Did Craig Counsell find the Cubs annoying? No, the game’s highest-paid manager was made for Chicago
Craig Counsell angered some in his native Wisconsin, who viewed his departure as a betrayal. But his Chicago connection is real. Craig Counsell, the new manager of the Chicago Cubs, was asked if he found the team annoying. Despite this, Counsell responded positively to the question, stating that he respected the team that beat him. He took over from the Milwaukee Brewers in May 2015 and was the highest-paid manager in the game. His decision to leave the Brewers was seen as a betrayal by some fans in Wisconsin. The Cubs had also acquired Joe Maddon, Jon Lester, and their farm system. Despite these challenges, Counselling remains optimistic about his ability to manage the team. He also acknowledged that he learned a lot from Maddon and that the rivalry with the Cubs can continue.
Publié : il y a 4 semaines par Patrick Mooney dans Sports
Did you find the Chicago Cubs annoying? Craig Counsell, the new Cubs manager who was hired away from the Milwaukee Brewers, chuckled, exhaled, and quickly said: “no, no, no.” Still, as a longtime rival of his new club, he could appreciate the framing of the question.
Counsell took over the Brewers on May 4, 2015, coming down from the front office to apply what he learned across 16 years as a major-league infielder who survived on preparation and intelligence. At that time, the Cubs had hired Joe Maddon away from the Tampa Bay Rays, signed Jon Lester to a six-year, $155 million contract and assembled Baseball America’s No. 1 farm system. Coming off five consecutive fifth-place finishes, the Cubs had also participated in a Bloomberg Businessweek cover story that declared “a sports empire is in bloom.”
“Look, when you’re in sports, when you lose, it’s annoying,” Counsell said. “The other team’s annoying. It’s the team that beat you. That’s not the word I would use.”
Counsell chooses his words carefully and expresses those words concisely. His ability to communicate and process information made him a quick study in Milwaukee’s dugout. His track record of results with a small-market franchise — five playoff appearances in the last six years — made him the highest-paid manager in the game. His decision to leave the Brewers — the hometown team that once employed his father — angered some fans in Wisconsin who viewed it as a betrayal.
Maybe it was Chicago all along.
The Cubs arguably did not sign a bigger free agent this past offseason, handing Counsell a five-year, $40 million contract and then mostly running back the same team that missed the playoffs by one game last season. There were targeted moves to bolster the bullpen (Héctor Neris) and the rotation (Shota Imanaga). Re-signing Cody Bellinger addressed several roster deficiencies. Another year of experience will benefit the organization’s strong nucleus of young talent. But the operating assumption is that Counsell will wring more from this group than David Ross.
All this makes you wonder what Counsell really thought of the Cubs. Maddon thoroughly enjoyed the spotlight. Theo Epstein was named “World’s Greatest Leader” by Fortune magazine. Cubs fans showed up to Miller Park/American Family Field in droves to drink beers and cheer against the Brewers. Cubs players and team officials made two separate trips to the White House to celebrate their 2016 World Series title.
“This is how it works,” Counsell said, “especially in that era when you played each other so much. When there’s a team that’s the best team — and they were the best team (in the division at that time) going to the playoffs and making good runs — you’re the team trying to figure out a way to beat them.
“When a team’s really good, you respect that. There’s a respect for that. Always. Every team has their thing and the way they do it. But they’re winning, so you respect that. That’s how I’ve always seen it. Frankly, I would like to think that I learned a lot from Joe Maddon.
“I got to manage a lot of games against Joe Maddon, and I learned a lot from him, for sure. I was always trying to understand. They’re winning, man. We got to figure out how to win. I’m going to watch the team that’s winning a lot.”
Maddon’s breakthrough meant Counsell didn’t have to answer questions about 1908 and come up with theories as to why the Cubs hadn’t won a championship in more than a century. Jed Hoyer, Epstein’s longtime general manager in Chicago, oversaw the rebuild that produced all the healthy signs that Counsell looked for in his next organization. Ross also did an admirable job of maintaining a competitive, focused clubhouse atmosphere that will continue.
Still, that rivalry burned bright enough that Willson Contreras was once caught on camera yelling “F— you!” at an unidentified Brewer in the dugout. Kris Bryant saw some of the Cubs Way reflected back at him when the Brewers began their ascent: “They seem like a fun group over there having a lot of fun. Sure, it can get a little annoying, but we do the same thing.”
In terms of annoying, Counsell delivered this classic one-liner after the Cubs postponed a 2017 game at Wrigley Field on what wound up being a beautiful afternoon in Chicago: “First time for us that we’ve had players treated for sunburn after a rainout.”
That sarcastic side of Counsell’s personality surprised Cubs pitcher Justin Steele, who until this spring training had always viewed the manager as extremely serious and calculating.
“Across the way, playing against him, I didn’t think he would have as good a sense of humor and be as talkative as he is,” Steele said. “But now that I’ve been in the same locker room as him a little bit, he’s a lot more talkative, a lot more funny than I thought he would be.”
Chicago also carries a much deeper meaning for Counsell, who gravitated to the city after playing college baseball at Notre Dame. His future wife, Michelle, supported him while he advanced through the minor leagues as an 11th-round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies. She worked as a teacher at Frances Xavier Warde, a Catholic school in downtown Chicago that needed another coach in its basketball program.
Counsell lived in Chicago for a few offseasons that marked a special time in their lives, before they started a family that would grow to four children. Counsell was still trying to figure it out on the uncertain front end of a career that would see him celebrate World Series championships as a role player for the 1997 Florida Marlins and the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks. In terms of relatability to Cubs fans, Counsell was a Chicago guy in the 18-to-34 demographic who listened to sports talk radio during his commute. And the matchups Counsell concentrated on back then revolved around FXW’s man-to-man defense and its opponents in Catholic grade school basketball.
“In the morning, I would go to Ron Coomer’s place and hit,” Counsell said, referencing the future Cubs radio analyst on 670. “And then in the afternoon, when I would drive back from Orland Park, I would listen to The Score. And then I would go coach basketball. That was my day in the winter.”
In hindsight — with so much personal history in Chicago and the Cubs offering such an enormous professional opportunity — we should have seen Counsell coming. Hoyer monitored the situation from afar, curious to see if the Brewers would announce a new deal for Counsell. Toward the end of October, Hoyer alerted Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts that pursuing Counsell had to be considered. Hoyer waited until Counsell’s contract expired and called Nov. 1, inviting Counsell down from Wisconsin for a clandestine meeting at Hoyer’s North Shore home in suburban Chicago.
“He knows what he wants,” Hoyer said. “He knows how he sees things and he’s able to communicate it in a very succinct way, which I think players appreciate. As far as our relationship, I keep joking, ‘We haven’t lost a game together yet.’”
Hoyer did not hire a yes-man. Tempers will flare throughout the 162-game season that begins Thursday at Globe Life Field, where the Texas Rangers will raise their 2023 World Series banner. If not for Counsell consistently pushing the Brewers beyond their projections, maybe it would have ended differently for the post-2016 Cubs.
Intriguing would be a better word to describe Counsell’s perceptions of the big-market team some 90 miles south of Milwaukee. Counsell now plans to bike to work from his new Lincoln Park apartment. Don’t let the low-key vibes fool you. Hoyer sold Counsell on building something bigger and better.
“He made me think about a lot of things,” Counsell said. “I was interested in the kind of thing he laid out.”
Les sujets: Baseball, MLB, Chicago Cubs