Hire Jim Essian

Hey, gang! Skip here again. I understand that the Cubs officially took my name out of the running for their managerial opening and named Mike Quade the manager for 2011 and beyond. I, for one, would like to extend the most heartfelt congratulations to Mike. It must be nice to have that "interim" tag taken off the front ... Read More

No, not the Cubs. The Blue Jays. The Jays are apparently going to interview Ryne Sandberg (and Joey Cora) for their managerial position. Sandberg is still in the running for the Cubs' job along with Mike Quade and, apparently, Joe Girardi. Quade should probably get the job. He's safe, he had the team playing well at the ... Read More

I don't know if it's intentional or not, but I think Carrie is trying to hide the Muskbox from me. It's come out on Thursdays the past few times. You know the Weekly BROWSing happens on Friday, Carrie, you clever minx. Conspiracies aside, This week's Muskbox sics the DEA on Jim Hendry and Ryne Sandberg, continues Starling Castro's NL ... Read More

The Muskbox must be in late-season crunch mode. It appears that all of your stupid questions will be answered in the order in which they are received. If you would just please form an orderly line behind the man in the mask, Carrie will field each question in turn, starting with those in this week's Muskbox. If ... Read More

This week's Muskbox answers all of your late-season questions. But who will answer MY late-season questions, such as, "Why the hell does anyone have late-season questions?" Or, "When does the late season mercifully transmogrify into the offseason?" Muskbox AWAY! Reading one of your blog posts about salaries, you said... I'm going to stop you right there. Your dangling ... Read More

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 ... Read More

In a move which will almost certainly pave the way for the Ryne Sandberg Era, Lou Piniella announced today that he will retire after this season. Selfishly, I am less devastated about losing one of the most-successful managers in Cub history than I am about the death of Sweet Uncle Lou's Friday Roundup. DAMN YOU, PINIELLA!!! Anyhow, Lou's current .531 winning ... Read More

Just when you think the Cubs have wised up and are going to start making good decisions, such as the one to release Kevin Millar and keep Chad Tracy, they do something stupid. For example, hire Millar to be their roving minor league hitting coach. Millar presumably will spend the majority of his time with the AAA Cubs, where I ... Read More

I didn't get around to the Muskbox last week because of the emotional and mental toll from ripping Milton Bradley. I could- nay, should allow myself a break from the Muskbox madness. But that wouldn't be fair to you. Instead, you get a double shot of Muskbox with a chaser of failure. And I die on ... Read More

As you know, I love being right at the absolute forefront of all your base are belong to us internet memes, so when I saw that Google mining became popular about six months ago, I jumped right on that trend! Some of the things you can learn about people from their Google habits should not be learned. And ... Read More