Regular-season success brings Piniella reward

Sometimes it's still difficult for Lou Piniella to look back at how the Cubs' Express derailed so quickly.

"It felt like we got run over by a semi truck," Piniella said of a three-game sweep by Los Angeles during the NLDS in early October. "I was really, really disappointed."

But before that it was nothing but open road cruising for Piniella and Co. as they roared to a National League-best 97 victories and the top spot in the NL Central.

And for that, Piniella was named the National League Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Wednesday.

The Cubs' skipper received 15 first-place votes and 107 points to capture his third Manager of the Year award. He won twice while piloting Seattle.

Joe Maddon was named American League Manager of the Year, ahead of Minnesota's Ron Gardenhire. White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen was fifth in the voting.

Piniella is only the third manager in franchise history to earn the honor and the first since Don Zimmer in 1989. Jim Frey also won the award in 1984.

In his two seasons with the Cubs, Piniella has guided the club to consecutive Central Division titles and is the first Cubs manager to lead the club to consecutive postseason berths since Frank Chance in 1906-1908 - something Piniella's quite proud of.

"The fact that we went to the postseason two years in a row - it hadn't been done in Chicago in a long, long time," he said. "And now the expectations are up. People expect us to be good and are disappointed when we don't win in postseason.

"We raised the level, and that's what I'm proudest about."

Piniella is 1,701-1,561 in 21 seasons as a major-league manager, and under his guidance the Cubs have gone 182-141, a .563 winning percentage.

"Managing is so much harder than playing," said Piniella, who will donate his $100,000 bonus for winning the award directly to Cubs Care. "As a player, yeah, you're a team guy, but at the same time, you have to do well individually. As a manager you depend on so many people.

"I'm fortunate to end my career in a situation like this. It's been a really good experience for me."

Other topics the Cubs' skipper touched on Wednesday:

• On some of the changes coming for next year's team: "This is no rebuilding; we've got a good baseball team, we've just gotten cold at the wrong time two years in a row. We're going to try to do a couple of things to help ourselves out. It's a good nucleus, a good group of guys. They probably pushed a little too hard."

• On the possibility of using Kosuke Fukudome in center field next season: "We've talked about that. We need some left-handed hitting on our baseball team. (Fukudome in center) looks like something that would work for us. Fukudome is a talented kid in the outfield. From what I saw in the summer, yeah, he can play some center field."

• On whether Alfonso Soriano will again bat leadoff: "You look at our record when Alfonso led off and it was darn good. I don't know what's going to happen over the winter."

• On whether he'd prefer a left-handed bat at the leadoff spot or in the middle of the order: "We need a good left-handed hitter we can put in the middle part of our lineup. Offensively, that would make a big difference."

• On the news that his entire coaching staff will return next season: "They're a very integral part of my success."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=250244">Piniella named NL Manager of the Year </a></li> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=250179">Cubs retain coaching staff for 2009 <span class="date">[11/12/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=249566">Cubs' Soto named Rookie of the Year <span class="date">[11/12/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>