Since the Cubs have languished for so many years as ill-fated losers, it might be difficult to convince their loyal fans that happier days will return to the "friendly confines" of Wrigley Field during the 2007 season.

But those days are coming according to one source who wants the team’s faithful followers to forget what happened in 2006 when the Cubs finished with the worst record (66-96) in the National League.

And, who is that intrepid source? He is none other than Lou Piniella who once directed winning teams in New York, Cincinnati and Seattle.

When he was introduced as the managerial successor to the deposed Dusty Baker last October, Piniella promised, "Long-suffering Cubs fans, we’re going to win here. And that’s really the end of the story."

He didn’t say, of course, how soon the club’s rejuvenation would begin, but one can safely assume it will take place some time during his three-year contractual commitment.

Ordinary local folks, out-of-town visitors and exuberant bleacher creatures who go through the turnstiles at the aged baseball structure on Chicago’s north side might be shocked out of their collective wits if Piniella is able to follow up on his cheerful prediction, not through the first few months of the season, but all the way into October.

After all, most of them are aware he is trying to end a gruesome tradition of failure, much of it extended by a series of implausible, curious, goofy or bean-counting decisions by general managers and owners of the club dating back to the 1940s.

The mistakes and unexplainable blunders of Cub honchos over the last 60 years are too numerous to mention item by item, but here are a few cases to illustrate the point:

In 1941, they traded away future Hall of Fame second baseman Billy Herman who immediately helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win a pennant. In 1951, they made another thoughtless deal with the Dodgers, unloading Andy Pafko, a superb and highly popular center fielder. In 1954, Phil Cavarretta, a native Chicagoan and an outstanding player in his time, was fired as manager because he had the honesty to tell the owner in spring training how bad the team was.

In 1959, they bounced Bob Scheffing, a decent manager burdened with a mediocre roster, simply to get the attention of the media because the White Sox were becoming the city’s favorite team.

Starting in 1961, the Cubs were managed by a staff of coaches (aptly named the "College of Coaches") instead of one field boss, an experiment that turned into a complete disaster and was finally terminated after a couple of seasons.

In 1962, another future Hall of Famer, Lou Brock, was traded to the Cardinals for sore-armed pitcher Ernie Broglio. At the beginning of the 1963 season, one more odd experiment was launched by the owner when he hired retired Air Force Colonel Robert V. Whitlow to become the team’s "athletic director," a move that was ridiculed by most everyone connected with the club.

Moving ahead with this litany of screwups, after the 1980 season, reliever Bruce Sutter, one more future Hall of Famer, who had saved 28 games that year, stunned the living daylights out of the nickel-clutching management by asking for a new contract amounting to about $750,00. Aghast at such a demand, management dealt him in December to the Cardinals.

In 1984, the Cubs had a wonderful chance to make it to the World Series, but lost the National League Championship Series to the Padres after taking the first two games of the five-game playoff behind the pitching of Rick Sutcliffe and Steve Trout. Their loss could be attributed to a strange decision not to use Sutcliffe in Game 4, and start Trout, if needed, in Game 5.

Trout never did get over being deprived of another start against the Padres. "You have to wonder what management was thinking," he said years later. "What was done with the rotation didn’t make any sense. I was maybe their second best pitcher, and they didn’t fully utilize my pitching. I faced only two batters in relief in the final game (lost by Sutcliffe)."

Finally, in 2003, another opportunity to win a pennant went up in smoke as Dusty Baker sat on the bench chewing his toothpick in the eighth inning of Game 6 in the NLCS when the Cubs, needing only five outs to capture the flag, held a 3-0 lead. As the Marlins began to rally, Baker and pitching coach Larry Rothschild remained on the bench without making any effort to go out and talk to Prior to alter his pace and perhaps disrupt Florida’s eventual victorious assault.

In view of these habitual blemishes, Piniella’s challenge at this date to turn things around looms mighty large even though Cub opponents in the Central Division all seem to have certain weaknesses that could make them vulnerable and even though the club issued long-term contracts amounting to $264 million in the off-season to sign four key players: third baseman Aramis Ramirez, outfielder Alfonso Soriano, left-handed pitcher Ted Lilly and second baseman Mark De Rosa.

When Piniella talked about winning in being introduced to the media as the Cubs new manager last fall, his comment reminded some aging historians of what Leo Durocher proclaimed in 1966.

In 1965, the Cubs finished eighth at a time the National League embraced ten teams. Owner Phil Wrigley, a modest but unconventional caretaker, then startled the baseball world in hiring the hard-to-tame Durocher to manage the club, starting in the 1966 season. Upon his appointment, Durocher, brash as ever, vowed, "This isn’t an eighth place team."

He was right. In 1966, under his leadership, the Cubs ended up in tenth place with a horrible 59-103 record.

A similar embarassment, however, is not likely to befall Piniella, an upbeat character and smart tactician, as long as he gets some steady production from his starting rotation of pitchers featuring right-hander Carlos Zambrano (16-7), Ted Lilly (15-13 with the Blue Jays) and two or three other candidates, including young left-hander Rich Hill and ex-Cardinal right-hander Jason Marquis.

With injury-prone Kerry Wood expected to work out of the bullpen, a return to form by Mark Prior, hampered by shoulder problems in 2006, would be a big plus in helping the team shake off the cobwebs of defeat that smothered fan interest late last season.

In reviewing the Cubs’ chances of achieving noticeable improvement this year, it should be pointed out that Piniella abhors complacency. "My team will always hustle," he said before spring training. "That won’t be a problem, believe me."

It also should be added that he has succeeded as a manager under trying circumstances. He once labored for demanding Yankee chieftain George Steinbrenner, and in 1990, he directed the Reds to a world championship despite having to put up with the disturbing peculiarities of Marge Schott, the club’s tempestuous owner whose pet St.Bernard ("Schottzie") dirtied the home field in Cincinnati and liked to chew Piniella’s socks.

"He has that Vince Lombardi atttitude and he’s very passionate about his team, his players and winning," Lilly said of Piniella after he was acquired by the Cubs last December.

A big clue to what the Cubs might accomplish in 2007 could reveal itself in the first month of the season. In April, they face Central Division opponents in 22 games, playing the Reds, Cardinals and Brewers six times each. They also meet the Astros three times and the Pirates once.

What they do in those games will set the tone for a long, grueling drive for redemption.

In mid-April last year, the Cubs suffered a critical loss when first baseman Derrek Lee fractured his wrist in a collision with Rafael Furcal. He was hitting .318 at the time, and his absence on offense and defense was sorely missed.

Lee is convinced the Cubs are ready to move up this season. "This is the year," he wrote in a text message to some of his teammates last January.

Ramirez, who slammed 38 homers and drove in 119 runs in 2006, is equally optimistic. "I’ve got a lot to prove here," he said before spring training opened. "We were so close to winning the World Series in ’03. I know I left a lot of money on the table (to resign with the Cubs), but I want to be here. I know we’re going to win here."

In baseball, hope always manifests itself in the early days of spring, long before the cruel forces of reality crush dreams of a pennant.

With Piniella at the helm, perhaps those dreams of Cub players and fans won’t be extinguished easily and may linger through the summer.