Never Fear, Lou Is Here

IN HIS last job, before he eased into the cushy life of a broadcaster and presumed successor to any major league manager on the hot seat, Lou Piniella did some hard years in payroll purgatory. In three seasons with the Devil Rays, Piniella never fielded a team that made more than $30 million in combined salary or ranked higher than 29th in payroll among baseball's 30 teams. For a seething competitor who has been known to morph from Sweet Lou to Sour Lou over far less than a trio of 90-loss seasons, it was agony. Piniella's level of discontent was so high, his patience for Tampa Bay's long-term rebuilding plan so thin, that he asked out of his contract after the 2005 season, leaving $2.2 million in salary on the table.

So Piniella knew what he wanted to hear when he met, in secret, with Cubs general manager Jim Hendry in Tampa earlier this month. Hendry had just fired Dusty Baker, and Piniella's first question was why the G.M. wanted him to be Chicago's next manager. "We want to win," Hendry replied. So does every other team, but Hendry was speaking in easily broken code. The Cubs—perhaps you've heard something about a billy goat, a curse and a World Series drought going on 99 years—really want to win, and unlike the Devil Rays, they're willing to spend serious money to do so right away. It's believed that their payroll could rise by at least $20 million, to $115 million, next season. " Lou's not about next week, next month or next year. He's about today," a longtime friend, Mariners bench coach John McLaren, says. "It's not a put-on. There's nobody who wants to win more than Lou."

Money talks, particularly when you're 63 years old and desperate to enhance your Cooperstown credentials with one more postseason run. The Cubs' ballooning payroll is as good a way as any to explain why Piniella, who signed a three-year, $10 million deal, took a job that otherwise seems to be one he should have run from. It's no secret that he wanted to work close to his Tampa home; the Arizona-based Cubs don't even spend spring training in Florida. He wants to win right away; this year Chicago had the league's worst record (66--96), second-worst offense (4.4 runs per game) and third-worst pitching (4.74 ERA). "This is a totally different situation [from Tampa Bay]," Piniella said. "It's a division that's very competitive. If we do the right things, we can turn things around very quickly."

Those close to Piniella say his first choice was the Yankees, but that may never have been a possibility. While George Steinbrenner reportedly considered firing Joe Torre after baseball's richest team imploded in October, sources say that Piniella wasn't the next choice of the Boss or G.M. Brian Cashman, who wanted to keep Torre and likely prefers Joe Girardi, Don Mattingly or perhaps Bobby Valentine as Torre's successor. With the Yankees out of the picture, Piniella's options included the aging Giants and the rebuilding Nationals, neither of whom can match the Cubs' planned payroll increases.

It's no mystery why Piniella was tops on Hendry's list. He is a motivational and strategical wizard and has the fiery persona that grabs headlines in a two-team town. Hendry swung for the fences by choosing Piniella over former Marlins skipper Girardi, who played for the Cubs and in one season in Florida proved he could oversee a resurrection. But according to a Cubs insider Hendry viewed Girardi, 42, as a "manager in training" compared with Piniella, who has 1,519 wins and a world championship on his r�sum�. And Hendry, like Piniella, is in a hurry. "If Lou Piniella didn't think we had a chance to win," Hendry said, "I don't think he'd be a Cub."

Piniella heard similar optimism from the Devil Rays: In a meeting over doughnuts in 2002, then owner Vince Naimoli promised he was committed to winning. (The fare should have been a clue that Naimoli wouldn't open his wallet—the Rays' payroll sank by $14 million in Piniella's first year.) However, friends say Piniella wouldn't have taken this job without assurances that the Cubs will spend. Given that, and Piniella's close relations with Alex Rodriguez, whom he managed in Seattle, it's no surprise that rumors have flown that the Yankees third baseman will join his mentor in Chicago. Cashman insists he doesn't plan to trade Rodriguez, and it's unlikely that the pitching-poor Cubs could barter with the Yankees, anyway. More likely targets for the Cubs are free-agent outfielders Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee or pitchers Barry Zito and Jason Schmidt.

Hendry also wants to re-sign third baseman Aramis Ramirez, a potential free agent who hit 38 home runs this season. Whoever ends up on the Cubs' inflated payroll, the franchise is in for a jolt. In many ways the Cubs, whose beery patrons pack Wrigley Field regardless of the team's record, have embraced their image as cuddly losers. That won't fly under Piniella, who once was ejected from an exhibition game and believes in curses only when he's spitting them at umpires. "A certain part of him wants to be the guy who comes here and is the one to win," says Hendry. But he wants to do it now, and he won't spend much time trying.

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