The Book On Firing Jim Hendry

The sentiment to fire general manager Jim Hendry heard by Chicago Cubs fans across the city is louder than ever. From the start of the season, Hendry was facing an uphill battle as his team featured a handful of high priced veterans to go along with pieces for the future. Which has left the Cubs at a crossroads this season in whether they are trying to win now, or if the purpose for this season is to build for the future.

The logical option for the Cubs would be to build for the future. But every move the Cubs have made this season has indicated that Hendry is operating under a win now mentality. Be it the trade for Matt Garza, signing Carlos Pena and Kerry Wood, or demoting Tyler Colvin Hendry apparently has an itch to win this year with the Cubs. That approach hasn’t faired so well for Hendry and the Cubs as the Cubs currently stand at 18-23 on the season, fifth place in the National League Central. Such a disappointing–albeit expected–start has reignited the talk that Jim Hendry should be fired.

Well this will be music to most of the Cubs fans ears. No, Jim Hendry has not fired. But, Bleacher Nation has an excellent article going through the countless reasons why Hendry should be fired. In fact, there is a reason for every letter of the alphabet. As Bleacher Nation revealed the dictionary of reasons to fire Jim Hendry.

I suggest that you head over there to read the entire article, but here are a few reasons that I took note of while reading the well constructed piece: “The Advantage”–referring to the Cubs payroll in regards to other National League teams, “Every season has an excuse”–Hendry blaming one particular thing on why the Cubs failed in that specific season, “Lame Duck”–Hendry  may not have the best interest of the club when making deadline deals if his job position is in jeopardy, and “Yoot, what Yoot”–focusing on the fact that Hendry has never been serious about a youth movement.

One thing is definitely true when it comes to Hendry, he has some generous bosses. In this day and age, it is extremely rare that a general manager can be with a team as long as Hendry has been with the Cubs and have little playoff success. The Cubs were close in 2003, but they have not won a playoff game since that season. That would be reason enough for most general managers to be fired. Since 2003, what success can Hendry point to? Sure the Cubs won the division in both 2007 and 2008, but they were swept out of the playoffs in the first round in both of those seasons. Regular season success–which also has not been that common for Hendry–should not translate into overall success.

Also as the article alludes to, how many managers will Hendry be able to hire? During his tenure as Cubs general manager, Hendry has been able to bring in 3 different managers. Dusty Baker in 2003, Lou Piniella in 2007, and now Mike Quade. The common factor that all three of those managers share is that they have not brought the World Series title to Wrigley Field. Obviously Mike Quade still has a chance to, but come on, lets be realistic here. Lou Piniella may be the most glaring mistake by Hendry. Hendry brought Piniella in so that he could be the manager that brought the Cubs to the World Series, instead, Piniella made the Cubs his first guest to his retirement tour.

With the help of Bleacher Nation, the decision to fire Jim Hendry should be much easier for Tom Ricketts. Just look up the “fire Jim Hendry” dictionary, and he would find 26 reasons why Hendry should be fired.