MESA, Ariz. – Lou Piniella sat behind his desk at the Chicago Cubs’ spring training facility, a large photo of Wrigley Field on the wall behind him, a dozen reporters filling the small office in front of him, and expectations all around him.
“Lou,” one reporter said, “how are you structuring this camp?”
Piniella handled the question like it was an 85 mph fastball in his wheelhouse.
“I want to structure it so we win 90-plus ballgames and get back to the postseason,” Piniella said.
Winning is all that ever really counted for Piniella and, for the first time since he left the Seattle Mariners in 2002, he has a chance this year. Recharged after three seasons of more than 90 losses at Tampa Bay, Piniella returns to the manager’s seat in 2007, taking over the Cubs.
It’s hard to say who’s aching to win more this year, Piniella or the Cubs.
The Cubs haven’t reached the World Series since 1945, haven’t won it since 1908 and finished last in the National League Central last year. Piniella, who managed the 1990 Cincinnati Reds to a World Series title and the Seattle Mariners from the bottom of the AL West to three division championships from 1993-2002, wore himself out trying to turn the Tampa Bay Devil Rays into winners.
He spent last year working weekends on the FOX baseball telecasts, staying at home in Tampa with his wife, Anita, and their grown children, and clearing his mind of the defeats.
“It was good for me,” Piniella said. “I got a different perspective from doing television. I saw the entertainment value of the sport. I saw kids and dads throwing the ball around in the parking lot after the home team lost. I saw that it wasn’t the end of the world.”
At the end of the season, however, he realized how badly he wanted to manage again and erase, for good, the Tampa Bay experience.
“I don’t really need the title of major league manager as part of my resume,” Piniella said. “I enjoy doing this job and I enjoy the camaraderie of the players and the competition of the game. “But what I really enjoy is the winning part of it.”
After the Cubs suffered through a 96-loss, last-place season, they fired manager Dusty Baker and immediately pursued Piniella. He was interested in the job, but he also needed the blessing of his family.
“They asked me what I wanted to do, and I told them I didn’t want to end my managing career with three losing seasons,” Piniella said. “They said, ‘Go do what you have to do, but don’t get too far away from home.’”
Jim Hendry, the Cubs’ general manager, flew to Tampa and talked with Piniella, who had one basic question: “Are the Cubs going to get after it?”
Hendry said they were, that the ownership and front office would be active in the free-agent market and spend money to fix the team’s deficiencies, especially on offense. The Cubs did that this winter, loading up on free agents – including an eight-year, $136 million contract for Alfonso Soriano – and building a $115 million payroll for 2007.
What the Cubs needed more than anything was a manager who would motivate an underachieving team and instill a winning mentality. Piniella easily was their guy, and the Cubs signed him to a three-year, $10 million contract on Oct. 6.
“I haven’t lost the edge,” Piniella said. “I’m here to win baseball games. That’s what I’m here for; that’s what I’m about.”
Piniella is 63 now, but he has brought the same intensity to the Cubs that made the Mariners such a successful club under him.
“He said he has changed a little bit, but I’ll let you know after we lose a couple of spring training games,” said first-base coach Matt Sinatro, who was on Piniella’s coaching staffs with the Mariners and Devil Rays. “He’s very intense and he’s got a lot of fire. Just his presence walking on the field, you can see his impact here.”
With a roster that includes such stars as Soriano, Derrek Lee, Carlos Zambrano, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, changing the Cubs’ losing mentality was one of Piniella’s first objectives.
“That’s the biggest job,” he said. “Getting these kids to believe in themselves is what we have to do. The talent is here, but 96 games is a lot of games to lose. I should know because I managed in Tampa Bay.”
This is far from Tampa Bay. Instead of a roster full of young players still a few years from their best baseball, the Cubs are a veteran team capable of winning now. Piniella has 90 victories on his mind, and if the Cubs can finally avoid injuries to pitchers like Wood and Prior, they have a chance.
First, they need to think like winners. In one of his first meetings with the team, Piniella told the players they needed to carry themselves with a “Cubbie swagger.”
“They looked at me when I said that,” Piniella said. “But I explained to them that it’s not cockiness, it’s confidence a team has to have. They need to know that when they put on that uniform, they’re going to go out there and compete every day and do everything they can to win a baseball game. If we win, we win with a little humility and come back and do it the next day. If we lose, we tip our cap and go out there and win the next one.”
It has been a few years since Piniella has been able to say that and believe he can do it.
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