…or that guy is just full of it.

Officially embarrassed makes sense: the Cubs organization/ballclub has serious issues…deja vu.

I’d like to believe #2, but I really think it’s #1. The Baker story could’ve been gleaned from an inside source without the same being true for any of the other stuff, all of which was progressively more fanciful and none of which was borne out. The sexual harassment claim that was never filed (what baseball player would ever do this?), the player in jeans who was traded except he wasn’t, the Theriot Protection and Showcasing Plot. This is the sound of your leg being pulled, now for the sake of pointlessly and viciously tarnishing Piniella.

None of this, of course, prevents a deep and abiding belief in the principle behind #3; just don’t attribute it to this rumor.

I don’t buy it. A couple things, if Pineilla was showcasing Fukudome he did a poor job of it. It didn’t take very long for him to abandon Fukudome when he started struggling, and stuck very long with Colvin once Colvin was struggling. Keeping in mind Pineilla has always been enamored with Theriot, I think he generally just preferred him to Fontenot. I don’t think Fontenot got benched. It makes no sense to say “no one will trade for you if you have bruises”, then not play a guy because no one will trade for Fontenot if he’s not playing.
Also this implies that Hendry has all kinds of power over Pineilla, I don’t buy that either. Pineilla and Hendry have worked closely together and Hendry has tried to get Pineilla every piece he’s asked for. Pineilla couldn’t care less about trading players. He’s gone next year, probably the only thing he didn’t want was his reputation being damaged. So I don’t see him telling his team to tank it as being remotely possible. I could see Hendry asking for such things. Maybe even asking Brenly and Casper to gush over certain players during broadcasts, but there is absolutely no reason for Pineilla to go along with this. I might buy this if Pineilla walked away mid-season and Trammell took over. But even then I’d doubt it.

Teams that are out of it should be showcasing players and playing young guys to see what they have for next year. This isn’t the same as tanking games.

Personally I want the first pick next year. WATCH OUT PISSBURGH!

Anne Henning is an imposter. She is not Edelwei�, nor do we know each other. I take no responsibitity for whatever he, she, or it says!

@JerBear50 –
First of all, the season had pretty much tanked, already, and the Cubs could not win no matter who played, or what spots they had in the order. No one has suggested , ( or at least I haven’t)that the Cubs purposely lost games nor that the front office called the shots, The Cubs had given up on reaching the playoffs, and decided to jettison any player who is arb eligible, or a free agent. They are still still trying to move the big contracts, but may not be able to. In the meantime, they identified Lilly, Fontenot, and Lee as tradeable because other teams had already made inquiries. They didn’t want to move Fontenot until they moved Theriot, but I don’t know quite why. Sometime around the July 4 holiday, Lou was in the clubhouse when Fontenot came out of the shower, with his little tummy black and blue, with a belt-buckle indentation. This looks worse on persons with albinism, as the skin is white as a sheet, and they bruise more easily. Lou made an example of him to the other players, and suggested they go easy on diving for balls, because when players are traded they must first pass a physical. Fontenot was benched for the rest of July, starting only one more game, after Theriot left and DeWitt hadn’t yet arrived to allow for his bruises to heal. He started no games in August for the Cubs. I have no idea if other infielders avoided diving, or if it simply isn’t their style. Castro, for example doesn’t dive because he has such good range that he gets to balls without leaping. As for stealing bases, he didn’t forbid it – he gave only Theriot the green light to steal at will, and the others had to wait for a sign. The sign was simply never given until Theriot was traded. End of story. Now, you can distort it all you want, but this is how it went down. Conspiracy theories might make juicy gossip, but only the FBI or similar organizations can pull them off.

@Pell Mell
Dear Pell Mell……..As a former teacher, I would have to say that you are reading at the third grade level – you take a few words you see, and make them say something completely different. I am a RETIRED teacher, so I am not going to point out any of your errors. If you really care, try to go over what you read and your replies, and you will see.
When a player trade is almost done, it is common for the manager to make sure that he is not injured immediately prior to the trade, but Lou chose to do it in a way that sent the wrong message to the team. Now that he has left the team, it occurs to me that he may have stuck around long enough to see his four most tradeable guys landed in good spots. It wasn’t so easy to trade Theriot, and Lou may have figured that since the team was already in a free-fall, the way he chose to showcase Theriot couldn’t make things any worse. Apparently it didn’t because the team continues to lose no matter who plays where.
As for Fontenot, yes, light skin does make bruises appear more ghastly. I am very fair, and bruise easily. Sometimes I don’t even know how I got the bruises, but if I get them on un-tanned skin, they scare my friends. Fontenot cannot tan. Albinism is NOT something to be ashamed of. It is not a social disease nor a character trait. In fact he should be very proud of what he has accomplished. I have taught visually impaired children. Just about all people with albinism have some degree of visual impairment, and I would never have expected any of those children to be able to hit or field a baseball. I would never have said anything about it, were it not known to just about everyone in MLB. It is the fans who make some of the stupidest comments about his hair, or other aspects of his appearance. They think of Albinos as that character in “Powder”, who looks hideous thanks to the makeup artist and his chalk-white face paint.. They need to know that the cute little guy who hustled his way into the hearts of Cub fans has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, and that people with albinism are not evil or sinister like the way they are portrayed in movies.

@Pell Mell –
I certainly hope not. The little guy is a class act, and has not been treated right by the Cubs. Maybe it is Hendry’s fault – hard to say. There are things that went on that I won’t comment upun, because they are pure hearsay, but let’s just say that money talks. Anyway I am glad to see that Fontenot is with a contender, and a club that wants him; he hasn’t been given a fair shake since he was first traded to the Cubs, in 2005, and with the way the organization is structured, it is hard to determine just who calls the shots. I’ll admit that, since Piniella was in the clubhouse, what he did or said got reported, but the bruise incident did happen. I have no idea if this was Hendry’s idea or not. I do know that because Theriot made certain comments, went to arbitration, and chose to put himself in front of so many reporters, he was hard to trade, and Piniella had to make him look good.

@Edelweiss – You won’t comment upon pure hearsay? Everything you write is pure hearsay!