FILE - This June 20, 2011, file photo shows Chicago Cubs' general manager Jim Hendry, left, and Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams, before an interleague baseball game in Chicago. The Cubs have fired Hendry after another disappointing season. The Cubs announced the move Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, before a game with the rival St. Louis Cardinals. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - This June 20, 2011, file photo shows Chicago Cubs' general manager Jim Hendry, left, and Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams, before an interleague baseball game in Chicago. The Cubs have fired Hendry after another disappointing season. The Cubs announced the move Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, before a game with the rival St. Louis Cardinals. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - This May 12, 2011, file photo shows Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, center, talking with reporters before a baseball game between the Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals, in Chicago. The Cubs have fired Hendry after another disappointing season. The Cubs announced the move Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, before a game with the rival St. Louis Cardinals. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
CHICAGO (AP) ? The Chicago Cubs fired general manager Jim Hendry on Friday after another disappointing season.
The Cubs announced the move before a game with the rival St. Louis Cardinals and said assistant GM Randy Bush will serve as interim general manager.
The 56-year-old Hendry was named general manager in July 2002. New owner Tom Ricketts said it was time for a "fresh approach in our baseball leadership and our search begins immediately."
"My family and I appreciate Jim's dedication during our time with the Cubs and thank him for his overall 17 years of service to the Cubs organization," said Ricketts.
The Cubs went into the All-Star break 18 games under .500 and that's where they were Friday morning, 18 ? games out of the National League Central lead. Much of the attention has focused on manager Mike Quade, who got the job last October after leading the Cubs to a 24-13 record late last season on an interim basis after Lou Piniella abruptly retired.
Not much has gone right for a team whose World Series championship drought will reach 103 years this season.
Pitcher Ryan Dempster got in a shouting match with his manager, the disabled list has been crowded with Cubs and Carlos Zambrano ? who criticized his own closer early in the year ? was banished from the team for a month after walking out of the clubhouse on a night he surrendered five home runs.
The lineup, however, was largely Hendry's doing. He brought back one-time ace Kerry Wood with a one-year, $1.5 million deal to be a setup man for closer Carlos Marmol. Fat contracts for Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez have always had fans wanting more from their stars, and the only move the Cubs made at the trade deadline last month was dealing outfielder Kosuke Fukudome to Cleveland.
Hendry was behind a deal in 2003 to bring Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and Randall Simon to the Cubs, pushing them into the NCLS. They came within five outs from the World Series. The next year, he landed pitcher Greg Maddux and traded for Nomar Garciaparra to set them up for another playoffs run ? only to blow the wildcard lead in the final week of the season.
Hendry also hired veteran managers Dusty Baker and Piniella, but also handed out big contracts and at one point brought in Milton Bradley for a brief, explosive stay in Chicago.
Hendry's clubs went 749-748 during his time as general manager. He joined the Cubs in November 1994 as the club's director of player development and later served as scouting director before being promoted to assistant general manager.
Before that, Hendry spent three seasons with the Marlins and eight seasons as head coach of the Creighton Blue Jays, where he was named the 1991 National Coach of the Year after leading Creighton to a third-place finish in the College World Series.
Bush, 52, has been the assistant general manager with the Cubs for the five seasons. He played 12 seasons with the Twins and won two championships (1987 and 1991).
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