Sweet times for Lou

Published 7:40 pm Saturday, September 29, 2007

Amid their own disappointment at not reaching the playoffs, there were a lot of warm feelings at the ballpark Saturday for former Mariners manager Lou Piniella, whose Chicago Cubs clinched the National League Central title on Friday.

Mariners manager John McLaren, who has coached on Piniella’s teams at Cincinnati, Seattle and Tampa Bay, called his old skipper Saturday morning.

“He was proud of where they had come from where they were (early in the season,” McLaren said. “They put it together like all Lou teams do. Once he makes his statement, it has an effect.”

Then McLaren started recalling some stories about his days alongside Piniella.

“If we were in a situation where we had to make a tough decision, Lou would say to me, ‘What do you want to do here?’ and I would say, ‘You know what Lou? You’re making the 3.5 (million), You need to make this call.’ I didn’t’ do it to dodge the question, I’d do it to relax Lou. That was one of my main jobs. Whenever I could neutralize Lou, I knew he was a great thinker. Sometimes when he was uptight, he would react too quick. I just tried to keep him loose.

“When we start telling Lou stories now, it’s just like when Lou would tell George Steinbrenner stories. They change a little bit as the years go by.

“I remember when we were in Cincinnati and he and Rob Dibble got together in the clubhouse fight. That hand in front of the camera was mine, by the way. I’ve heard the story told by Lou a lot over the years. The first time it was, ‘Thank God you guys were there to pull him off me.’ The last time I heard it, he was saying, ‘I hit him with a right, then a left.’

“Lou’s a fun guy and I can’t say enough good things about him.”