Lou Piniella

Lou Piniella has stepped down as the Chicago Cubs manager effective August 22, 2010. He had already announced that this was going to be his last year but he decided to leave earlier due to the illness of his mother.

Chicago Cubs Manager
Lou Piniella

The Cubs under Lou "Sweet Lou" Piniella have been successful in spite of the problems of 2009 and 2010. Some will blame him but frankly he can manage but he doesn't play. It's up to the players to execute and the Cubs during the first half of the year just didn't score runs.

The Cubs won their division in both 2007 and 2008, the first two years under Piniella. Each time they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs not winning a playoff game in either year. It was however the first time the Cubs had finished first in consecutive years since 1906-1908.

2009 was the worst showing of the club finishing 2nd and out of the playoffs. Injuries plagued the club all year and off season trades changed the team dramatically from 2008.

All in all the bottom line is Lou Piniella was brought to Chicago to win the World Series and end the long drought that the Cubs and their loyal fans have had. Curse or no curse the Lou Piniella legacy with the Cubs franchise will be determined by his ability to bring a World Series to the franchise. That is true for him or any other manager that wants to put on the managerial uniform of this team. It is his fire, his persona, temper, competitiveness and ability to deal with today's ballplayers that Jim Hendry was after. Lou Piniella didn't believe in a curse and was not going to accept any of that hogwash.

Looking back over the Lou Piniella's baseball career makes you think. Will Lou Piniella be remembered more for his baseball playing days or his days as a manager?

Lou originally came up with the Baltimore Orioles in 1964 and but didn’t stick around until 1968 with the Indians. He then went to Kansas City to play for the Royals 1969-1973. That is where he first made a big splash by winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1969. After the Royals Lou went to the New York Yankees in 1974 and finished out his playing career there through the 1984 season.

New York loved "Sweet Lou" having played there for 11 seasons. Lou played in New York during the beginning of the George Steinbrenner era. The Yankees were floundering before that but Steinbrenner brought them back and Piniella was part of that. He wasn't the marquee player like Reggie Jackson or manager Billy Martin but he did build a name for himself in one of the biggest markets there is.

But that was over 25 years ago. Lou Piniella has made, in my opinion, a bigger name for himself as a manager. Yes, he was a good player. He had a life time batting average .291 over 18 years and 1,747 games. He wasn't a power hitter with only 102 home runs but he had 1,705 hits which works out to about a hit per game.

As a manager of the 1990 Cincinnati Reds he won the World Series over the favored Oakland A's. He then went on to manager the Seattle Mariners from 1993 to 2002. He earned the American League Manager of the Year award in 1995 and 2001. He won the division in 2000 and 2001 but did not make it to the World Series. His 2001 Mariners tied a major league record with 116 wins.

Piniella would probably like to forget his time as manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After the 2002 season he was “traded” to Tampa where he managed them from 2003-2005. It was a time the Rays were not adequately funded and could only muster a $30 million payroll which just wasn't going to cut it. Really no need to get into too much detail here.

Piniella had success in Cincinnati and Seattle in winning the division. He did win the World Series in 1990 with the Reds. But since then he has not been able to get to the big show. With Seattle and now with the Cubs, division titles yes, World Series no. His winning percentage in post season play is .460 (23-27). That is just not going to cut it if the Cubs are going to make it to the coveted World Series.

Now, here comes the debate. Just how much does a manager make a difference? I'm going to leave that hang there and let everyone who reads this think about it.

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