Lou Piniella

After retiring as a player, Piniella joined the Yankees coaching staff as the hitting coach. He 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. His initial managerial contract for 1986 was for $200,000.[20] Combining both stints as Yankees manager, he posted 224 wins and 193 losses.[21]

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. Pinella 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 Pinella $400,000 each for two years.[22] Piniella managed the Cincinnati Reds from 1990 through 1992. In his first year, the Reds won the World Series in a four-game sweep of the heavily-favored Oakland Athletics, who were the defending champions. The sweep over a team with twelve wins more than the 91 win Reds was considered a massive shock, and it was the first Reds title since 1976. His three-year contract totaled over $1 million.[22] The honeymoon with the Reds would not last long. The 1991 team saw them finish under .500, but the most noted moment was an outburst by Pinella in an August game. Gary Darling overturned a call that cost the Reds a home run, and after the game, Pinella 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 Pinella. When he asked owner Marge Schott for help, she did not budge on helping with paying for a lawyer, which Pinella had to do out of his own pocket. While he stated that 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 (as for the lawsuit, it ended in compromise, with Pinella issuing a statement).[23]

Following his third season, he announced in October that he had rejected a contract extension.[24] He finished with a record of 255 wins and 231 losses.[21] He was replaced by Tony Pérez, who was fired 44 games into the season for Davey Johnson. Since Pinella's departure, the Reds have won only one postseason series.

Under a new ownership group,[25] Piniella was introduced as the new manager of the Mariners in November 1992,[26][27] and led the Seattle Mariners for ten seasons (1993–2002). His wife Anita initially insisted he not take the position; they lived in New Jersey in Allendale, and she thought Seattle was too far away from their family and children, and spring training was in Arizona instead of Florida.[28] His initial contract in Seattle was for $2.5 million over three years,[26][27] significantly more than his predecessor, Bill Plummer, whose two-year deal totaled $500,000.[29]

On August 18, 1999, he won his 1,000th game (having managed 1,926 in total) in a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. [30]

Piniella won the AL Manager of the Year Award in 1995, and again in 2001, when he led the Mariners to a record-tying 116 wins. After winning the 2001 AL Division Series, the Mariners dropped the first two games of the AL Championship Series, and Piniella held an angry post-game press conference in which he guaranteed the Mariners would win two out of three games in New York to return the ALCS to Seattle. However, the Yankees closed out the series at Yankee Stadium, and the Mariners would not reach the postseason again until 2022. Following the 2002 season, Piniella requested out of his final year with the Mariners to manage the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.[15][31] As compensation, the Devil Rays traded outfielder Randy Winn to the Mariners for infield prospect Antonio Perez.[32]

Piniella finished with a record of 840 wins and 711 losses.[21] All four of the Mariners' playoff appearances in team history to that point were under Piniella. In 2014, Pinella was inducted into the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame on August 9.

Piniella returned to the Tampa area in October 2002, taking over for a team that had just finished at 55–106 (.342) under Hal McRae.[1][32] In his first two seasons with the Devil Rays, Piniella was able to improve the team somewhat, and they won a franchise-record 70 games in 2004. This was also the first season in which they did not finish last in their division.

During the 2005 season, Piniella was critical of the Devil Rays' front office for focusing too much on the future and not enough on immediate results, and for not increasing payroll quickly enough to field a competitive team. The Devil Rays started the season with a $30 million payroll, which was the lowest in the major leagues; the Yankees payroll in 2005 was over $208 million. Tensions eventually made Piniella step down as the Devil Rays' manager on September 21.[33] He finished with a record of 200 wins and 285 losses.[21] He had a season remaining on his four-year $13 million contract from October 2002, but agreed to a $2.2 million buyout, in lieu of $4.4 million that he was due for a fourth season. He would have also received $1.25 million in deferred salary from 2003.[34][35]

On October 16, 2006, Piniella agreed to a three-year contract to manage the Chicago Cubs for $10 million with a $5 million option for a fourth year in 2010.[36]

Though Piniella's Cubs won the Central Division in his first two years (2007–2008), and boasted the best record in the NL in 2008, the Cubs were swept in the postseason both years, first by the Arizona Diamondbacks and then the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2008 NLDS. Piniella was named NL Manager of the Year for 2008.[37][38]

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• Lou Piniella retires after fifty years of baseball

In 2010, Piniella announced on July 20 his intention to retire as manager of the Cubs at season's end.[39] However, on August 22, Piniella decided to resign after that day's game, stating that he wanted to care for his ailing 90-year-old mother.[40] He finished with a record of 316 wins and 293 losses.[21]

On February 2, 2011, Piniella was hired by the San Francisco Giants as a special consultant.[41][42] He did not return to that position after the season.[43]

On February 5, 2016, Piniella rejoined the Cincinnati Reds as a special consultant.