So, Mike Quade is off to a pretty good start as interim manager. He’s won three games in a row and swept the mighty Nationals. Wow! I’m sooooooo impressed. What were the Nationals? 53-71 going into Monday night’s game? And they had to face whom? Livan Hernandez? Hell, that guy was practically around when I was playing. John Lannan? Jason Marquis? Ha!

In case you don’t remember, my first two games as interim manager in 1991 were in New York against a 21-15 Mets team. We had to face Frank Viola in my first game. That’s ALL-STAR Frank Viola to you. Fortunately, I told a guy by the name of Greg Maddux to twirl a 5-hit, 2-run complete game to beat the Mets 5-2. Hall of Famer (as a player, NOT a manager, Hendry) Ryne Sandberg drove in two runs. Hell, I even had Hector Villanueva and Luis Salazar hit home runs. All in all, it was a brilliantly-managed game.

My second game was a bit more challenging. I had the horrible Shawn Boskie pitching against Ron Darling. The Mets jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning after a Howard Johnson RBI single and a steal of HOME by Hubie Brooks. You can imagine my chagrin. But we battled back on the strength of a Shawon Dunston home run and a Damon Berryhill RBI double. Hubie struck again with an RBI single in the 6th to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. But Dunston got it right back for me with an RBI triple in the 7th. Les Lancaster pinned the Mets down with four strikeouts in two brilliant innings. With men on first and third and one out in the 9th, I had Doug Dascenzo lay down a bunt. Little Doug was out at first, but Dunston scored from third. Paul Assenmacher nailed down the save with two strikeouts in the bottom of the inning, and we found ourselves 2-0 and back to .500 overall.

My first game as manager in Wrigley Field came against the Montreal Expos, ancestors to your Washington Nationals. I send Bob Scanlan to the mound against Mark Gardner. After falling behind 1-0, we scored in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th innings. Assenmacher allowed runs in the 8th and 9th. With the Expos trailing 4-3 and men on 1st and 2nd with two outs in the top of the 9th, I realized it was time to make a change. I brought in Heathcliff Slocumb, who got Tim Wallach swinging in four pitches.

But, hey, the winning didn’t stop there.

My fourth game saw Mike Bielecki taking on Rick Mahler. We jumped on Mahler early, and he didn’t even survive the 5th inning before we’d scored 5 runs against him. Since the fans had the opportunity to see a one-out save the day before, I figured I’d give them a four-inning save today. I got just that out of Chuck McElroy, and we knocked off the Expos 6-1 four my fourth straight win.

Certainly we wouldn’t be able to continue the winning streak in my fifth game, especially not when the Red Baron gave up 6 earned runs and couldn’t make it out of the 4th inning. But I patched together a win with the arms of Steve Wilson, Lancaster, Assenmacher, and Dave Smith. After Sutcliffe’s early exit, the bullpen held us together, but we were still down 6-1 with 1 out and 2 on in the bottom of the 7th. A Mark Grace double scored Eric Pappas and Dascenzo to bring us within 3. Chico Walker drove in Grace to make it 6-4. Dwight Smith bounced into a fielder’s choice for the second out, but Andre Dawson scored on the play. Then a pre-Sammy-Sosa-trade George Bell hit a first-pitch three-run homer to give us an 8-6 lead. Assenmacher and Smith nailed down the 8th and 9th for the win. Smith got the save. That’s FOUR different pitchers who collected saves in my first five wins. How’s THAT for bullpen management?

So, congratulations to Mike Quade for collecting wins in his first three games as manager of the Cubs. But wake me up when you get to five in a row.