Despite the Cubs affiliation, I have to admit I cannot help but like Lou Piniella, and always have. While he was a good and successful manager, and a good-to-great player before that, he was refreshingly guileless when it came to his dealings with the press, his players, umpires, etc. Even when he was in the midst of one of his famous umpire-instigated tirades on the field, where it might have appeared to a disinterested observer that he had simply lost his mind, I think there was always an edge of humor there, and a detached part of Piniella's brain watching himself through the whole thing.
Lou Piniella took baseball seriously enough, but himself not too much. One got the sense he would storm out onto the field really, really pissed off; but at some point the detached part of himself would realize how ridiculous it all was, a grown man in a baseball uniform, kicking dirt on the feet of another man and throwing bases around, etc. I used to try and figure out where the pissed-off ended and the sense of humor began. One would sometimes see the poor umpire who was the nexus of a Piniellian explosion smiling at the end of it. Not at Piniella one sensed, but with him. That is a pretty rare thing.
He fell short of expectations in Chicago, and in St. Petersburg prior to that; but he also won a WS with the Reds, and set a record for regular season wins in Seattle. Most managers would be very happy to have a resume like that.
I watched part of his post game press conference this afternoon on WGN. Piniella pretty much reiterated what was in the press release. What was most compelling to me was how openly emotional he was. His voice broke often, and he was in tears at times. He thanked the press guys for being fair with him, and it seemed he really he meant it. Wonder when the last time was a departing skipper so convincingly said something like that? When he attempted to point out that today was the last time he would ever put on a uniform, after fifty-some years of doing it, he simply could not finish the thought. He basically dissolved.
I thought, here's this tough-guy, bad-ass former player and manager, kicked Rob Dibble's ass on national TV and all that, and he is not the least bit ashamed of being very emotional at his last press conference, in front of everyone. Maybe the choking up and tears made some people think less of him, I don't know. I think it made me admire him even more.
