Chicago Herald-American

A week after chastising Cub fans for their idol-worshipping of Mark DeRosa during his return to Chicago last week, the Tribune's Rick Morrissey finally got around to addressing the man who created the dynamic that precipitated such a horrendous display of misplaced affection: Cubs general manager Jim Hendry.

Better late than never.

"Hendry is a stand-up guy, and he takes full responsibility for the way things are going," Morrissey wrote in this column in Wednesday's paper. "But just because most of the signings looked good at the time Hendry engineered them doesn't lessen his culpability. It's a general manager's job to decide who will perform and who won't.

It's a general manager's job to predict whether a manager will be effective long term. Lou Piniella, 65, is in Year 3 of his tenure.

It's a general manager's job to look into the future and see whether a player with a history of anger issues will be able to perform under the pressure cooker of one of baseball's most high-profile teams.

It's a general manager's job to look at a player from Japan and decide whether his performance there will translate into success in America.

General managers do the hiring and firing, so it's no surprise they almost always outlast players and managers. But if this team doesn't turn itself around soon, Hendry could find himself out of a job at the end of the season. New owners -- there will be new owners, right? -- tend to hire their own people to fix expensive toys."

Rick left out the part about the putrid farm system that Hendry has had a hand in since 1995. While the Sox are bringing up Gordon Beckham and Aaron Poreda, the Cubs give us Sam Fuld and Kevin Hart.

Crediting Hendry with being a stand-up guy who takes full responsibility for the way things are going is a little gratuitious. I'll give Hendry credit -- he's a nice guy who doesn't duck the media. But he's also a classic BS'er who will try to convince you that Kosuke Fukudome had a bad September last year when in reality he had a bad May (.259 after May 3), June (.264), July (.236), August (.195) and September (.178).

And taking responsibility without consequence is worthless. When he fired Gerald Perry he said, "We all bare the responsibility when things don't go right, starting with me."What he meant was, "ending" with me. If it started with him, he'd fired himself.

And of course, Rick couldn't resist another sophomoric shot at Cub fans for treating DeRosa as a conquering hero upon his return to Wrigley Field last week.

"Trading Mark DeRosa, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Bosnia and parts of Herzegovina, is the least of Hendry's sins. And stepping in before the hated Cardinals swooped in and acquired DeRosa from Cleveland over the weekend wouldn't have solved the team's current problems. Cubs fans would like to think that, but it's not true."

Yeah, right, Rick. Like Cub fans really think that keeping DeRosa would have solved all their problems. The irony is that Morrissey doesn't realize the over-the-top love for DeRosa was a shot at Hendry for making a move that made no sense unless it was a precursor to acquiring Jake Peavy. I'm sure they all think DeRosa should be in the Hall of Fame, too. As it turns out, those fans you are ridiculing were way ahead of you on identifying the real reason why the Cubs have underachieved this season.