Lou Piniella- the Player

To understand Lou Piniella the manager, one must look at how he played the game of baseball. Piniella, recently named manager of the Chicago Cubs, was a hard-nosed outfielder who began his playing days with the expansion Royals and then went to the New York Yankees. He was skippered by such old school types as Billy Martin, Alvin Dark, and Hank Bauer, and Lou Piniella knows how to play baseball only one way, and that is to win. Lou Piniella was a line drive hitter with occasional power who seemed to come up big at the plate when everything was on the line, but oddly enough it was a defensive play that his fans may remember him for best.

Born in Tampa, Florida in 1943, Lou Piniella attended Jesuit High School and then Tampa University, where he played baseball. Lou was chosen by the Indians in the free agent amateur draft of 1962, but was then selected by the Senators in the expansion draft later that year. The Senators had Piniella still in their farm system when they dealt him to the Orioles in 1964, in one of those "player to be named later" trades. Piniella played in only four games for the Orioles in '64 and went back down into the minors, from where he was traded in 1966, back to the Indians. The merry-go-round continued as Piniella, who appeared in just a couple contests with the Tribe in 1968, was selected as the 28th pick of the 1969 expansion draft by the Seattle Pilots. Piniella, who in a strange twist would "pilot" the Seattle Mariners as their manager many years later, never played an inning for the fledgling team, as they traded him to the Royals before opening day of 1969.

In the minors, Piniella had gained a reputation as the kind of guy who took it hard when he played poorly. A story of him making the last out at first in a close game and continuing down the right field line, over the fence, and back to his apartment still in his uniform was told. The Royals actually wanted Lou Piniella so they could put him on the field and play baseball. He was 25 years old by time he became their starting left fielder and Piniella made the most of his chance. He hit .282 with 68 runs batted in and was voted American League Rookie of the Year, over Mike Nagy of Boston. Kansas City struggled in Piniella's early years with the club, and he was one of their few bright spots. Lou hit .301 in 1970 with 88 RBI, and .312 in 1972, sending 72 men over home plate. Piniella once managed to be "thrown out for the cycle" in a game, making an out at all four bases. The Royals, however, were starting to turn the corner, adding talented players and pitching.

Looking back at things now, the Royals committed a major mistake in 1973 when they traded Lou Piniella to the Yankees for aging reliever Lindy McDaniel. Had they held on to his clutch bat, Kansas City may have come out on top in the three American League Championship Series that they lost to New York in the mid-Seventies. But the deal was made, the last time Lou Piniella would be traded. Lou would spend the rest of his days as a player with the Yanks. His first season in pinstripes saw Piniella hit .305, as he played in 140 contests under manager Bill Virdon. Billy Martin took over in midstream in 1975, and Piniella found himself being platooned in the outfield after that for most of the rest of his career. But Yankee fans soon recognized that he was a determined batter, eager to be up in the clutch. When he got into an epic brawl with the Red Sox, started after his home plate collision with catcher Carlton Fisk, they accepted him as one of their favorites.

In the 1977 playoffs, Lou Piniella went 13 for 43 with 5 runs batted in as the Yankees won it all. He had had his best season average-wise with a .330 standard. The next season New York was mired in the doldrums, trailing the Yankees by fourteen games in July when Martin was fired and replaced by Bob Lemon, who had managed Piniella in Kansas City. Lou got into 130 games that year and came up big, batting .314 with 69 runs batted in. He helped to spark what became known as the "Boston Massacre" in early September, a four game sweep of Boston that pulled the Yankees even with the Sox. When the two were tied at season's end, they played perhaps the most tension-packed game ever contested, for the AL East crown.

In Boston's Fenway Park, the Yankees were clinging to a 5-4 lead in the ninth. With shortstop Rick Burleson on first base in the bottom of the ninth, and one out, Boston's Jerry Remy sliced a drive out to right field, where Piniella was playing. The early autumn sun made right a terrible place to try to pick up the ball as it came down, and Lou held his hand up to shield his eyes. It appeared he did not see the ball, but at the last instant, as it landed closely in front of him, he speared it before it could get by him and fired it back towards the infield. Burleson could advance only as far as second. The next batter, Jim Rice, flew out to the warning track in right, where Piniella caught the ball, and Burleson tagged and went to third. He was left stranded there when Goose Gossage coaxed a foul pop-up out of Carl Yastrzemski to end the game. The Yankees then defeated the Royals in four games to go to the World Series.

Piniella won Game Four of the Fall Classic to help New York even the Series at two games apiece with the Dodgers. In the bottom of the tenth, he came to the plate with Roy White on second and two outs, facing hard-throwing Bob Welch. Lou came through with a single to center to plate the run, setting off a joyous celebration in Yankee Stadium. New York won the next two tilts in easy fashion to give them back-to-back titles. Piniella lost one of his best friends the following year when catcher Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash, but still managed a decent year at the plate, batting .297 in 130 games. His playing time dwindled drastically over the next five seasons, but he still hit when it counted, as evidenced by his .438 average in a 1981 World Series loss to Los Angeles. Piniella retired after the 1984 campaign with a .291 lifetime mark and 766 runs batted in over his sixteen full seasons in the majors.

He managed the Yankees for three years until George Steinbrenner's antic became too much. Piniella then won a championship with the Reds, but left after goofy owner Marge Schott drove him out. With the Mariners for ten years, Lou had an 840-711 won-lost record and took three AL West crowns, but could not guide them to the Series. A stint in Tampa Bay to be close to home did nothing to help his career 1,519-1,420 managerial standard, and now Piniella, who in the past has shown his temper in a variety of creative ways on and off the field, takes over the Cubs. If Lou Piniella, with his fiery will to win and baseball acumen, cannot reverse the "Curse of the Goat" in the Windy City, then no one can!