CHICAGO (WSCR) For most Cubs fans, Mike Quade was a relatively unknown minor league manager prior to last season. But while he wasn’t well known to most of the public, those within baseball knew his reputation.

“I really have the greatest respect for Mike Quade,” former Cubs and Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said on the Mully and Hanley Show. “I didn’t really know Mike really well in my minor league days. He was in the minor leagues, I was in the minor leagues, we didn’t really cross paths, but I had heard a lot about him, heard how good he was. Kind of like the same way I did about a guy like Buck Showalter, who was in the minor leagues when I was managing in the minor leagues.”

Quade, like so many other minor league managers, spent season after season riding the bus and developing young talent. Just like the players he was working with, Quade was grinding it out, hoping for his shot at the big leagues.

LISTEN: Jim Riggleman On The Mully And Hanley Show

Quade got that shot last season when he took over on an interim basis after Lou Piniella stepped down. General manager Jim Hendry removed the interim tag prior to this season, but things haven’t gone the way Quade would have liked in his first full year.

“When times are tough in major markets, you know, you’re not winning, and people put that on the manager,” Riggleman said. “I’ve watched Mike manage games. Strategically, I think he’s outstanding. I know that he never throws the team under the bus. He puts it on game decisions. It’s a ‘We’ situation. It’s not a ‘They lost this game.’ It’s a’: ‘We lost this game’ or ‘I lost this game.’ … I admire that, and I think that comes from his upbringing in developing minor league players over the years.”