Cubs manager Lou Piniella is in the last year of his three year contract.  It is not clear what Piniella will do if the Cubs do not decide to keep him for another year, raising the possibility of Piniella not being involved with Major League Baseball for the first time since the tail end of the Johnson administration.  Piniella has been a player, coach, executive or manager since 1968, although he made his big league debut in 1964 before returning to the minor leagues for a few more years.

Piniella is a baseball lifer who was a good, but not great player and a great, if controversial,…

The questions of how the core four of the New York Yankees compare to other groups of four players who played together for ten or more years, which was discussed here last week, raises the question of what was the greatest threesome of all time to have played together for ten or more years.  There are four serious contenders for the best group of three players as well as one group, Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio and Bobby Doerr, who are not eligible because they all missed time due to military service.

Some of the groups that do not make the final cut include: Yankees Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey…

When the Yankees won the World Series last year, the term “core four” was introduced referring to four players who have been part of all five of the last Yankee championships.  This is a little inaccurate because Jorge Posada, one of the group, only appeared in eight games in 1996 and did not play that post-season at all.  Nonetheless, the accomplishments of Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera, as well as the time they have spent playing together, are very impressive.  2009 was the tenth year these four players have been together on the Yankees for most or…