The Cubs’ Craig Counsell clocked in for work Thursday needing three more wins to hit the not-so-major milestone of 900 for his managerial career.
There probably won’t be a parade to mark the occasion for the skipper ranked No. 78 on baseball’s all-time list.
But Counsell is only 55 and, by the looks and sounds of him, has many years of “Ws” left in the tank.
“You want a high-quality life and to live life to the fullest, but if you’re doing something you love to do, you keep doing it,” he told the Sun-Times.
Let’s say Counsell were to keep managing without interruption until age 65, while maintaining his career winning percentage of .534. By then, he’d be in — or, at worst, right on the doorstep of — the top 20. And that’s Hall of Fame territory, especially, in Counsell’s case, if he were to add a World Series championship along the way to the two he won as a player.
Zooming past Al Lopez, Earl Weaver, Tommy Lasorda and more than a dozen others whose plaques reside in Cooperstown, N.Y. is kind of fun to think about, isn’t it?
“I don’t know if I’ve ever thought about it in those terms,” Counsell said. “The thing it really makes me think of is when you’re in a game and [the Reds’] Terry Francona’s on the other side or [recently retired] Bruce Bochy’s on the other side. No matter who you are, you have this respect for the longevity that they’ve achieved. I respect their longevity more than anything.”
Francona, 11th on the all-time wins list with 2,049 entering Thursday’s games, is one of four active managers ahead of Counsell, the others being the Tigers’ A.J. Hinch (977), the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts (960) and the Rays’ Kevin Cash (909).
Counsell is under contract with the Cubs through 2028.
“We all think about our futures and our lives, of course, like, ‘How do I want to spend life?’ ” he said. “But I don’t have [a timeline] in mind. I’ve learned that these seasons, you take what’s in front of you and try to do the best you can at it and enjoy it and work hard at it, and then you move forward. I think long-term planning like that is useless, honestly, because life changes too fast, especially as you get older.”
Does that mean we shouldn’t start inquiring about an eventual contract extension with the North Siders?
“Man, that is so far away from me right now,” he said. “Definitely too soon.”