There are two managers who send Ken Harrelson to the land of superlatives: Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella.
Sure enough, Harrelson didn’t hold back Thursday over the prospect of Piniella signing with the Cubs.
“We would have the two best managers in the same city,” Harrelson said. “If Lou comes, the Cubs’ upside could be huge.”
Harrelson, the White Sox TV broadcaster, is a longtime friend and supporter of Piniella. Though he hasn’t talked with him since last month, Harrelson believes Piniella will take a long look at the Cubs’ situation before taking the plunge.
“He’s not going to do it unless he thinks he can turn it around,” Harrelson said. “The money is secondary. He wants the challenge of getting the World Series ring.”
If Piniella does succeed Dusty Baker, Harrelson predicts he will “change the whole culture of the organization.”
Piniella is a proven winner, Harrelson said. Much like Guillen with the White Sox, Piniella manages without fear.
“Lou doesn’t manage to cover his rear,” Harrelson said. “Managing is tougher than it ever has been. You’re dealing with high-priced millionaires who don’t care what the manager says. Most of the managers today either are afraid of the press or afraid of the players, or both. Lou’s not afraid of either. He’s going to run the show.”
Harrelson called Piniella the best in baseball at working matchups and he lauded him for being able to assemble a bullpen.
“Baseball is drowning in statistics and starving for knowledge,” Harrelson said. “Lou has the knowledge.”
ESPN’s Peter Gammons, another longtime admirer of Piniella, believes Piniella would be a good fit for the Cubs.
“Lou’s a great manager,” Gammons said. “The energy he would bring to that franchise would be tremendous.”
Like Harrelson, Gammons has envisioned the possibility of Guillen and Piniella both working in Chicago.
“I can’t imagine what that would be like,” Gammons said. “It would be wild to be a baseball writer in that town.”
Comeback player
It’s great to hear Gammons’ insights again. He recently returned to full-time duties at ESPN after suffering a brain aneurysm in late June.
Initially, Gammons was “out of it” for two weeks, he said. But outfielder Austin Kearns inadvertently helped put him on the road to recovery.
“One morning I was reading the box scores and I said to my nurse, `How in the world did Austin Kearns wind up in Washington?'” Gammons said. “She had no idea what I was talking about, but she gave me my BlackBerry so I could find out. That’s the day I realized I was fine.”
Gammons was overwhelmed by the support he received, including letters from President Bush and Sen. John Kerry on the same day.
Guillen did more than drop a line. The Sox manager called Gammons almost every day.
“Joey Cora told me later Ozzie might be the most loyal person on the planet,” Gammons said. “He left a lot of messages. My wife didn’t understand them all.”
Gammons’ doctors have cleared him to attend the World Series. He’s obviously looking forward to it.
“To think at one point it looked like I would never see another baseball game,” Gammons said. “To be at the World Series again, it’s going to be something.”
A Sox winner
The White Sox are beating Detroit in one department: ratings. The audience for Game 1 of the Tigers-A’s series Tuesday was down 22 percent from the opener of the Sox-Angels series in 2005.
Game 2 produced a 7.0 overnight rating (one national ratings point is worth more than 1 million homes).
That’s down from the 9.4 rating Fox did last year for split coverage of Game 2 of Sox-Angels and Game 1 of Astros-Cardinals.
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esherman@tribune.com
