Piniella, Maddon Take Manager of the Year Honors
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Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella and Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon took Manager of the Year honors in an MLB announcement made on Wednesday.
Piniella, dubbed “Sweet lou” both for his hitting prowess (.291 lifetime BA with both the Kansas City Royals and Yankees over 18 seasons) and, sarcastically, describing his demeanor as a player and manager, led the Cubs to consecutive NL Central titles in 2007 and 2008 without reaching the next level having fallen in the division championships in 3 games in both seasons.
AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick notes;
Piniella beat out Charlie Manuel of the World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies to earn his third Manager of the Year award and first in the NL. The fiery skipper also won in 1995 and 2001 with Seattle.
This time, he got 15 of 32 first-place votes and totaled 103 points to 67 for Manuel, listed first on eight ballots. Florida’s Fredi Gonzalez finished third with five first-place votes and 48 points.
“I’m thrilled and I’m honored. I know there were a lot of managers in the National League who had good seasons,” Piniella said from his home in Tampa, Fla.
The 65-year-old Piniella earned a $100,000 bonus for winning, which he plans to donate to the team’s charity partner, McCormick Foundation’s Cubs Care.
“My good fortune can get spread around a little bit,” he said. “The kids in the Chicago area will benefit from this and I’m very happy.”
Frankly, I am disappointed with the choice. Yes, Seattle reached the next level 3 times between 1995 and 2001 but Piniella never got higher, nor did he win anything during 3 seasons as manager of the Yankees in 1986, 1987, 1988.
Charlie Manuel took over as manager of the Phils and kept them in contention in 2005 and 2006, before chasing, catching and overtaking the NY Mets on the last day of the 2007 season to win the NL East and doing so again in 2008, this time going all of the way to the World Series title. Manuel got jobbed, robbed and deprived of the award he so justly and richly deserves.
Meanwhile, in the AL, the Rays’ Joe Maddon, who never played a game in the Majors and who piloted the team to horrific finishes of 61-101 in 2006 and 66-96 in 2007, caught the Boston Red Sox midway through the season and then nipped them by 2 games at the end of the 2008 regular season for the NL East title with a 97-65 mark.
After advancing to the ALCS, the Rays took a 3 games to 1 lead over the Red Sox, who have a proclivity for coming back from long deficits in championship play. The Red Sox rallied in the next 2 games to tie the series at 3 games apiece before the Rays held on to edge them by 3-1 to win the AL pennant.
AP’s Fitzpatrick further noted;
Tampa Bay, which started play in 1998, had never won more than 70 games in a season before Maddon engineered an incredible turnaround. With his motivational quotes and phrases, the 54-year-old skipper led a young team that finished in last place a season ago… to… the AL East title.
Maddon used his versatile bench brilliantly and juggled a much-improved bullpen that lost veteran closer Troy Percival to injury. The stunning success continued in October, when the Rays beat the Chicago White Sox and defending champion Boston Red Sox to capture the AL pennant.
“It was all there for us. It was just a matter of time,” Maddon said. “It happened a little sooner than I thought.”
Tampa Bay’s postseason run ended with a five-game loss to Philadelphia in the World Series, but that hardly spoiled it for Maddon.
“He’s got a great mind, he’s a great communicator and he’s been remarkably consistent since the first day of spring training in 2006,” Rays executive vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “That’s extremely difficult to do in an environment so full of emotion. He has maintained that through our low points and also our high points.”
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