On Baseball | Wake-up call worked

Seven weeks ago, Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella charged out of his team's dugout and unleashed one of his famous dirt-kicking tirades after third-base umpire Mark Wegner had made a close call in a game against the Atlanta Braves.

Piniella had never been so wrong and so right all at the same time.

Wegner, you see, made the correct call.

But Piniella's outburst served a useful purpose. It allowed the volatile but shrewd manager an opportunity to purge some frustration while letting the cast of underachievers in his dugout know that he wasn't going to take losing lightly.

Like an air horn sounding in a quiet Army barracks at 4 a.m., Piniella got the attention of his sleepwalking club.

And, boy, have the Cubs responded.

They were beaten, 5-3, by the Braves on June 2, the day Piniella kicked and screamed.

Since then, they have been the best team in the National League, playing themselves right into the thick of the NL Central race.

"We have a shot," first baseman Derrek Lee said during an interview session at the All-Star Game in San Francisco. "We're playing good ball. The momentum is going the right way."

The Cubs came back from the all-star break and won seven of their first nine games. They are 29-14 since June 3, the day after Piniella's explosion.

Tirades by managers can be overrated. Skippers have been smashing chairs, turning over post-game buffets and picking fights with umpires for decades and teams have continued losing.

But Piniella's eruption forced Cubs players to take stock in their season and themselves. They were 22-31 at the time, in fifth place in the division, 71/2 games behind first-place Milwaukee. The Cubs, who had spent $300 million retooling their roster and hiring Piniella over the winter, were in danger of becoming early also-rans.

"We were embarrassed," Lee said. "Guys looked in the mirror and said, 'Let's turn it around.' Everyone knew we were capable of playing better baseball."

There are a number of reasons for the Cubs' turnaround.

Carlos Zambrano has been pitching like someone intent on backing up two big springtime boasts - that the Cubs would win the World Series, and he would win the NL Cy Young Award. Zambrano got into a very public fistfight with catcher Michael Barrett the day before Piniella went nuts on Wegner. Since then, Zambrano is 7-2 with a 1.43 ERA in nine starts, running his record to 12-7 with a 3.69 ERA for the season.

Lefty Ted Lilly, who was signed for $40 million in the off-season, has won five straight starts. Bobby Howry and Carlos Marmol have helped hold the bullpen together with closer Ryan Dempster out.

Offensively, the Cubs have come alive behind Lee, Aramis Ramirez and two off-season newcomers, Mark DeRosa and Alfonso Soriano. Super-sub DeRosa, the former Penn quarterback, had 50 RBIs in his first 88 games. Soriano, the off-season's highest-priced free agent at $136 million, has rebounded from a slow start. He entered yesterday hitting over .300 with 16 homers, 12 of which came after June 2.

After a feeling-out process, Cubs players appear to have meshed with Piniella and his fiery personality. There seems to be a trust there. Players have faith that Piniella knows the way to a championship, and the Cubs, who haven't won a World Series since 1908, are desperate for one.

There's another big reason the Cubs have turned it around. Piniella and general manager Jim Hendry weren't afraid to make changes when things didn't click out of the gate. Ten players on the 25-man roster were not there on opening day. The Cubs have gone to a new middle-infield tandem of shortstop Ryan Theriot and second baseman Mike Fontenot, and it has worked beautifully. Soriano switched from center field to left. They traded Barrett and brought in Jason Kendall.

Milwaukee is loaded with young talent, and it has led the NL Central since April 21. Still, the Brewers, whose lead is down to 21/2 games, have to be wary of the charging Cubs. The Brewers haven't been to the postseason since 1982, and all-star righthander Ben Sheets is on the disabled list with a finger injury. The Brewers also have not proven they can consistently win away from home. They are just 19-26 on the road, the worst mark of any first-place club. The Brewers and Cubs play each other just three more times this season, but those games are in Chicago.

The race has a long way to go, but you have to like the Cubs' positioning. As Lee said, the momentum is going the right way.