I don't know whether Lou Pinella is the most over-rated manager in baseball or whether managers are just over-rated period. I suspect it's some of both.
In any case, Pinella quit today, saying his ailing mother needed him. I have no doubt that's true, nor do I doubt that mom Pinella would have scuffed along without her boy had the Cubs been contending. They aren't contending; in fact, they have vastly under-performed expectations, as have several other Pinella teams, including the '88 Yankees, '91 Reds and '98 Mariners.
With one championship on his resume and a .517 lifetime winning percentage, Pinella is being canonized as he bails on his team and touted as a Hall of Fame field captain. Perhaps I'm missing something.
Did Pinella transform lousy rosters into winners? Hardly. The Devil Rays stunk before trading Randy Winn for Sweet Lou and they stunk under his leadership. Frankly, the notion that any manager could have altered that sorry squad's destiny was a serious case of wishful thinking. Swapping a productive player for a manager, much less the impatient Pinella, is certifiable lunacy.
Pinella led the Cubs to one good season out of four at Wrigley, though they crashed and burned in a first round playoff sweep. Beyond that, his is just another entry in a century of managerial futility in Chicago.
Perhaps he conjured up miracles during the regular season. Several teams he skippered won buckets of regular season games before fanning in the playoffs, the 116-win Mariners of 2001 the most notable. But others squandered boatloads of talent. Seattle from '97-'99 featured Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey, Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez and yet combined to average 83 wins/year under Lou.
Pinella is generally respected and loved, despite his sometimes juvenile behavior. He bullied and cajoled players into busting tail for him and often mollified difficult personalities. That's commendable, but not particularly rare. In fact, it's the manager's job.
Did Pinella polish diamonds in the rough, or coax theretofore undiscovered talents, or resuscitate careers on death watch? Did he brilliantly innovate in his pitching moves or hitting strategies? Well then, exactly what makes Lou Pinella's managerial career Fame-worthy?
I have a theory. Lou Pinella is beloved for being Lou Pinella, not for managing the 1990 World Champions. Pinella was a popular player in New York, which never hurts a career. As a manager, he was sometimes profane and hot-headed, but in a fun and impersonal way. His YouTube specials involve excavations of dirt onto umpire shoes, storied base-winging performances and a multitude of entertaining tantrums. He was generally accommodating to the media and when he wasn't, it was usually amusing.
Best of all, Sweet Lou just four years ago served a stint at ESPN, where he charmed the very gentlemen and women who determine the sports agenda. A gifted raconteur, Pinella mesmerized the worldwide leader and thus, all of sportsdom.
Well, I don't have cable, so I'm immune. And I just don't see it. As far as I can tell, any knowledgeable baseball person, any managerial re-tread, any Triple-A skipper-in-waiting could have achieved roughly the same results with Pinella's teams, given the chance. His real genius lay in getting the opportunity to manage 3,500 games with rosters comprising Don Mattingly, Rickey Henderson and Dave Winfield; Eric Davis and Barry Larkin; and ARod, Unit and Junior. Anyone with a modicum of baseball intelligence could have won 1,800 games under those conditions.
And they probably wouldn't have quit in mid-season on two different under-performing teams.
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