Mention those 121 losses, and Venable, who spent that season coaching for the Rangers, doesn’t flinch, saying he has permanently filed last year deep into the past.
Just as fired vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn were carrying their belongings out the door Wednesday at Guaranteed Rate Field, Tony La Russa was making a — we won’t call it triumphant — return.
In the 50th — and earliest — season-opener at Wrigley on a hot-chocolate kind of day, fans waved their W flags and pumped out their chests after a 4-0 dusting of the Brewers.