Background and career
Louis Victor Piniella ( usually ; born August 28, 1943) is an American former professional baseball player and manager. As an outfielder, he played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees. During his playing career, he was named AL Rookie of the Year in 1969 and captured two World Series championships with the Yankees (1977, 1978). Following his playing career, Piniella became a manager for the Yankees (1986–1988), Cincinnati Reds (1990–1992), Seattle Mariners (1993–2002), Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2003–2005), and Chicago Cubs (2007–2010). He won the 1990 World Series championship with the Reds and led the Mariners to four postseason appearances in seven years (including a record 116-win regular season in 2001). As the Mariners' manager, Piniella presided over the franchise's most successful period. He also captured back-to-back division titles (2007–2008) during his time with the Cubs. Piniella was named Manager of the Year three times during his career (1995, 2001, 2008) and finished his managerial career ranked 14th all time on the list of managerial wins. He was nicknamed "Sweet Lou", for his swing as a major league hitter, though the nickname was also used ironically in reference to his fiery demeanor as a player and manager.
Piniella was born in Tampa, Florida. Though he is often mistaken for being Italian American, Piniella's parents were of Asturian descent, from northwest Spain. He grew up in West Tampa, and played American Legion baseball and PONY League baseball alongside fellow future major league manager Tony La Russa. Piniella attended Jesuit High School in Tampa, where he played several sports and was an All-American in basketball. After graduation in 1961, he attended the University of Tampa for a year, where he was a College Division (today's Division II) All-American in baseball for the Spartans.
Following his freshman year in college, Piniella was signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent on June 9, 1962. That fall, he was drafted by the Washington Senators from the Indians in the 1962 first-year draft. On August 4, 1964, Piniella was sent to the Baltimore Orioles to complete an earlier trade for Buster Narum. He made his major league debut that year on September 4 at age 21, appearing as a pinch hitter and grounding out in his first at bat. He returned to the Indians organization when the Orioles traded him and $25,000 for Cam Carreon on March 10, 1966. He spent three seasons with the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) from 1966 to 1968., then returned to the majors with Cleveland near the end of the 1968 season, appearing in six games and going hitless in five at-bats with one RBI. In the middle part of the decade, Piniella played winter baseball in Nicaragua. Piniella was selected by the Seattle Pilots in the 1968 expansion draft in October, but was traded after spring training on April 1, 1969 to the expansion Kansas City Royals for John Gelnar and Steve Whitaker.
Piniella played with the Royals for their first five seasons (1969–1973) and was the American League's Rookie of the Year in 1969 and was named to the 1972 All-Star Game. He was the first batter in Royals history; on April 8 of their first season in 1969, he led off the bottom of the first inning against left-hander Tom Hall of the Minnesota Twins. Piniella doubled to left field, then scored on an RBI single by Jerry Adair. On April 16, 1970, Piniella went 3–5 with a home run while accomplishing the rare feat of being thrown out at all four bases in the same game. After the 1973 season, Piniella was traded with Ken Wright to the New York Yankees for Lindy McDaniel. Baseball author Bill James described the trade as the only significant mistake the Royals made during the 1970s. He played with the Yankees for eleven seasons, during which they won five AL East titles (1976–78, 1980, 1981), four AL pennants (1976–78, 1981), and consecutive World Series (1977–78). In 1975, he missed part of the year with an inner ear infection. From mid-1977 through the end of 1980, he split his playing time between left field, right field, and designated hitter. In his career, Piniella made one All-Star team and compiled 1,705 lifetime hits despite not playing full-time for nearly half of his career. He received two votes for the Hall of Fame as a player in 1990.
While he was still an active player, Piniella served on the Yankees coaching staff as the hitting coach. On October 28, 1985, he accepted an offer to become the Yankees' manager. His initial managerial contract for 1986 was for $200,000. Piniella managed the Yankees from 1986 to 1987; promoted to general manager to start the 1988 season, he took over as manager after the firing of Billy Martin (in his fifth and final run as Yankee manager) on June 23. Combining both stints as Yankees manager, he posted 224 wins and 193 losses.
The Cincinnati Reds let go of Tommy Helms after he managed the last 37 games of the 1989 season (marred by the permanent ban of player-manager Pete Rose). October 13 saw the hiring of former Yankee front officeman Bob Quinn as general manager. Piniella was hired by the Reds on November 3, 1989 on a three-year deal for $350,000 after getting approval from Steinbrenner to be released from the personal services contract that paid Piniella $400,000 each for two years. Piniella managed the club from 1990 through 1992 with a 3-year contract worth $1.05 million. In his first year, the Reds won the World Series in a four-game sweep of the favored defending champion Oakland Athletics. The sweep over the Athletics, who had won 12 more games than the 91-win Reds during the regular season, was widely regarded as an upset, and it was the first Reds title since 1976. However, Piniella's tenure with the Reds became challenging in subsequent seasons. Wracked with injuries and a less effective bullpen that saw the team lose ten games in a row in July, the Reds finished with the worst winning percentage for a defending World Series champion, a dubious mark later surpassed by the 1998 Florida Marlins and 2014 Boston Red Sox. During an August 1991 game Piniella had a heated confrontation with umpire Gary Darling, who had overturned a call that cost the Reds a home run, and after the game Piniella accused Darling of being biased against the Reds. Two months later, Darling and the Major League Umpires Association sued for defamation to the tune of $5 million against Piniella. When he asked owner Marge Schott for help, she did not budge on helping with paying for a lawyer, which Piniella had to do out of his own pocket. While he stated that he realized his own error in making the statement against Darling, the fact that he received no backing from the Reds played a key part in him not wanting to manage there. The lawsuit ended in compromise, with Piniella issuing a statement. Following his third season with the Reds, Piniella announced in October that he had rejected a contract extension. He finished with a record of 255 wins and 231 losses. He was replaced by Tony Pérez, who was fired 44 games into the 1993 season for Davey Johnson. Since Piniella's departure, the Reds have won only one postseason series. The 1990 World Series win was the only World Series win for Piniella as a manager in his career.
