Stand by for Pain

Everything was sunshine and lollipops at Wrigley yesterday. But the Tribune's Dave van Dyck is still abuzz over Lou Piniella's "rant:"

"He gets over it fast," said Hall of Fame reporter Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News, a Lou-watcher since Piniella's days as the Reds' manager in 1990-92.

In fact, early Saturday morning Piniella was calm and collected as he met with reporters in his office, 15 hours removed from his first show of impatience after an imperfect loss and impertinent question.

"That was nothing," McCoy said. "When Lou was in Cincinnati, that wouldn't have made a paragraph in the paper.

"Remember, we saw him throw bases, kick dirt on umpires, wrestle with Rob Dibble. So raising his voice was a non-event for us. He did that after nearly every loss.

"It's mostly dumb questions that will get him started. It doesn't take much, and his trigger is a little shorter after a bad game."

If dumb questions is all it takes, Lou's in for a rough season. If there's anything van Dyck and the rest of the Chicago press gaggle are good at, it's asking dumb questions.