Wednesday, July 11, 2001
Piniella's best move? Not coming here
Sticking with Seattle pays off for manager
SEATTLE — Maybe it's better this way. Had Lou Piniella left Seattle for Cincinnati, he might have spent this season bashing his head against the wall.
He might have looked at the opportunity he had lost and the oblivion he had found and done something drastic. He might have flung first base into right field or tackled one of his relief pitchers or — wait, he's done all that already.
Well, suffice it to say, Sweet Lou probably would have a sour disposition were he in Bob Boone's predicament rather than lounging on the largest-ever All-Star break cushion. Piniella should say a prayer every night for John Allen's sense of fiscal responsibility. He should light candles to his own dumb luck.
Had Reds general manager Jim Bowden been able to find the funds last fall, Piniella probably would be running the moribund Reds instead of managing the mighty Mariners. Bowden's short list had three names — all of them Piniella's. The Seattle skipper, a free agent, hankered to move
closer to his Tampa, Fla., home. The biggest thing blocking a deal was Allen's bare-bones managerial budget.
Lou's Luck
Bowden looked slightly ridiculous when he failed to follow his big talk with a bona fide offer. But Piniella would have looked sillier still had he rejoined the Reds and missed out on these 63-24 Mariners.
Imagine his anguish. Imagine his blood pressure. Imagine a fist-sized dent in the dugout roof.
Yet eight months ago, the choice was not quite so clear. The Mariners had made the American League Championship Series but lost their best player, shortstop Alex Rodriguez. Having previously lost pitcher Randy Johnson and outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., few figured the Mariners could improve, much less dominate.
“We thought we'd be a good ballclub, but at the same time, we lost a lot of players,” Piniella said. “We thought our pitching would be solid. We thought our defense would be good. But when you lose the power that we had, that's tough.”
Reallocating resources
But a funny thing happened on the way to woe. The Mariners reallocated their resources and tailored their team to the wide expanses of new Safeco Field. In the claustrophobic Kingdome, the Mariners had been built around big sluggers and pliable pitching. Now, they are a more muscular version of the Reds team Piniella managed to the 1990 World Championship.
“The team in Cincinnati is a pretty good model,” Piniella said. “That team was speed and defense, just enough starting pitching and a really deep bullpen. If we had added a little bit to it in '91 and '92, that team could have had a nice four-, five-year run.
“This (Mariners) team is more of a National League-type ballclub than we ever had in the Kingdome. People said I was tough on pitchers. The Kingdome was what was tough on pitchers.”
Pause for effect.
“Although, I have become more patient.”
A manager's patience is usually directly proportional to the reliability of his relief pitching. Tuesday, Lou Piniella had two relievers, Jeff Nelson and Kazuhiro Sasaki, on the All-Star team.
“From the sixth inning on, we're basically in a save situation,” Piniella said, proudly. “We get in position to win the games you're supposed to win.” Lately, that's nearly all of them.
E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.
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Piniella's best move? Not coming here
