Lou Piniella said it.

Lou Piniella's agent said it.

Paul Sullivan wrote it.

Today, Carrie Muskat wrote it again:

Lou Piniella is not interested in replacing Joe Torre as manager of the New York Yankees.

The Yanks supposedly have Don Mattingly and former Cub Joe Girardi at the top of their candidates list. I don't care who they hire. I just hope they hire somebody. Soon. So we don't have to read any more denials of the possibility that Lou Piniella will be the guy.

Completely unrelated thought:

I have been watching the Red Sox-Indians game intermittently this evening and my considered opinion--and I mean this in the most positive way imaginable--is that Josh Beckett is a bad ass.

The Cubs could use one of those. Yes, the amped-up, generally crazy, sometimes brilliant guy is entertaining, but the classic, cold-blooded bad ass with the permanent snarl sure comes in handy when your season is on the line and you're playing in front of 45,000 people who hate you.

Like I said, the Cubs could use one of those.