Chicago Tribune

Paul Sullivan: The 8 ingredients to making a quintessential Cubs manager

CHICAGO - A wide assortment of characters have inhabited the Cubs manager's office over the decades, with varying degrees of success.

There have been bad ones like Bruce Kimm and great ones like Joe Maddon. We've had fat guys like Don Zimmer and short guys like Frank Lucchesi. And we've had youngsters like 25-year-old Al Spaulding and geezers like Leo Durocher, 66 on his final day.

No single personality trait, defined intelligence level or preferred amount of experience translates into the perfect Cubs manager, or else President Theo Epstein could simply insert the variables into a computer program and come up with the right blend for his next hire.

But based on three decades of covering the Cubs - and a lifetime of watching them - these are the eight main ingredients to create the quintessential Cubs manager, and the ones who best fit the mold in each category:

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1. Look: Don Zimmer

No one looked like a manager more than "Popeye," whose

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