Lou: Fifty Years of Kicking Dirt, Playing Hard, and Winning Big in the Sweet Spot of Baseball

by Lou Piniella, Bill Madden

Overview

In this candid, revealing, and entertaining memoir, the beloved New York Yankee legend looks back over his nearly fifty-year career as a player and a manager, sharing insights and stories about some of his most memorable moments and some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball.

For nearly five decades, Lou Piniella has been a fixture in Major League Baseball, as an outfielder with the legendary New York Yankees of the 1970s, and as a manager for five teams in both the American and National leagues. With respected veteran sportswriter Bill Madden, Piniella now reflects on his storied career, offering fans a glimpse of life on the field, in the dugout, and inside the clubhouse.

Piniella speaks from the heart about his teams and his players, offering a detailed, up-close portrait of the Bronx Zoo's raucous personalities such as Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter, as well as his close friendship with Thurman Munson and his unusual relationship with George Steinbrenner. He also delves deep into his post-Yankee experiences, from winning a World Series for the controversial owner of the Cincinnati Reds, Marge Schott, to transforming the perennial cellar-dwelling Seattle Mariners into one of the league's best teams. Some of the game's brightest stars are here: Ken Griffey Jr, Randy Johnson, and Alex Rodriguez, Piniella's supremely talented and controversial protégé.

Throughout his time in the majors, Piniella has witnessed MLB grow into a multi-billion-dollar business. Piniella reflects on those changes, voicing his highly critical opinions on a range of controversial subjects, including steroids. Hilarious and uproarious, filled with eight pages of photos, Lou brings into focus a man whose deeply rooted passion for baseball has defined his life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062660800
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,129,956
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lou Piniella has been a part of Major League Baseball for over fifty years. In that time, he played for the Orioles, the Indians, the Royals, and the Yankees, and managed for the Yankees, the Reds, the Mariners, the Rays, and the Cubs. He is fourteenth on the list of all-time MLB managerial wins. He is currently a senior advisor to the Cincinnati Reds organization. He lives in Tampa, Florida.

Bill Madden has covered the Yankees and Major League Baseball for the New York Daily News for more than forty years. In 2010, Madden was the recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s  J. G. Taylor Spink Award. He has written several books about baseball, including the New York Times bestseller Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Glory in the Sun 1

Chapter 2 The Tampa Red-Ass 19

Chapter 3 Have Bat, Will Travel 35

Chapter 4 Pinstripes 59

Chapter 5 Death of a Captain and a Dynasty Detoured 85

Chapter 6 Managing for the Man 115

Chapter 7 Bye-Bye, Boss 139

Chapter 8 Red October 157

Chapter 9 Nasty Doings and Doggie Poop 175

Chapter 10 Saving in Seattle 189

Chapter 11 Don't Like Good-Byes 211

Chapter 12 Rising Sun, Setting Sun 231

Chapter 13 Out at Home 253

Chapter 14 Billy Goats to Bartman to Chance 271

Chapter 15 Alex Heartbreak, Bradley Madness, and a Windy City Farewell 291

Chapter 16 Lou-Pinions 315

Epilogue 327

Acknowledgments 331

Appendix: The Lou Lists 333

Editorial Reviews

Now Piniella is telling his life story with Bill Madden, who told the story of Lou’s first ‘Boss’ so perfectly in Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball. It’s a Hall of Fame book about a baseball life, nicely framing four great decades of the national pastime.” — Dan Shaughnessy, writer for the Boston Globe, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Francona, and winner of the 2016 J. G. Taylor Spink Award

“Lou Piniella was one of the smartest and gutsiest managers I’ve ever known, and I watched him close up with four different teams. He was also one of the funniest, and this book combines both.” — Bill Parcells

“There are not many who have led a baseball life—as both a player and a manager—as eventful as Lou Piniella’s, and together with Bill Madden, Lou has covered every bit of it here.... It’s all here, a sweet baseball life as told to a Hall of Fame baseball writer.” — Bob Costas

From the Publisher

Lou Piniella was one of the smartest and gutsiest managers I’ve ever known, and I watched him close up with four different teams. He was also one of the funniest, and this book combines both.

Bill Parcells

Now Piniella is telling his life story with Bill Madden, who told the story of Lou’s first ‘Boss’ so perfectly in Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball. It’s a Hall of Fame book about a baseball life, nicely framing four great decades of the national pastime.

Dan Shaughnessy

There are not many who have led a baseball life—as both a player and a manager—as eventful as Lou Piniella’s, and together with Bill Madden, Lou has covered every bit of it here.... It’s all here, a sweet baseball life as told to a Hall of Fame baseball writer.

Bob Costas

There are not many who have led a baseball life—as both a player and a manager—as eventful as Lou Piniella’s, and together with Bill Madden, Lou has covered every bit of it here...It’s all here, a sweet baseball life as told to a Hall of Fame baseball writer.

Bill Costas

06/01/2017
Having played with a number of teams (including the 1977 and 1978 World Champion Yankees) and managed several others such as the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays, and Chicago Cubs, Piniella has seen his share of triumphs and failures. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was famous for his hot-headedness, entertaining fans with memorable meltdowns. After his retirement from being a baseball commentator, Piniella now writes this debut with sportswriter Madden (Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball), sharing Piniella's unique story from his humble Florida upbringing to his current life as a grandparent. The book is a mostly straightforward chronological autobiography, with a few sections on Piniella's thoughts on the evolution of the game, controversies such as pitch counts and performance-enhancing drugs, and rankings of athletes he played with or managed. It may have made for a more engaging read to have these "Lou-Pinions," as he calls them, interspersed throughout the text instead of at the end. VERDICT Piniella is a sharp and entertaining subject whose gab will never bore baseball readers.—Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L.

Library Journal