Lou Piniella belongs in the Hall of Fame.Piniella announced today that he will retire at the end of this season, his fourth as head of the Chicago Cubs. If so, as he says in his statement, "time to enter a new phase in my life, it will end 23-year career in which Piniella never got it quite thoroughly as a strategist. You would have realized that Piniella managed for 23 years? Since he made his debut as a manager with the Yankees in 1986, there were only two seasons (1989 and 2006), Piniella was not in one shelter or another, a huge area of longevity, which was for the most part, very successful.Managers usually do not get elected to the Hall on his statistics, but to stand in Piniella criticism. He won 1,826 games as manager, 14 of all time. Of the 20 managerial victories, all but the genes Mauch and Ralph Houk or are in the hall or on their way, Mauch had a career record below .500, and Houk did not manage a team pennant or a division title after his third season of the dugout. Piniella total of 3517 games managed by the 13th all the time, and it is one of only 14 men in history have at least 3000 games and posted winning percentage above .500. Piniella managed one World Series champion, 1990 Reds, a team that set a record for regular season wins, 2001 seamen and four other division champions and one wild card team.
The first thing that comes to mind when Piniella's character, who was a legend. Watch any highlight show today, and you'll see clips Piniella scream, scream, throw bases ... caricature manager. This was not what made him great. Piniella made the material things that made it better ballclubs, such as denial of the one closer to the model in 1990, when he had three terrific lines in Randy Myers, Rob Dibble and Charlton norms and drove them to the title World Series.
Later in his career, he became a master during the game, his Mariners and Devil Rays team repeatedly placing a high level of success on the basis of division, as he had in the register of guys who could work successfully - and was allowed to do so - and everyone else . He would like to close it if it is dictated by the personnel; Cub this year in Ryan Theriot with 16 steals in 21 attempts, and no one else with more than 4 or 8 steal attempts. Piniella has a practical example of sabermetrics - understanding of costs and benefits, stolen base attempt - and received no credit for this.
Piniella is not without its drawbacks, primarily the lack of skill with young players. With Dan Pasqua in New York, Paul O'Neill in Cincinnati with Bobby Ayala in Seattle, and a number of Devil Rays, Piniella expressed impatience and even anger at the players who had fallen for a second. It is a complex number of Japanese players who are best known Kazuhiro Sasaki in 2000 and Ichiro Suzuki in 2001 in Seattle, but his inability to manage young players remains the biggest hole in his record. This lack of contribution to the dark time in his career, as well as three years to work in his hometown of Tampa Bay, which produced little but frustration Piniella and deductibles. As Jim Leyland in Colorado, Piniella took the work for which he was ill-suited and for which he is not fully committed. His time is the only stop light in his career, in which he has never won 90 games in a season, never argued, and one of only two stops (Yankees others), in which he has never won the title of division.
Piniella can not feel Hall Famer for some people, the same people who claim that Tim Raines and Alan Trammell and John Smoltz does not feel immortal. Piniella, as those players suffering in part from his contemporaries, who were among the best who ever lived. Smoltz pitched in the same era as Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson, pitchers who broke the curve mound greatness in the last days of the 20 th century. Besides, Piniella managerial contemporaries, Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre, three people, who undoubtedly will be introduced not long after their retirement, and who at 3-4-5 all time list of victories, but at 16 pennants and seven World Championships among them. This is not standard, and never was, and Piniella did not have to be on it. Piniella is Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina, all the time never appreciated as due to such conditions. As La Russa and Cox, Piniella managed in different places in both leagues with different types of groups and adapted to the game for a quarter century.
It is possible that the history of changes, resulting in a furious charge Piniella Cubs in NL Central crown, and that he would return in two years to the helm for a pennant. He does not need these markers, however. Since 1986, Lou Piniella makes his team better, and a track record deserves not only our recognition and appreciation today, but also a high honor baseball can make it.
