Lou Piniella

1943-

American baseball player

After nearly four decades as a winning baseball player and manager, Lou Piniella finally went home in late October 2002, accepting a job as manager of his hometown Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Born and raised in Tampa, Piniella had his work cut out for him, trying to put the Devil Rays on a winning track. Since first taking to the ball field in the spring of 1998, the Devil Rays had compiled one of the most dismal records in the history of major league baseball. Tampa Bay area fans and team executives were hopeful that Piniella could do for the Devil Rays what he did for the Seattle Mariners-turn them into winners. As for Piniella himself, it was clear that he was glad to be back home again. "I would enjoy winning here more than anyplace else," Piniella told the St. Petersburg Times. "This is my hometown. This is where I'm going to live the rest of my life. This is where I'm going to die. This is where I'd like to get it done. I know we have a challenge ahead. I'm not naive enough to think this will be an overnight sensation. But at the same time, it's something that can be done. And it's something that when it's done, I'll take tremendous pride in. And I didn't say if, I said when."

Born in Tampa, Florida

He was born Louis Victor Piniella in Tampa, Florida, on August 28, 1943. The grandson of Spanish immigrants, he spoke Spanish until he began school, but even before school he had begun to play ball. His mother, Margaret, told Bruce Lowitt of the St. Petersburg Times that Piniella's first bat was a trimmed-down broom handle, swung at a tape-wrapped cork. "Lou was just 3 years old, but you should have seen the way he hit that ball." When he was five years old, his family moved to a new home, conveniently located across the street from a playground, which quickly became Piniella's home away from home. "There were times I had to drag him off the field," his mother told the St. Petersburg Times. "He would come home from school, do his homework, and then go to the playground and play baseball. He always wanted to be a baseball player." The Tampa neighborhood Piniella grew up in also produced other baseball greats, including Ken Suarez, Tino Martinez, and Tony La Russa.

Baseball remained Piniella's passion throughout his boyhood. He played the game while a student at St. Joseph's Catholic School and later at Jesuit High School. He also played on Colt League and American Legion teams. After high school, Piniella attended the University of Tampa for a year, playing baseball and basketball while there. In 1962, at the age of 18, Piniella was signed as an outfielder by the Cleveland Indians. For the next two years he played for minor league teams in Cleveland's farm system. In 1964 Piniella was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for pitcher Buster Narum. He first played for an Orioles' minor league team in Aberdeen, South Dakota, making his major league debut on September 4, 1964. He played only four games for the Orioles before being sent back to the minor leagues, playing for an Orioles' farm team in Elmira, New York. In 1966 Piniella was traded back to the Indians and assigned to the team's top farm team, the Portland Beavers, for whom he played until 1968. After six games for the Indians, Piniella was selected in the expansion draft of 1968 by the Seattle Pilots, which traded him to the Kansas City Royals in the spring of 1969.

Wins AL Rookie of the Year Award

In 1969, his first season with the Royals, Piniella batted .282 and won the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year Award. He spent five seasons with the Royals, compiling a batting average of .285 in his years with the team. Piniella in 1974 was traded to the New York Yankees, a once-dominant team that had not won a pennant in nine years. The presence of Piniella and other players acquired by trade helped to energize the Yankees. During his first year in the Bronx, he batted .305 with 70 runs batted in. During his 11 seasons with the team, Piniella batted over .300 in five seasons. With the help of Piniella and others, the team finally snagged a pennant again. Things got even better in 1977 and 1978, when the Yankees not only won the AL pennant but back-to-back world championships. With batting averages of .330 in 1977 and.314 in 1978, Piniella earned the nickname Sweet Lou.

Piniella continued to play with the Yankees through the 1984 season, retiring with a lifetime average of .291 and a total of 1,705 base hits. During Piniella's 11 seasons with the Bronx Bombers, the Yankees four times won the AL pennant and twice were victors in the World Series. After leaving the Yankees, Piniella returned briefly to Tampa but was back in New York the following year to sign on as manager of the Yankees. He piloted the team through the seasons of 1986 and 1987 but was replaced by Billy Martin after the 1987 season ended. Piniella was moved to general manager but in June 1988 replaced Martin as manager, only to be fired at season's end.

Chronology

Awards and Accomplishments

Hired to Manage the Reds

Marge Schott of the Cincinnati Reds hired Piniella as manager in 1989, setting the stage for one of the high points of the Tampa native's managerial career. He guided the Reds to a world championship in 1990, his first season as manager. Shortly after the end of the 1992 season, Piniella was hired to manage the Seattle Mariners and three years later led the team to its first division title ever, coming out on top of the AL West. For this accomplishment Piniella was honored with the AL Manager of the Year Award, which he again received in 2001. In Seattle Piniella was reunited with fellow Tampan, Tino Martinez, who grew up in a home across the street from Piniella.

Piniella returned to Tampa Bay confident that in time he could groom the hapless Devil Rays into a championship team. Though many had their doubts, Paul Straub, Piniella's basketball coach at Jesuit High School, voiced optimism that Sweet Lou was the right man for the job. He told the Tampa Tribune: "Having a local man like Lou will give hope he can bring them back. They need that right now."

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: c/o Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Tropicana Field, 1 Tropicana Dr., St. Petersburg, FL 33705. Phone: (727) 825-3137.

Career Statistics

SELECTED WRITINGS BY PINIELLA:

(With Maury Allen) Sweet Lou. New York: Putnam's, 1986.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

"Tino Martinez." Sports Stars, Series 1-4. U•X•L, 1994-98.

Periodicals

Carter, Scott. "Lou's Rooted Here." Tampa Tribune (October 29, 2002).

Carter, Scott. "Piniella Inspires Winners." Tampa Tribune (October 29, 2002).

Gaddis, Carter. "Safe at Home." Tampa Tribune (October 29, 2002).

Henderson, Joe. "Love of Family, Love of the Game Bring Lou Piniella Home." Tampa Tribune (October 29, 2002).

Lowitt, Bruce. "Piniella's Passion, Pride Took Root in Tampa." St. Petersburg Times (October 27, 2002).

Topkin, Marc. "Can He Save the Rays?" St. Petersburg Times (October 29, 2002).

Other

"Lou Piniella: Batting." Baseball-Reference.com. http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/pinielo01.shtml (December 2, 2002).

"Lou Piniella." Biography Resource Center Online. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2002.

"Lou Piniella: Managerial Record." Baseball-Reference.com. http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/pinielo01.shtml (December 3, 2002).

"Piniella Timeline." Tampa Bay Online. http://rays.tbo.com/rays/MGA1WRD8V7D.html (December 3, 2002).

Sketch by Don Amerman