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Lou Piniella

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Template:Mlbretired Louis Victor Piniella (born August 28, 1943, in Tampa, Florida) is the current manager of the Chicago Cubs and a former Major League Baseball outfielder. He has been nicknamed "Sweet Lou," both for his swing as a hitter for the New York Yankees (for whom he batted .295), and, facetiously, to describe his demeanor as a manager.

Early life

Piniella grew up in West Tampa, Florida. His grandparents immigrated to Florida from Spain.[1] As a child, he played PONY League Baseball alongside Tony La Russa. He attended Jesuit High School of Tampa where he was an All-American in basketball. After graduation, he attended the University of Tampa where he was an All-American in baseball.

Playing career

He began his professional playing career with the Cincinnati Reds, who signed him as an amateur free agent in 1962. Piniella, at the age of 21, played in his first major league game in 1964 with the Reds. At 24, his second major league season was with the Indians. He joined the Seattle Pilots during their 1969 preseason, but was quickly traded. He was prominently mentioned in Jim Bouton's classic book about the Seattle Pilots, Ball Four.

Piniella played for the Kansas City Royals from 1969-73, and was the American League's AL Rookie of the Year in 1969. Although this was during the height of the Vietnam War, he had no military service. He was the first player to come to bat in Royals history. On April 8 of their first season, he led off the bottom of the 1st against left-hander Tom Hall of the Minnesota Twins. He doubled to left field, then scored on an RBI single by Jerry Adair.

That was followed by 11 years as a member of the New York Yankees, where they won five AL East titles (1976-78, 1980 and 1981), four AL pennants (1976-78 and 1981), and two World Series championships (1977-78). After centerfielder Mickey Rivers was traded, during the 1979 season, Piniella became the Yankees leadoff hitter. One of the more underrated players of the 1970s (he made just one all star team), he compiled 1705 lifetime hits despite not playing full time for just under half of his career.

He wore uniform number 24 for the Orioles, and 23 for the Indians. His longer stretches were wearing number 9 for the Royals, and 14 for the Yankees.

Managerial career

New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds

After retiring as a player, Piniella managed the Yankees from 1986 to 1987 and for most of 1988 before briefly serving as the club's general manager for the rest of the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Piniella managed the Cincinnati Reds between 1990 and 1992, a tenure that included winning the 1990 World Series against the heavily-favored Oakland Athletics.

Seattle Mariners

From 1993-2002, he managed the Seattle Mariners, winning the AL Manager of the Year Award in 1995, and again in 2001 when he led the Mariners to a record-tying 116 wins (the 1906 Chicago Cubs accomplished the feat in a 154-game schedule). After winning the 2001 AL Division Series, the Mariners dropped the first two games of the AL Championship Series, and Piniella held an angry post-game press conference in which he guaranteed the Mariners would win two out of three games in New York to return the ALCS to Seattle. However, the Yankees closed out the series at Yankee Stadium, and the Mariners did not reach the World Series. Following the 2002 season, he signed on to become manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

In the Mariners' 30-season history, they have had nine winning seasons and reached the playoffs four times. Seven of the winning seasons and all of the playoff appearances occurred during Piniella's ten years with the Mariners.

Piniella is the only manager in Mariners history to have a winning record in his tenure with the team.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays

File:Lou1.JPG
Lou Piniella, as manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, August 28, 2005.

In his first two seasons with the Devil Rays, Piniella was able to improve the team somewhat, and they won a franchise-record 70 games in 2004, which was also their first season in which they did not finish last in their division, which he also guaranteed (he also jokingly said, after saying it several times, "If I say it any more times I might have us winning the World Series!".) During the 2005 season, Piniella was very critical of Devil Rays management for focusing too much on the future and not enough on immediate results, and for not increasing payroll quickly enough to field a competitive team (they started the season with a $30 million payroll, which was the lowest in the major leagues).

Tensions eventually made Piniella step down as the Devil Rays' manager on September 21, 2005. He had one season remaining on his contract that he signed in October 2002, but agreed to a $2.2 million buyout of his contract, instead of the original $4.4 million that he was due, had he decided to manage the team for one more season. He would also receive $1.25 million in deferred salary from 2003.

Chicago Cubs

On October 16, 2006, Piniella agreed to a three-year contract to manage the Chicago Cubs. The contract is for $10 million over three seasons with a $5 million option for a fourth year [2]

It has been nearly 100 years since the Cubs last won the World Series. While many believe Piniella's hiring to be a catalyst toward that next elusive World Series ring, other more skeptical fans are already throwing in the towel on the new Cubs coach.

Famous for his anger and meltdowns, he showed it during a press conference after a Cubs-Reds game on April 13, 2007 when Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano blew a five run lead in the 5th inning in which the Reds scored 6 runs, winning the game 6-5. A reporter asked him what was not working for the Cubs. He responded in a loud, angry voice, "What the hell do you think isn't working? You see the damn game! … This guy is your ace, you got a 5-0 lead with the eighth and ninth hitters coming up, you feel pretty good about that inning and all of a sudden it turns into a six-run inning,” Piniella said, obviously still agitated but calmer. “And then I bring in the reliever who’s throwing 30-to-40-foot curveballs to boot. I can see. I can start to see some of the ways this team has lost ballgames. I can see it. We’ve got to correct it obviously. This game here is one that got away from us that really shouldn’t.” In a similar meltdown after the May 17, 2007, game against the Mets, Lou stated, "I don't care about feelings".

On June 2, 2007, Pinella got ejected as a Cub for the first time, after throwing down his hat, kicking dirt at the umpire, and kicking his hat 3 times. He was arguing a call that Angel Pagan was out at third on a wild pitch. In the post-game press conference, he said Pagan looked safe from the dugout, but acknowledged that, after seeing the replay, the umpire made the right call. However, he was reportedly suspended indefinitely for making contact with the umpire.

Known for his often aggressive and sometimes explosive behavior, Piniella is one of the most-ejected managers in major league history with 60 career ejections, only one behind long-time friend and Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.[1] He had a reputation for being less than patient with pitchers, often sending his pitching coach to remove them from the game. He even got into a clubhouse scuffle with pitcher Rob Dibble while with the Reds which was caught on video, ending with the two being pulled apart and Lou screaming, "You don't want to be treated like a man!"

Managerial record: 1519 wins - 1420 losses (.519 winning percentage)

Managerial record

Team Year Regular Season Post Season
Won Lost Win % Finish Won Lost Win % Result
NYY 1986 90 72 .556 2nd in AL East - - - -
NYY 1987 89 73 .549 3rd in AL East - - - -
NYY 1988 45 48 .484 5th in AL East - - - -
CIN 1990 91 71 .562 1st in NL West 8 2 .800 Won World Series
CIN 1991 74 88 .457 5th in NL West - - - -
CIN 1992 90 72 .556 2nd in NL West - - - -
SEA 1993 82 80 .506 4th in AL West - - - -
SEA 1994 49 63 .438 3rd in AL West - - - -
SEA 1995 79 66 .545 1st in AL West 5 6 .455 Lost ALCS
SEA 1996 85 76 .528 2nd in AL West - - - -
SEA 1997 90 72 .556 1st in AL West 1 3 .250 Lost ALDS
SEA 1998 76 85 .472 3rd in AL West - - - -
SEA 1999 79 83 .488 3rd in AL West - - - -
SEA 2000 91 71 .562 2nd in AL West 5 4 .556 Lost ALCS
SEA 2001 116 46 .716 1st in AL West 4 6 .400 Lost ALCS
SEA 2002 93 69 .574 3rd in AL West - - - -
TB 2003 63 99 .389 5th in AL East - - - -
TB 2004 70 91 .435 4th in AL East - - - -
TB 2005 67 95 .414 5th in AL East - - - -
CHC 2007 22 31 .415 Season in progress - - - -
NYY Total 224 193 .537 - - - - -
CIN Total 255 231 .525 - 8 2 .800 -
SEA Total 840 711 .542 - 15 19 .441 -
TB Total 200 285 .412 - - - - -
CHC Total 22 31 .415 - - - - -
Career Total 1,540 1,446 .516 - 23 21 .523 -

Awards

  • 1969 - AL Rookie of the Year
  • 1972 - All-Star
  • 1995 - AL Manager of the Year
  • 2001 - AL Manager of the Year

Broadcasting career

After parting ways with the Devil Rays, Piniella spent one season as a color commentator for Fox Sports, joining Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons in calling postseason baseball games.

During their broadcast of Game 3 of the 2006 American League Championship Series, Piniella was commenting on player Marco Scutaro who had struggled during the regular season but was playing well during the series. He stated that to expect Scutaro to continue playing well would be similar to finding a wallet on Friday and expecting to find another wallet on Saturday and Sunday. Piniella then commented that player Frank Thomas needed to get "en fuego" which is Spanish for "on fire", because he was "frio" meaning "cold". Lyons responded by saying that Piniella was "hablaing [sic] Español" and added,"I still can't find my wallet. I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit close to him now."[3]

FOX fired Lyons for making the above remarks, which FOX determined to be racially insensitive.[4] Piniella later defended Lyons saying Lyons was "kidding" and that "There isn't a racist bone in his [Lyons'] body.[5].

References

  1. ^ a b The Official Site of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 2005 Roster: Lou Piniella Cite error: The named reference "MLB" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cubs come to terms with Piniella,MLB.com.
  3. ^ Lyons fired by Fox,The Boston Globe
  4. ^ Fox fires baseball announcer Steve Lyons after racially insensitive comment,USA Today
  5. ^ Fired Baseball Announcer Lyons Finds Support, IMDb
Preceded by American League Rookie of the Year
1969 		Succeeded by
Preceded by American League Manager of the Year
1995 		Succeeded by
Preceded by American League Manager of the Year
2001 		Succeeded by
Preceded by New York Yankees Manager
1986–1987 		Succeeded by
Preceded by New York Yankees Manager
1988 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Cincinnati Reds Manager
1990–1992 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Seattle Mariners Manager
1993–2002 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Tampa Bay Devil Rays Manager
2003–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chicago Cubs Manager
2007– 		Succeeded by
Incumbent

Template:MLBManager

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