Lou - by Lou Piniella & Bill Madden (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

For OVER fifty years, Lou Piniella has been a fixture in Major League Baseball, making a name for himself first as a player on the legendary New York Yankees of the 1970s and later as a manager for five different teams: the Yankees, the Reds, the Mariners, the Rays, and the Cubs.

Now, in this raucous and entertaining memoir, Piniella opens up about his lifetime in the game, telling never-before-heard stories about electrifying wins, painful losses, and why sometimes your only option is to get in an umpire's face. Tracing his baseball life from its journeyman beginnings in the minors, he discusses how he came of age as a player during the wild years of the Bronx Zoo, when personalities like Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Catfish Hunter, and Billy Martin made the Yankee locker room the most controversial and colorful place in baseball. With surprising candor, he details his close yet often contentious reltionship with George Steinbrenner, offering a unique portrait of one of the game's most provocative figures, a man who mentored and supported Lou as a player and a manager while ultimately making life with the Yankees unsustainable for him.

Stormy as his time in New York was, it was only the start of Lou's fiery career. From managing the Cincinnati Reds and their divisive owner, Marge Schott, to a World Series win, to transforming the perennially cellar-dwelling Seattle Mariners into one of the league's best teams, he recalls his experiences--both hilarious and heartbreaking--with some of the brightest stars from the last twenty-five years, including Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, and Ichiro Suzuki. For the first time, Lou also describes his important but little-known friendship with Alex Rodriguez, sharing how they formed a connection early in Alex's time with Seattle that spanned decades, teams, and scandals, as Lou helped Alex through his most tumultuous episodes.

Whether facing the difficulties of managing his home team in Tampa Bay or helping the Cubs win back-to-back division championships, Lou brings an unforgettable and feisty voice to his rollercoaster ride of a career, going inside the fights, pranks, and seemingly impossible comebacks that defined every Lou Piniella team. Featuring a huge cast of Hall of Fame characters and uproarious stories from three generations of baseball, Lou offers a bridge to a rapidly disappearing era, a time when baseball was a bit more fun, when passion was a virtue, and when kicking a bit of dirt on an umpire was good for everyone.

Review Quotes

"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