Chicago Cubs: Rick Renteria shows class, no ill feelings towards organization

Renteria gets another shot; no hard feelings towards Cubs

The Chicago Cubs took a lot of heat in the media for the firing of Rick Renteria prior to bringing in Joe Maddon. Many knew what Maddon was capable of, and Renteria simply didn’t have the track record yet to sway them in his direction. The team made the unpopular move of firing Renteria–who had done a fine job and was well like–in order to hire Maddon. Now, a year later, cooler heads have prevailed, and Renteria is still a class act.

Be slow to anger. You have to believe that Renteria believes that. Was he mad when he was let go? I’m damn sure he was. It took over a year for him to finally grant an interview–now that he’s returned to the game–and when he did, it was unexpected to hear his response.

"“There are no hard feelings. When you step away from it a little bit and you reflect, it’s just a business. It’s just baseball. It doesn’t take away from anything that I believe we brought to the table at the time.” h/t Jesse Rogers, ESPN"

Many of us used that phrase “it’s just a business”. But that’s easy to say when you aren’t the one doing the firing of a man who did everything you asked him to do. Even with the fact he’s not ill towards the Cubs, it doesn’t mean the experience didn’t affect him.

"“It would be foolish to not feel you got the wind blown out of you a little bit,” Renteria said. “You take a step back, I’m sure there was no intent on anyone’s side to create a difficult situation."

If not for the availability of Maddon, I don’t think there are many that would have been upset to see Renteria leading this team still. He appears to be a capable manager–and with the state of the White Sox, may get another chance sooner than later. But the difference between Maddon and Renteria can be summed up in what WASN’T expected this year. Winning.

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Renteria never talked like Maddon about winning. He had more of an instructional tome to him. Both are teachers of the game, but Maddon was bold and came right out and said the playoffs were on his mind. Would the Cubs have made the NLCS without him? Probably not. Would the Cubs have signed Jon Lester if Maddon wasn’t in place? Absolutely not.

But in the end, Renteria stands out as a winner in this whole situation. There were a lot of routes to go after this, and he chose the classy route.

Stay classy, Ricky.