World according to Piniella: He likes to win

PHOENIX -- If you were to set this 2007 Cubs season to music, the theme might be "Getting to know Lou, getting to know all about Lou."

That would be "Lou" as in manager Lou Piniella, who a few weeks ago revealed it took him a good six weeks to two months to learn all about his players.

The flip side is that it took some time for the players, too.

"I think it's the players adjusting to him and him learning us, him learning our personalities, our quirks, what situations guys are meant for, can handle, can't handle, thing like that," said relief pitcher Scott Eyre, who found himself pushed down in the bullpen pecking order after a slow start only to re-emerge with a strong second half.

When Piniella got his first look at the Cubs in spring training, he told everybody he had the most talent that he had on any team he had ever managed.

Spring training turned out to be a fooler.

"It is a learning curve," Eyre said. "You can't really do that in spring training because, let's face it, most spring-training games don't mean anything."

Once the games started to count, Piniella began finding out what he had. What he liked, he used. What he didn't like, he benched, or the Cubs traded those players. He pushed, pulled and prodded his players all the way to the National League Central title.

Even so, Piniella proclaimed Tuesday that he's not a tough manager for whom to play.

"I'm pretty easy to play for," he said. "Let people play. Just go out and give 100 percent and play. We had to make some changes here because it wasn't working. The team had lost a lot of games last year, and it wasn't working early in the year.

"You had to make a decision, and we did: to start making some changes that we thought would help us improve, and they did."

Piniella's style is much different from the laid-back, almost permissive style employed the last four years with Dusty Baker. After losses, Piniella wasn't afraid to say his team was lacking.

The Cubs changed catchers, trading Michael Barrett. Ryan Theriot replaced Cesar Izturis at shortstop. Alfonso Soriano moved from center field to left.

Once things got rolling after a 22-31 start, each side seemed to know the other's dance moves, and the players began to figure something out about Piniella.

"This is a great guy to play for," third baseman Aramis Ramirez said. "He's a competitor. It's all about winning. It doesn't matter what you do, if you go 0-for-4 or 4-for-4.

"We didn't know Lou, so I didn't know his style or the way he went about his business. I didn't know if the way he was acting early was the way he would do things."

Soriano noticed Piniella's single-mindedness, too.

"Now, everybody knows how he is: He likes to win. He gets upset, he gets mad when he loses," Soriano said. "I get mad when I lose. I think everybody gets mad when they lose. We know now about Lou, and I think everybody is on one page."

And having fun, too,

"It became fun awhile ago," Eyre said. "Winning creates fun, obviously. That's a given. Winning is fun. As upset as you are in the first half, winning cures a lot of things. It's different when it's an earned fun. We earned the right to have fun. I think everybody in here believes that."