A new GM, manager and a new way of building a team were to follow.

Out was the old way of relying on the long ball to score runs and win games. In was the new way of small ball—getting runners on base then utilizing speed and smart, aggressive baserunning with sound hitting as the primary method to accumulate runs.

Sabermetrics became more of a factor in baseball decisions. Player strikeout totals began to matter, as did OBP and slugging percentage.

No longer is it deemed acceptable to ignore the number of strikeouts a player amasses because he is a prodigious home run hitter.

Playing good defense became as important as disciplined hitting.

Epstein’s plans also included rebuilding the farm system by stockpiling high-quality prospects, then using those players to beef up the major league roster via call-ups and trades.

There is now a new way of constructing the team, starting the Chicago Cubs turnaround.

Through a combination of cultivated talent from the minors along with bringing in players who play the style of baseball the organization wants to put on the field, the Epstein\Hoyer Chicago Cubs will not resemble the Chicago Cubs of the Hendry era.

Is it coaching? The players knowing their role with the club? Is the new style of Chicago Cubs baseball better suited for the team? Or is it a combination of these and\of other aspects I have not mentioned?

Whatever it may be, the organizational shift seems to have already produced dividends by taking pressure off of the players. They are able to play baseball without a cloud over their heads.

Maybe it is my optimism for the future, but this can already be seen, as the Chicago Cubs look to be more competitive than they were last year, and they’re playing much better baseball.

The team knows that everything does not rest on this year’s results and that they are playing and building for the future.

This has not been the case in the recent history of the Chicago Cubs. During the Hendry era, there was a climate of “win now, win now, win now,” and the team, and us fans, suffered for it.

There needed to be an outlook of “win this year, next year and the year after,” which is what the new management team is putting into place.

But Jim Hendry cannot be blamed for the failure to win a World Series. We fans were impatient, rightfully so, to win a World Series during the era of the old regime, and Hendry did all he could to deliver. Some of his moves were good, and some not so much.

Presiding over year numbers 94 to 103 without a World Series, compounded with an ever-growing restless fanbase, it could not have been easy to run the Cubs.

As much pressure as the Cubs and Jim Hendry were under to win right now, it would have been irrational to have expected the majority of the roster moves made to have been beneficial in the long term. The club was focused on ending the curse every year instead of building the franchise so the curse would eventually fall.

But that’s baseball. When making deals sometimes, you hit a walk-off in the ninth, and sometimes you strikeout. Unfortunately, the Hendry era was more accustomed to the latter than the former—the midseason 2003 deals notwithstanding.

When a team is pressured to make moves and rushes to do, so there can be long-term ramifications for the organization if those moves do not work out.

We Cubs fans need to realize, if we haven’t already, it will take time for the Chicago Cubs to become playoff contenders, but it is just a matter of time.

It would be absurd to believe the Chicago Cubs will be competing for a playoff spot this season or next, and possibly not in 2014 as well.

Although throughout Theo Epstein’s time in Boston the Red Sox were ranked in the top five in team salary every season except for his first season as GM in 2003, I do not expect the Chicago Cubs to go after a big-time free agent this coming offseason or the offseason between the 2013 and 2014 seasons—although it would be nice to see Cole Hamels in Cubbie blue next year.

But that is OK. The Chicago Cubs turnaround is about rebuilding.

Expecting a spending spree in the next two offseasons is not exercising sound judgment. The club will be built at its own pace. In building a team, speed equals mistakes, and slow and steady win the race.

Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer deserve time and patience in their efforts to send the Chicago Cubs to the promised land.

If in order to be regularly competitive for a World Series—as the “Sawks” were during Epstein’s time there—we fans have wait two, three or four years, then that’s fine.

We’ve all waited this long for a Cubs turnaround, what’s a few more years?

It was the Cubs’ flimsy offense that again let the team down Tuesday night, wasting a solid start by Wood in a 2-1 loss to the Houston Astros to extend their losing streak to a season-high eight games.

“I don’t know what we have to do to win one game and hit more, because right now we are struggling,” said Alfonso Soriano, who provided the Cubs’ only run of the night with his fourth homer of the season.

Soriano’s homer, which tied the score in the fourth inning, came off Astros left-hander J.A. Happ, ending a scoring drought against starting pitchers that spanned three games.

The Cubs have now gone 59 frames without holding a lead at the end of an inning.

The Cubs have not won a game since May 14 at St. Louis.

The slide is the Cubs longest since losing eight in a row last May 30-June 7.

Happ (4-3) pitched six solid innings for the Astros, limiting Chicago to Soriano’s home run and four other hits while striking six in the process.

He benefited from Jose Altuve’s leadoff home run and J.D. Martinez’s go-ahead RBI single in the sixth inning for his second win in as many starts.

Brett Myers pitched a 1-2-3 ninth — striking out two — for his 11th save in 12 chances for the Astros.

Wood, who was making his second start with the Cubs after being called up earlier Tuesday from Triple-A Iowa, had no such help from his offense, wasting what Cubs manager Dale Sveum deemed an impressive outing after a rather rough start.

“When your first batter of the ball game hits a home run, I guess everything’s out of the way,” Wood said. “You already gave up a hit; you already gave up a run. Not much left to do but to bear down and get after it.”

That he did.

Altuve’s homer was one of two hits Wood (0-1) allowed in the first inning, after which he retired 17 of the 19 batters he faced.

“That was huge, to get out of that (first inning) with just one,” Sveum said. “Punched a couple of guys out. Just did a really, really good job.”

After allowing Jed Lowrie a double following the homer, Wood retired eight in a row before walking Lowrie with two outs in the third inning and nine straight after that before walking Justin Maxwell with two outs in the sixth to end his outing.

CHICAGO (AP) Kerry Wood‘s first trip as a retired baseball player Saturday morning was one any dad can appreciate. He went to a little league game, which he described as awesome.
And then hours later he stepped to a microphone near home plate at Wrigley Field as his now ex-teammates stood behind him. And Kerry Wood made another delivery,
reeling off a long list of people he needed to thank for a major league career that spanned 14 years.

Teammates, coaches, managers, his wife, his dad, trainers, former general manager Jim Hendry, team owners, and his friends on the clubhouse staff.

“I’m going to miss you guys,” Kerry Wood said, dressed in a coat and tie instead of his familiar uniform with No. 34 on the back. “I’m going to miss everybody.”
Kerry Wood retired following Friday’s game against the White Sox after striking out his final and only batter of the day. The latest injury to his shoulder and another trip to the disabled list – his 16th – made it apparent that it was time to go. But he wanted a final chance to pitch at Wrigley Field before peeling off the uniform.

And after all the hubbub Friday, he made it official Saturday in a ceremony about four hours before the Cubs met the White Sox.
“You know when it’s time, the body was telling me and obviously the results were telling me,” Kerry Wood said after his formal remarks.
The right-hander had an 0-2 record and an 8.31 ERA over 10 games this season and had struggled mightily after a return from the disabled list.
“So I’ve got no regrets. I played this game as long as I could and as hard as I could. And I’m fine saying that.”
Kerry Wood had plenty of memorable moments during his stay with the Cubs. He played with Chicago from 1998-2008 and then rejoined the team last season after a brief stint with the Indians and Yankees.

There was the 20-strikeout game in his fifth major league start in 1998 and a couple of playoff wins in 2003 when the Cubs made a serious run at the World Series. But he said the one he’ll remember most came Friday after he struck out the White Sox’s Dayan Vicieo on three pitches.

As Kerry Wood left to a rousing ovation, his son Justin came out of the dugout and gave him a big hug.

“You can’t put anything above that,” said Kerry Wood, who with his wife and three kids went for one more stroll in the Wrigley Field outfield Saturday.
When he’s ready, Kerry Wood will have a job with the Cubs in some capacity, but he wasn’t ready to look that far ahead. He’s gotten numerous texts from all over the country and was saluted by former teammates and managers, who commended his perseverance.
During Saturday’s ceremony the Cubs presented him with a picture of him and his son in that on-field embrace Friday and also a flag of his 20-strikeout game.

Asked why he was so popular in Chicago – the fans often chanted “Ker-ry, Ker-ry,” as they did one last time Friday – Kerry Wood said he felt they appreciated all he went through to pitch, especially with so many injuries. And he first pitched at Wrigley when he was 20 years old, so he grew up in front of them.

“This is something that I’ve dealt with since way back when. I’ve been battling injuries since after my first year,” said Kerry Wood, who missed the entire 1999 season after elbow surgery.

“It made me who I was. If I didn’t have those injuries, I don’t think I would be the person I am.”

Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, who is new to Chicago, said the latter part of a player’s career can be difficult, but that Kerry Wood handled it well.

“The player evaluating himself properly in the context of the team can be tough. He’s able to step outside himself, view the situation, understand what he needed to do to make himself happy and sort of what was best for him and the club,” Epstein said.

‘I really admire what he was able to do. It’s unique.’

The Chicago Cubs drafted Kerry Wood as the fourth overall selection in the 1995 Amateur Draft. He spent three years playing in the Minor Leagues. His best season in the Minors came in 1996, when he posted a 10-2 record for the Daytona Cubs. He also played for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs. In 1997 he led all minor league pitchers in walks, with 131.

Kerry Wood’s Pitcher Profile

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  Pregame Warmups

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  Wrigley Field Beauties

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  Hot Cubs Fans

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  Rooftop Hottie

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  Small peck

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  Cubs games are always fun

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  Wrigleyville Rooftops

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  Wrigleyview

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  On the rooftop before the game

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  Beautiful Smiles

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  Bar tending on the rooftop

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  Hanging out Before the game

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