CHICAGO (AP) -General manager Jim Hendry and the Chicago Cubs agreed Monday to a four-year contract extension through the 2012 season, a deal that would expire well after new owners are expected to take over the club.
The move came following the Cubs' best regular season in more than six decades. They won their second straight NL Central title and had the league's best record before getting swept out of the playoffs for the second straight year.
And bringing back Hendry was an easy choice, despite the pending sale.
"The timing, let's face it, it's an odd situation. The team is for sale and has been for sale for sometime," Cubs chairman Crane Kenney said.
"As I keep getting reminded, the team was put up for sale on Opening Day 2007. For two full seasons we've had the for-sale sign on our lawn."
But Kenney said new Tribune owner Sam Zell signed off on Hendry's new deal.
"The business doesn't stop because we're for sale," Kenney said.
"Like our midseason move bringing in Rich Harden, or signing Carlos (Zambrano) last year, we try to make good long-term decisions for our organization. We use that guiding principle in whatever we're doing. We assume the new owner will appreciate those things and not have a difficulty with them," Kenney said.
"We think it's a really good long term decision to keep the baseball side of our organization together. It was an easy discussion. I did walk Sam through it a few days ago and he saw it the same way. We think this is one of the strengths of our organization and not that different than an attractive option for a player. From Sam's perspective this was an easy one to make."
Chicago led the division or shared the lead from May 11 on, clinched the NL Central on Sept. 20 and went 97-64 - the most wins for this franchise since the 1945 team finished 98-56 - only to get knocked out by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL division series.
Last season, the Cubs were eliminated by Arizona. Still, Hendry is the only GM in Cubs history to lead the team during consecutive postseason appearances.
"As I've said since I've arrived here, and since I was fortunate enough to get this job six years ago, I have no desire to be anywhere else," Hendry said.
"There's no other place I'd rather be. So in that regard there is a lot of emotion involved. Now we've got to do whatever we can to kick that last door in and win that championship. That's our goal. We won't rest until it's accomplished.
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