a dugout tantrum on June 25 resulted in a three-game suspension and stint on the restricted list. Zambrano underwent anger management therapy, and returned to action and the ‘pen on July 31. He was starting again by Aug. 9 and finished 8-0 with a 1.41 ERA in his final 11 starts. The animated and emotional “Big Z” somehow finished 11-6.

3. Starlin Castro’s dazzling debut

The Cubs’ offense was scuffling, and on May 7, help arrived in Castro, 20, who was batting .376 at Double-A Tennessee. The slender shortstop made quite a first impression in his Major League debut vs. the Reds, hitting a three-run homer in his first at-bat and adding a three-run triple. The six RBIs were a Major League record for a debut game, and he was the third youngest ever to homer in his first career at-bat. While he hit only two more homers the rest of the season, Castro finished the season with a .300 average — good for 10th place in the National League. Defensively, Castro made dazzling plays but also youthful mistakes, and was charged with 27 errors.

2. Tyler Colvin’s bat attack

Colvin won a spot on the Opening Day roster with a strong spring, but it was difficult for Piniella to fit the rookie in the outfield. When he did play, he produced — batting .315 in his first 59 games. Colvin’s season ended prematurely on Sept. 19, when he was struck in the chest by a broken bat, resulting in a collapsed lung and prompting debate on the merits of maple bats. He ended his first full season with 20 home runs, fourth most by a Cubs rookie and second among NL rookies.

1. Departures of Lilly, Theriot, Fontenot and Lee

At the Trade Deadline, the Cubs were in fourth place and 11 games back in the NL Central. It was time to look ahead and Lilly and Ryan Theriot were first to go, getting traded July 31 to the Dodgers for Blake DeWitt and two Minor League pitchers. On Aug. 11, Mike Fontenot only needed to walk down the hallway from the visitor’s clubhouse to the home quarters, as he was traded to the Giants when the Cubs were in San Francisco. One week later, Lee was dealt to Atlanta and a chance at postseason play for three Minor Leaguers. His first game for the Braves, strangely enough, was at Wrigley Field on Aug. 20.

Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. She writes a blog, Muskat Ramblings, and you can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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