Jim Riggleman is starting to take this personally. A 12-game losing streak will do that to a manager. But his players are the ones who have stumbled out of the gate. Wednesday’s mistake-filled 4-0 loss to Colorado was Exhibit A.
“We just redefined how the game should be played,” Riggleman said. “Maybe things have got to get as bad as they can get before they get better. But today it got as bad as it can get.”
The Cubs, who have lost 26 of their last 28 games dating to the end of last season, head to New York to face the Mets in a four-game series beginning Friday night.
“The manager is only as good as his players,” center-fielder Brian McRae said. “When we play well, he gets too much credit. When we play bad, he gets too much blame. It’s not his fault. He can’t play for us. All of the good managers have good players. It’s not right that a manager is labeled good or bad based on the type of team he has out there. But that’s the way it is.”
Riggleman doesn’t want to think about his job security. But the winless record raises the question.
“I am like a ballplayer,” he said. “We all have confidence in our abilities. It is not really something that I think about. It’s just like listening to talk radio in these times. As someone else mentioned to me, it’s not good for the soul to be hearing some of that and thinking about some of those negative things.”
Deserves a break today: Until the Cubs win, WGN-AM 720 sportscaster David Kaplan will continue to live in the station’s Fan Van in the McDonald’s parking lot across from Wrigley Field. (Perhaps Cubs players should be relegated to that location as well.)
“I made the agreement,” Kaplan said.
The good news is Kaplan has helped raise more than $11,000 for charity through pledges based on the number of nights he is out there. And the Cubs and McDonald’s have provided items to raffle to fans.
Dear Coach: Former Leo High School basketball players have chipped in to fly their former coach, Peter Patitucci, in from Seattle for Friday’s alumni banquet at the Martinique Restaurant. Patitucci coached Leo’s lightweights in the 1960s and early ’70s. He also coached at Brother Rice High School in New York, where his team with Dean “the Dream” Meminger faced Power Memorial with Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in the 1965 Catholic school final.
Patitucci also is known in golf circles as the high school coach of Fred Couples, who has won 12 events on the PGA Tour, including the 1992 Masters.
Billboard material: The March of Dimes’ 13th annual Celebrity Golf Classic is May 22 at Harborside International G.C. . . . Packers receiver Don Beebe will be the guest speaker at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ 27th annual spring banquet May 8 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. Call 630-871-3000 to order tickets. . . . Jonathan Zirin, 28, a Highland Park native and University of Michigan alum, has been appointed director of event operations at United Center.
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Send e-mail to Fred Mitchell at Kick3485@aol.