Good day all!
Thought
it'd be fun to add another player to my long-running 1971 "Minor League
Days" thread, with the next guy in 1969 A.L. Rookie of the Year Lou
Piniella:
Piniella
is shown here as a member of the Portland Beavers, for whom he played
between 1966 and 1968, averaging above .300 combined while in the
Cleveland Indians organization.
He
did get into six games for the Indians in 1968 before being selected by
the new Seattle Pilots organization in the expansion draft in October
of that year.
However
right before the 1969 season Piniella was traded by the Pilots to
another new franchise, the Kansas City Royals, for John Gelnar and Steve
Whitaker.
It
was a great move by the Kansas City team, as Piniella would not
disappoint, going on to cop Rookie of the Year honors by hitting .282
with eleven homers and 68 runs batted in.
He'd
play with the Royals through the 1973 season, making one more All-Star
team in 1972 when he hit .312 while leading the league with 33 doubles,
collecting a career-best 179 hits.
After being traded to the New York Yankees before the 1974 season,
Piniella found his permanent home in the big leagues, playing the final
eleven seasons of his career there.
Along the way he was a member of two championship teams, hit .300
or better five times, and eventually would even become manager of the
Yanks before moving on to a long career leading Major League squads.
Over his 18-year career he hit .291, with 1705 hits in 5867
at-bats, and besides 10 games split between the Orioles in 1964 and the
Indians in 1968, he'd do it all with the Roylas and Yankees between
1969-1984.
In 1986 he took over as Yankee manager, and would go on to manage
for another 23 seasons, guiding the Yanks, Reds, Mariners, Devil Rays
and Cubs.
He would lead his teams to a World Series win in 1990 (Reds), an
American League record 116 win season in 2001 (Mariners), eight 90+ win
seasons (all but the Devil Rays), and six 1st place finishes (with the
Reds, Mariners and Cubs).
Not a bad career spanning 46 years!
