Cubs Set To Announce Dale Sveum As New Manager
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Cubs are set to make the official announcement Friday that Dale Sveum will be the team's new manager.
As CBS 2's Susanna Song reports, the Cubs will make the announcement at 9 a.m. Sveum has been offered a three-year deal with an option for 2015, to lead the team into what is expected to be a rebuilding phase.
Sveum comes to the Cubs from the Milwaukee Brewers, where he was the club's hitting coach.
CBS 2's Ryan Baker says Sveum might not have been the sexy pick Cubs fans were hoping for in a new manager, but he has the one feature that makes it an attractive hire – history with Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein and General Manager Jed Hoyer.
This does not mean Sveum will be a puppet in the dugout, but Baker says the new skipper will definitely manage the Cubs Epstein's way.
Sveum and Epstein first worked together when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. Sveum was the third-base coach at the time, and served in that capacity through 2005.
Ironically, the Cubs beat out the Red Sox for Sveum's services.
This will be Sveum's first full-time gig as a Major League skipper, although he finished the 2008 season as the Brewers' interim manager.
Sveum, who turns 48 this coming Wednesday, played 12 journeyman seasons in the Majors. He was drafted by the Brewers in the 1982 amateur draft, and took to the field in 1986.
In 1987, Sveum hit 25 home runs and drove in 95 runs, and became a baseball celebrity when he hit a walkoff home run in an Easter Sunday game to lead the Brewers to a 6-4 victory over the Texas Rangers.
Sveum stayed with the Brewers through the 1991 season, and then had stints as a player with the Philadelphia Phillies and briefly even with the White Sox in 1992, the Oakland Athletics in 1993, the Seattle Mariners in 1994, the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1996 and 1997, the New York Yankees in 1998, and the Pirates again in 1999.
Baker says Sveum brings a solid reputation as a no-nonsense, hardworking baseball man. Unlike fiery former Cubs manager Lou Piniella, Sveum describes his own demeanor as "stoic."
Be sure to watch the big announcement live at 9 a.m. here on cbschicago.com.
