Lou Piniella managed his last game for the Chicago Cubs yesterday, electing to retire early so that he can be at home with his ailing mother. In true Cubs fashion, the Northsiders got absolutely murdered by the Atlanta Braves 16-5. Lou's Cub career got off to a promising start, as he turned a struggling team around to win the division in 2007 and made the Cubs into the best NL team in 2008. Unfortunately, neither of those teams was able to do jackshit in the playoffs, getting swept two years in a row. Despite having Milton Bradley, Aaron Miles, Aaron Heilman and an injured Aramis Ramirez last year, Lou still managed to finish the season with a winning record.

2010 proved to be the season from hell as this club has found more ways to lose than Bob and June Wheeler. While Lou has seemed distracted and disinterested at times this year, who can really blame him? More importantly, Lou is going where he belongs, which is with his sick mother. The Cubs are fucked this year anyway, regardless of whether Lou or Mike Quade is pulling the strings, so it really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I am a little confused as to why the Cubs have already decided Alan Trammel isn't a candidate to manage in 2011, but what the hell do I know.

Lou joins the ranks of managers who have failed to bring the Cubs a World Series, but at least the Cubs were mostly good during his tenure in Chicago. And we'll always have this. Good luck, Lou. At least you don't have to watch this collection of stiffs for the rest of the season.

I still hate this team.