'Sweet' Lou Piniella was named the National League Manager of the Year on Wednesday by the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America)after leading the Cubs to a league best 97 wins and to their second consecutive division championship. The 97 wins were the most in a single season for the organization since 1945.
Updated - 4:46pm C.T. with Additional Information and Piniella's Entire Staff Retained for 2009
Lou Piniella won Manager of the Year honors in 1995 and 2001 while with the Seattle Mariners.
Don Zimmer was the last Cubs' skipper to win the award in 1989....'The Boys of Zimmer'
Lou Piniella joined Zimmer and Jim Frey (1984) as the third Cubs' manager to win the award. Piniella received 15 first place votes and 103 totals points to beat out Charlie Manuel of the Phillies for the honor. Manuel received 67 points and finished ahead of Fredi Gonzalez (Marlins), Joe Torre (Dodgers) and Tony LaRussa (Cardinals).
Lou Piniella also became the fifth manager to win the award for at least the third time....Tony LaRussa (4), Bobby Cox (4), Dusty Baker (3) and Jim Leyland (3). Piniella joined LaRussa, Cox and Leyland as the only mangers to win in both leagues.
Lou Piniella received a $100,000 bonus for receiving the award and donated his extra earnings to Cubs Care.
Joe Madden of the Tampa Bay Rays won the AL Manager of the Year Award.
Piniella's Coaching Staff Retained
According to several reports, Lou Piniella's coaching staff will return in 2009. Larry Rothschild will return for an eighth season on the North Side while Alan Trammell, Matt Sinatro, Mike Quade and Lester Strode will be back for the third consecutive year. Ivan DeJesus was also retained and will serve as a Special Assistant to Lou Piniella once again.
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Congrats Lou!!
Well, we got the NL Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year so far, so now hopefully the Veterans will get it right this year and get Santo in the Hall of Fame.
I am right there with you Nick.
Oh gee. Manager of the year award to Pinella. Just more stuff to fuel his already large ego.
Congrats to Lou...although on one hand I think Charlie Manuel should have won. I know voting takes place before the playoffs so nobody knew he'd win the World Series, but the fact is Lou was expected to win with the team we had. Many expected Manuel to be one of the first managers fired saying the game had passed him by. Lou was deserving in the fact that he is the first manager to guide us to back to back division titles since Frank Chance in 1906-1908. Thats deserving in itself!
Lou does concern me with the fact he is so hard on the young kids, especially Felix Pie and Rich Hill. Not to mention the lack of opportunity for Micah Hoffpauir. I think those three could be key contributors if Lou would support them. I'm also concerned to read that Lou is comfortable keeping Soriano in the leadoff spot....ughhhhh
Congrats to Lou as well, BUT...
This award belngs to Jim Hendry. I could win with that roster.
I agree about Manuel. Maybe even Torre.
So let's see...
According to Pinella,
(a)The pressure of the 100 year drought got to the team, (b) losing to the Dodgers was like getting hit by a semi-truck, and (c)he and Hendry haven't talked about the prospects of adding Peavy.
Now that's a manager that just got an extension. On the Peavy front, either Lou is downright lying, or the lack of communication between GM and Manager is shameful.