You’re not going to get many managers as upbeat as Rick Renteria, who sometimes was referred to as Ricky Sunshine during his only season with the Cubs in 2014.
It was exactly what Cubs President Theo Epstein wanted when he hired Renteria — someone to teach and instill confidence in a young team. Renteria replaced the brutally honest Dale Sveum, whose tough-love handling of Starlin Castro and other young players was deemed too negative by Cubs management.
We all know how that episode turned out.
Joe Maddon replaced Renteria after that one season, took them to the postseason in his first year and ended the Cubs championship drought the next.