Piniella was signed by the Cleveland Indians at age 18 as an amateur free agent on June 9, 1962.[16] That fall, he was drafted by the Washington Senators from the Indians in the 1962 first-year draft.[17] On August 4, 1964, Piniella was sent to the Baltimore Orioles to complete an earlier trade for Buster Narum.[17] He made his major league debut that year on September 4 at the age of 21, appearing as a pinch hitter and grounding out in his first at bat.[18] Prior to the 1966 season, he was traded back to the Indians for Cam Carreon.[17] He spent three seasons with the Portland Beavers from 1966 to 1968.[19] He returned to the majors with Cleveland near the end of the 1968 season, appearing in six games and going hitless in five at-bats with one RBI.[17]
In the middle part of the decade, Piniella played winter baseball in Nicaragua.[20]
Piniella played for the Royals for their first five seasons (1969–1973) and was the American League's Rookie of the Year in 1969 and was named to the 1972 All-Star Game.[17] He was the first batter in Royals history; on April 8 of their first season in 1969, he led off the bottom of the first inning against left-hander Tom Hall of the Minnesota Twins. Piniella doubled to left field, then scored on an RBI single by Jerry Adair.[22] On April 16, 1970, Piniella went 3-5 with a home run while accomplishing the rare feat of being thrown out at all four bases in the same game.[23]
After the 1973 season, Piniella was traded by the Royals with Ken Wright to the New York Yankees for Lindy McDaniel.[24] Baseball author Bill James called the trade the only clinker the Royals made during the 1970s.[25] He played with the Yankees for 11 seasons, during which the Yankees won five AL East titles (1976–78, 1980, and 1981), four AL pennants (1976–78, and 1981), and two World Series championships (1977–78). In 1975, he missed part of the year with an inner ear infection. From mid-1977 through the end of 1980, he split his playing time between left field, right field, and designated hitter.[17]
In his career, Piniella made one All-Star team and compiled 1,705 lifetime hits despite not playing full-time for just under half of his career.[17] He received two votes for the Hall of Fame as a player in 1990.[26]
Coaching and front office career
Piniella, age 39, speaks to a WCBS-TV reporter during spring training in 1983
New York Yankees
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While he was still an active player, Piniella served on the Yankees coaching staff as the hitting coach.[27] On October 28, 1985, he accepted an offer to become the Yankees' manager.[28] His initial managerial contract for 1986 was for $200,000.[29] Piniella managed the Yankees from 1986 to 1987; promoted to general manager to start the 1988 season, he took over as manager after the firing of Billy Martin (in his fifth and final run as Yankee manager) on June 23. Combining both stints as Yankees manager, he posted 224 wins and 193 losses.[30]
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds let go of Tommy Helms after he managed the last 37 games of the 1989 season (marred by the permanent ban of player-managerPete Rose). October 13 saw the hiring of former Yankee front officeman Bob Quinn as general manager. Piniella was hired by the Reds on November 3, 1989 on a three-year deal for $350,000 after getting approval from Steinbrenner to be released from the personal services contract that paid Piniella $400,000 each for two years.[31] Piniella managed the Cincinnati Reds from 1990 through 1992. In his first year, the Reds won the World Series in a four-game sweep of the heavily-favored Oakland Athletics, who were the defending champions. The sweep over a team with twelve wins more than the 91-win Reds was considered a massive shock, and it was the first Reds title since 1976. His three-year contract totaled over $1 million.[31] The honeymoon with the Reds would not last long. Wracked with injuries and a less effective bullpen that saw the team lose ten games in a row in July, the Reds finished with the worst winning percentage for a defending world champion in seven decades (this mark would be surpasses by the 1998 Marlins).[32] The most noted moment was an outburst by Piniella in an August game. Gary Darling overturned a call that cost the Reds a home run, and after the game, Piniella accused Darling of being biased against the Reds. Two months later, Darling and the Major League Umpires Association sued for defamation to the tune of $5 million against Piniella. When he asked owner Marge Schott for help, she did not budge on helping with paying for a lawyer, which Piniella had to do out of his own pocket. While he stated that realized his own error in making the statement against Darling, the fact that he received no backing from the Reds played a key part in him not wanting to manage there (as for the lawsuit, it ended in compromise, with Piniella issuing a statement).[33]
Following his third season, he announced in October that he had rejected a contract extension.[34] He finished with a record of 255 wins and 231 losses.[30] He was replaced by Tony Pérez, who was fired 44 games into the season for Davey Johnson.[35][36] Since Piniella's departure, the Reds have won only one postseason series.
Seattle Mariners
Under a new ownership group,[37] Piniella was introduced as the new manager of the Mariners in November 1992,[38][39] and led the Seattle Mariners for ten seasons (1993–2002). His wife Anita initially insisted he not take the position; they lived in New Jersey in Allendale, and she thought Seattle was too far away from their family and children, and spring training was in Arizona instead of Florida.[40] His initial contract in Seattle was for $2.5 million over three years,[38][39] significantly more than his predecessor, Bill Plummer, whose two-year deal totaled $500,000.[41]
On August 18, 1999, Piniella won his 1,000th game (having managed 1,926 in total) in a 5–1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.[42]
Piniella won the AL Manager of the Year Award in 1995, and again in 2001, when he led the Mariners to a record-tying 116 wins. After winning the 2001 AL Division Series against the Cleveland Indians, the Mariners dropped the first two games of the AL Championship Series to the New York Yankees, and Piniella held an angry post-game press conference in which he guaranteed the Mariners would win two out of three games in New York to return the ALCS to Seattle. However, the Yankees closed out the series at Yankee Stadium, and the Mariners would not reach the postseason again until 2022. Following the 2002 season, Piniella requested out of his final year with the Mariners to manage the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.[15][43] As compensation, the Devil Rays traded outfielder Randy Winn to the Mariners for infield prospect Antonio Perez.[44]
Piniella finished with a record of 840 wins and 711 losses.[30] All four of the Mariners' playoff appearances in team history to that point were under Piniella. On August 9, 2014, Piniella was inducted into the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame.[45]
Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Piniella returned to the Tampa area in October 2002, taking over for a team that had just finished at 55–106 (.342) under Hal McRae.[1][44] In his first two seasons with the Devil Rays, Piniella was able to improve the team somewhat, and they won a franchise-record 70 games in 2004.[30] This was also the first season in which they did not finish last in their division.
During the 2005 season, Piniella was critical of the Devil Rays' front office for focusing too much on the future and not enough on immediate results, and for not increasing payroll quickly enough to field a competitive team. The Devil Rays started the season with a $30 million payroll, which was the lowest in the major leagues; the Yankees payroll in 2005 was over $208 million. Tensions eventually made Piniella step down as the Devil Rays' manager on September 21.[46] He finished with a record of 200 wins and 285 losses.[30] He had a season remaining on his four-year $13 million contract from October 2002, but agreed to a $2.2 million buyout, in lieu of $4.4 million that he was due for a fourth season. He would have also received $1.25 million in deferred salary from 2003.[47][48]
Chicago Cubs
On October 16, 2006, Piniella agreed to a three-year contract to manage the Chicago Cubs for $10 million with a $5 million option for a fourth year in 2010.[49]
Though Piniella's Cubs won the Central Division in his first two years (2007–2008), and boasted the best record in the NL in 2008, the Cubs were swept in the postseason both years, first by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2007 NLDS and then the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2008 NLDS. Piniella was named NL Manager of the Year for 2008.[50][51]
In 2010, Piniella announced on July 20 his intention to retire as manager of the Cubs at season's end.[52] However, on August 22, Piniella decided to resign after that day's game, stating that he wanted to care for his ailing 90-year-old mother.[53] He finished with a record of 316 wins and 293 losses.[30]
San Francisco Giants
On February 2, 2011, Piniella was hired by the San Francisco Giants as a special consultant.[54][55] He did not return to that position after the season.[56]
Return to Cincinnati Reds
On February 5, 2016, Piniella rejoined the Cincinnati Reds as a special consultant.
On February 22, 2012, it was announced Piniella would join the YES Network as an analyst for Yankees games. He made his YES debut on March 4 during a Yankees-Phillies spring training game.[56][57] He left the network after the season.
Personal life
Piniella married his wife Anita (Garcia)[1] in 1967, and together they have three children.[58]
Piniella suffered what was described as a "mini-stroke" in June 2017, but sufficiently recovered to resume his role as senior advisor to baseball operations with the Cincinnati Reds for the 2018 season.[59]
Hall of Fame consideration
Piniella has been a candidate for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee three times, in 2016,[60] 2018, and 2023 but has thus far failed to be elected. In 2018 he received 11 of a required 12 votes for the 2019 induction class.[61] On the ballot for December 2023, he again received eleven votes, one short of induction.
In other media
Piniella made a cameo appearance in the 1994 film Little Big League.
In 2009, Piniella did a commercial for DirecTV and in 2018, commercials in the Seattle area for Sustainable Housing for Ageless Generations (SHAG), formerly Senior Housing Assistance Group, a non-profit senior citizen affordable living organization.
^Thiel, Art (September 23, 2003). "Ellis issued challenge, and M's got their leader". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved August 21, 2011. By the time they returned to their Allendale, N.J., home, he was ready to say no -- perhaps because that was the word that Anita pounded into his ear on the flight. 'No, no, no, no, no,' Piniella recalled her saying. 'She said, 'You're not going to Seattle. Just get that totally out of your mind.' Her reasons were obvious: Too far from home, and spring training was in Arizona instead of Florida.
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