So we were sitting in our apartment hoping the baseball game would be canceled today (we have tickets, and it's cold, and baseball is infinitely less fun when the weather is so gross), and you know what we were thinking? How much fun it would be if Lou Piniella did more stuff like this:
Cubs manager Lou Piniella laughed off critical comments from St. Louis counterpart Tony La Russa, saying Sunday, "Tony is not the commissioner." La Russa had said he didn't "know how the Cubs get away with comments they make about umpires" [...] "He's a good friend and a heck of a manager," Piniella said. "But he's not the commissioner of baseball. Not yet, anyway."
Now that is some good passive-aggression right there. For as gruff and occasionally exasperated as Lou Piniella is, he's really, really smart, and his humor often reflects that. So you get comments like the one above, where he's plainly needling La Russa for his legendary ego. And then we smile, because that is funny.
You what this Cubs-Cards rivalry needs? More of this. We want La Russa to fire back with some sort of La Russian nonsense. Then Tony can feather his hair and put on those awesome sunglasses he always wears and go about his day, and Piniella can come back with something slightly more biting, and on and on we go. Not only would this be immensely entertaining, it would enliven the feud. It might even sell a few more newspapers. Win-win-win.
So make it happen, Tony and Lou. More sardonic comments, please. Albert Pujols and Derrek Lee are far too statesmanlike for this. No, this job calls for grumpy old men.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
