Lou Piniella's old-school. But is he sexist? In a New York Times interview with Deborah Solomon that's inspired a lot of male-female back-and-forth in blog land he conceded that maybe a woman could manage in major league baseball--if she had the assistance of "a good hardened professional baseball guy that would help her with the x’s and o’s during the ballgame." Women don't know the intricacies of the game, he explained, though some "sportswriter women" probably think they do. "Plenty of women already know the intricacies of the game," Solomon shot back. But it's true, Lou, we don't have balls to scratch.

Other edifying points: Piniella vows that his "kicking-dirt episodes are over," names error-prone A-Rod as the smartest baseball player he knows, and reveals that he enjoys Bible reading. Why are the Cubs doing so poorly? "I don't know," he said. "I've been here a couple months."