"Mike Quade, fired with a year left on his contract after his first full year on the job with the Cubs in 2011, has some words of advice for Robin Ventura, who walks into a similar situation as a rookie manager in Chicago in 2012. It's the same thing Lou Piniella told him when he replaced Piniella.

"When Lou left, he came into the office and said, 'The media, Mike." Chicago isn't known as a cut-throat media town, but its media muscle comes in numbers.

Piniella had no other concerns for Quade. "You'll handle the rest of it,'' he said."