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Former Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry has been hired by the New York Yankees as a special assistant to GM Brian Cashman, according to a major league source.

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CHICAGO -- Although New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says he’s content with his job, speculation is that he could be a primary candidate for the Cubs’ vacancy when his contract expires Sept. 30.

“I’m not looking to go anywhere,” Cashman told The New York Post on Saturday.

The Cubs, of course, are looking for a new general manager after the team announced Jim Hendry's firing on Friday.

Cashman, a 44-year-old Rockville, N.Y., native, has been with the Yankees' organization since beginning as an intern in 1986. Industry sources told ESPNChicago.com that Cashman was making around $2.5 million this season.

Cashman was named senior VP and general manager of the Yankees in February 1998. New York won three consecutive World Series and four consecutive AL Pennants in Cashman’s first four years as GM.

Having successfully handled the most stressful front-office position in all of sports the past 14 seasons, Cashman’s background makes him a perfect candidate for the Cubs' job. During his time in New York, Cashman worked effectively with George Steinbrenner before the legendary owners’ health began failing him.

Since Steinbrenner turned over control of the team to his son, Hank, Cashman has been a good soldier and respected ownership’s positions. Cashman, however, also held his ground on important issues. For instance, he balked at the team’s signing reliever Rafael Soriano to a contract that allowed him the option void the deal after each season. He went against ownership on the structure of the deal, when speaking about it to reporters over the offseason.

Working along with former GM Gene Michael, Cashman gets much credit for holding on to minor league players such as Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada and countless other important Yankees over the years. (Steinbrenner was serving a suspension from baseball in the early 1990s.) Prior to that era, the Yankees frequently traded top prospects for more established veterans under Steinbrenner. That formula resulted in disaster as the once-proud franchise failed to make a the playoffs from 1982-94.

Overall, Cashman’s record shows four World Series championships and six pennants. Most importantly for the Cubs, Cashman fills the bill as a GM with a sense for player development as well as statistical analysis. As Tom Ricketts highlighted Friday, the team is searching for a candidate with a winning background. Cashman certainly fits in to that classification.

CHICAGO -- A quick look at the Chicago Cubs' 10-4 loss to the New York Yankees in the series finale at Wrigley Field Sunday night.

The good: Alfonso Soriano hit a three-run home run to give the Cubs a lead early on.

The bad: Randy Wells couldn't hold that lead, as he allowed four runs on five hits and four walks in his five innings. Starlin Castro made a costly mistake as he pulled his foot off the second-base bag too early and cost the Cubs an out in an inning that the Yankees scored two runs. The Cubs bullpen wasn't up to the challenge, as the Yankees scored six times in the last two innings.

Outside the box: The Cubs drew 41,828 fans on Sunday, bringing the total weekend attendance to 126,283, a Wrigley Field record for a three-game set.

Up next: Carlos Zambrano (5-4, 4.59) takes on Gavin Floyd (6-6, 3.94) as the Cubs head to the South Side to take on the White Sox at U.S Cellular Field at 7:10 CT.

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs set an all-time record for a three-game series at Wrigley Field this weekend, as 126,283 fans turned out to see the club take on the New York Yankees.

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Chicago Cubs second baseman Starlin Castro will bat in the the two-hole for the fourth consecutive game in Sunday night’s series finale against the New York Yankees. Castro has typically batted leadoff when facing a left-handed starter. Once again, manager Mike Quade has loaded up the lineup with right-handed bats as the Cubs face Yankees' lefty CC Sabathia. Sabathia will be the fourth former Cy Young winner the Cubs have faced in the past 10 games (Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee of the Philadphia Phillies and Zack Greinke of the Milwaukee Brewers).

Reed Johnson - CF
Starlin Castro - SS
Jeff Baker - 1B
Aramis Ramirez - 3B
Alfonso Soriano - LF
Geovany Soto - C
Lou Montanez - RF
DJ LeMahieu - 2B
Randy Wells - P

CC Sabathia leads the New York Yankees into Sunday night’s rubber match against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

In each of Sabathia’s last three road appearances, he’s lasted eight or more innings and allowed one earned run or fewer. He’s just the fifth Yankees pitcher to do so since 1970.

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With every run crucial in the Chicago Cubs' 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees on Saturday, Carlos Pena gave it his all as he dashed for home plate in the sixth inning.

Attempting to tag up on Geovany Soto's fly ball to left field, Pena crashed into Yankees catcher Russell Martin, who held onto the perfect throw from Brett Gardner to record the out.

A home-plate collision in a Giants-Marlins game earlier this season knocked out San Francisco's star catcher Buster Posey for the season, causing some to question whether such aggressive contact should still be allowed, but Pena said he knew he had to try to score that run.

“It was the right thing to do. He was blocking the plate so there was only one way to get to home plate and that was through him,” Pena said. “He took the hit like a champ and held onto the ball. It was a great play by him, so hats off.”

Though Pena and Martin exchanged words after the encounter, Pena said there was no ill will between the two.

“He’s a hard-nosed player so he appreciated it,” Pena said. “He said, ‘that was a great job, you hit me good.’ I told him, ‘I don’t know how you held on,’ ” Pena said. “At the end of the day, we’re all friends, but we’re competing and in the heat of battle it’s the right thing to do.”

Pena said he watched the replay and saw that Martin did a great job of rolling with the hit and lessening the impact of the collision.

While the crash at the plate was the hot topic, the more dubious move may have been third base coach Ivan DeJesus’ decision to send the not-so-fleet-of-foot Pena in the first place. Cubs manager Mike Quade, a former third base coach himself, didn’t hesitate to shoot down any thought of questioning the play.

“I believe there’s very little room for second-guessing with two outs; no outs and one out, have at it. With two outs, you take a shot,” Quade said. “The only unfortunate thing for Carlos and [DeJesus] was that [Gardner] was in a position to make the best throw he could make, and he did. But I think you’ve got to make them execute, so I got no problem with that at all.”

For Pena’s part, he said the second the ball went in the air, he knew he’d be tagging and heading home.

“That’s a chance I’m going to take every single day, right there. I’m gonna go,” Pena said. “They made the play. I’m on the side of aggressiveness and that’s what I did today. I thought today we got beat, instead of beating ourselves. We played hard, I like that.”

The combination of hard play and enthusiasm is something the Cubs definitely haven’t been lacking in the past week. The Cubs won a game against the Brewers on Tuesday with the help of some aggressive base-running by Tony Campana, who stretched a single into a double and eventually went on to score the game-winning run. On Friday, Reed Johnson's all-out hustle ended in an amazing diving play to keep the leadoff man off the base paths in the ninth inning, helping preserve another victory for the North Siders.

Johnson homered in the ninth on Saturday to cut the Cubs’ deficit to one, but they failed to get that elusive tying run. However, what one can take away from the loss is that the players never doubted that they were going to get that big hit, even against the great Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

“Everyone in the dugout was 100 percent sure that we were going to [tie it up or win it in the ninth],” Pena said. “I love the fact everyone was on their feet waiting for that big hit.”

There’s no doubt the Cubs are playing better baseball, but they still sit 12 games under .500. Unfortunately for the Cubs, moral victories don’t help you get back in the race.

CHICAGO -- There aren't too many days anymore when Freddy Garcia is the hardest-throwing starter in the ballgame.

And there probably are even fewer days when Garcia, who has spent most of his career in the American League and has had all of 80 at-bats spread over 12 seasons, says, "I couldn't wait to hit."

The only thing that happens less often than either of those two events, it seems, is a New York Yankees visit to Wrigley Field, which energized the old ballpark in a way it probably hasn't been all season with the Chicago Cubs struggling 12 games below .500.

Well, all three of them took place Friday afternoon. The Yankees came to the park where Babe Ruth either did or didn't call his shot for the first time since 2003. Garcia's 89 mph heater positively blew away his Cubs counterpart, Doug Davis, who lives about 5 mph slower.

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CHICAGO -- Wrigley Field was lousier than usual with schmaltzy baseball reverie Friday as baseball's winningest franchise crossed path with baseball's Cubbiest.

Twitpics were popping on the field pregame as baseball luminaries made the rounds for "Andrew Cashner Bobblehead Day," which happened to coincide with a rare Yankees visit to Wrigley Field.

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Pitching and defense win games, it's an old and boring adage, however the Cubs proved it to be true one more time on Friday.

Doug Davis, Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol held the explosive New York Yankees offense to just one run in a 3-1 Cubs win.

Once again, it was Cubs outfielder Reed Johnson stealing the show with a sliding catch going toward the left field line, taking at least a double away from Robinson Cano to lead off the ninth. Johnson was a ninth-inning defensive replacement for Alfonso Soriano.

"It always feels good to contribute to a win," Johnson said. "I take pride in my defense and have worked hard at it over the years. Getting the lead-off hitter of the inning is always a key out for the pitcher. Especially when you have Marmol on the mound and a two-run lead. At that point you feel you have a pretty good chance."

Marmol matched up against Alex Rodriguez with two outs in the ninth and Rodriguez representing the tying run. The closer struck Rodriguez out swinging.

"I felt really good getting him out," Marmol said. "My job is to help the team win. I don't really care who is up there, I've got to strike them out. I felt really good about it."

The Cubs may have played their best all-around game of the season on Friday, limiting a Yankees offense that had a league-high 103 home runs on the season, to just one run.

Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez drove in two of the three runs.

"We played a great game," Ramirez said. "Offensively, we didn't hit the way we'd like to, but you have to win those close games, too."

The buzz in the ballpark was apparent to everyone. It reminded some of the Cubs veterans of 2008, when the team advanced to the playoffs.

"That was a different atmosphere," Ramirez said. "It's the Yankees, one of the best teams in baseball. A lot of tradition, and it's going to be a great series."

The Cubs have won four of five games for the first time in 2011.

Tim Kurkjian joins SportsCenter to talk about Babe Ruth and the history of the Yankees Cubs series.

Let's take a quick look at the Chicago Cubs' 3-1 victory over the New York Yankees:

The good: Doug Davis pitched his best game of the season, allowing one earned run in 7 1/3 innings to pick up his first victory. The bullpen took it the rest of the way with Carlos Marmol recording a four-out save. He got some help from his defense with Reed Johnson making a nice sliding catch in left field in the ninth inning. Starlin Castro stayed hot with two hits, two runs scored and an RBI. Aramis Ramirez drove in two runs with a pair of run-scoring singles.

The bad: Carlos Pena struggled at the plate, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout and two pop outs.

Outside the box: Castro doubled in his first two at bats, giving him seven consecutive plate appearances in which he reached base.

Next: Ryan Dempster (5-5, 5.48) takes on the Yankees' A.J. Burnett (6-5, 4.09) who has never lost at Wrigley Field, as the Cubs try once again for their first three-game winning streak of the season.

CHICAGO -- Stealing signs is as common in baseball as the singing of the seventh inning stretch, according to some.

Texas Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba recently accused New York Yankees outfield Andruw Jones of stealing signs from second base. While Torrealba seemed to indicate it wasn’t that big of deal, it was enough of a situation that he confronted Jones during the game.

With the Yankees starting a three-game set with the Chicago Cubs on Friday, catcher Geovany Soto gave his thoughts on a player potentially stealing signs on his watch.

“Everybody’s trying to get that edge," Soto said. "If I feel somebody’s taking my sign, I have to do a better job, a better sequence,” Soto said. “That’s why you cover your sign, so nobody sees them. If somebody caught you, you can get [ticked] off ... but my point of view is, change [the signs] or just go talk to the pitcher and change your approach.”

Rangers manager Ron Washington said he believes it’s common practice to steal signs in baseball, pointing to Alex Rodriguez as a repeat offender. Soto and Marlon Byrd, a former teammate of Jones', said they weren’t aware of any specific player or team being known for stealing signs.

Soto felt strongly that if someone was stealing signs while he’s catching, he would put the blame on himself unless it was a really egregious case.

“If I see something really in my face, then [I’d say], hey man, let’s be professionals about it,” Soto said. “But I’d have to be in the situation”

Soto also acknowledged that it’s quite possible that others may not agree.

“[Carlos Zambrano] may have a totally different point of view on that stuff,” Soto said. “But I think you cover your signs to make sure the other team doesn’t see them. Obviously you know that somebody might see them, that’s why you cover them.”

The Cubs, who are 28-40 and 10 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, are attempting to win four out of five games for the first time all season. With the Yankees playing well of late (6-1 in their last seven games), the Cubs are probably more concerned with stealing a few wins than anything else.

CHICAGO -- Former Chicago Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild will always call Chicago, and in some ways Wrigley Field, his home. But most people will remember his time in Chicago as the pitching coach for Mark Prior, Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano.

Rothschild was Zambrano's first pitching coach when Zambrano began his big-league career in 2002. And Rothschild was there when Zambrano came back last August from his anger management sessions and put up an 8-0 record in 11 starts to end the season.

"I thought he just started pitching more and just used all of his weapons he had at his disposal," said Rothschild, who returned to Wrigley Field on Friday as pitching coach of the New York Yankees. "He got away from overthrowing his pitches, and he had a great knack of pitching to his stuff on a given day."

The Yankees, who have had scouts looking at Zambrano over the past month, are missing pitchers Bartolo Colon, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Rafael Soriano. New York ownership knows the team will have to add pitching if they are going to stay in the AL East race with the Boston Red Sox.

Rotchschild said Zambrano has evolved as a pitcher.

"The difference in Carlos now is that if he has power in a given day he will use it," Rothschild said. "If he doesn't, he has found a different way to get hitters out. Now he is a pitcher who has tremendous movement and can get people out with his second, third and fourth pitches."

I asked Rothschild if he saw a different Zambrano when he came back from his therapy sessions in August.

"A lot came to him at a young age. That's not easy for anybody, no matter who you are or what kind of person you are," Rothschild said. "To me he has always been a good person to work with from a coach's point of view. So you saw the stuff and the comments he made but from my point of view he always did his work, he always listened to me, and he always really tried to get better. As a coach, that's what you look for. We had a relationship for nine years, and we worked together for a long time."

If you read between the lines of Rothschild quotes, you can see that he still has an affinity for Zambrano and would most likely welcome him to the Yankees if a move was made. Rothschild is not allowed to talk about his or the team's interest in another player. That's tampering, and it carries a heavy fine. But if Yankees general manager Brian Cashman asks Rothschild if he can work with Zambrano again, the answer would most likely be yes.

Although the Yankees are in need of starting pitching, they might be more apt to go after a left-handed starter due to all the outstanding left-handed hitting in their division, particularly on the Boston Red Sox. But Zambrano would be a nice addition to the Yankees.

Yankees manager and former Cub Joe Girardi caught Zambrano early in his career.

"He was a very young kid with electric stuff," Girardi said. "He was learning how to pitch, but I always had a good relationship with Z."

Maybe Girardi and Rothschild will be able to re-kindle the relationship with Zambrano before the trade deadline on July 31.