Tom Ricketts and the Chicago Cubs have announced today that Jim Hendry has been fired as the general manager of the team. Hendry started his career with the Cubs in 1995.
Hendry met with the team and coaching staff this morning and just finished a meeting with the media to make the annoucement. Randy Bush has been named the interim GM.
From Ricketts: It is time for a fresh approach for the organization and the search for a new GM will begin immidietly.
Hendry knew for about a month that his time on the North Side was coming to an end. Tom informed him of the bad news on July 22. He focused on making moves at the deadline and signing draft picks anyway. Jim said in his press conference that he has nothing against the Ricketts family. "We just didn't win enough games," he said. Jim told his two kids last night. He has been preparing them for awhile by telling him that most people in that bussiness end up losing their jobs.
He also said that he did not make more moves before the trading deadline because he had already lost his job. He wanted to leave those decisions up to Ricketts and the new GM. Bruce Miles tweeted that there was no mention of Crane Kenney in Hendry's fairewell. Jim talked at length about Randy Bush, Oneri Fleita and Tim Wilken, among others. The fact that he would lose his job in a week did not change the "Zambrano situation" for Jim.
My Take: While is probably was time for a change, I am still very sad to see Hendry go. I hold the players responsible for underperforming, not the general manager for signing the players. Hendry went for "it" in 2007 and 2008. He knew that guys like Soriano and Ramirez would not be as productive by the end of their contracts, but had the Cubs won a ring that would not have mattered. I met Jim in person several times and he was an extremely nice man. He was always very loyal, firing no manager and just one coach (Gerald Perry) in his 10 years as GM. I will miss Jim Hendry.
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