Mike Nadel: Piniella's no pansy, except on TV
Lou Piniella stood in a hotel bathtub next to teammate Thurman Munson, fully clothed, hiding from manager Billy Martin. When Martin pulled back the shower curtain, he got angry, called Piniella a "pansy" and a "fruitcake," and accused the ballplayers of conspiring with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to usurp his authority.
Good stuff, huh?
"Yeah, if only it was true," said Piniella, a New York outfielder 30 years ago and now the Cubs' manager.
After watching the most recent episode of ESPN's "The Bronx Is Burning," a miniseries centered around the Yankees' soap-operatic 1977 championship season, I couldn't wait to ask Lou about it. In the first three segments, the Piniella character (played by actor Mather Zickel) had been on screen for about 40 seconds. In Episode 4, however, he was involved in one of the series' most memorable scenes.
"Yes, Thurman and I went to see George in his suite at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee," Piniella said. "We were trying to figure out a way to convince Billy to bat Reggie Jackson fourth. Billy, who had had a few drinks, heard us talking and demanded to come in. And the discussion got a little heated.
"But I promise you, Billy never called me a pansy or a fruitcake. I wouldn't have liked that very much. And there was no shower-curtain scene. We weren't standing in any bathtub. I don't know where they got all that."
Indeed, nobody listed as a series consultant was in that hotel room. Two of the four principals, Martin and Munson, died years ago. Details, details. I'm placing it all in the "creative license" category and thanking ESPN, because it led me to an interesting conversation with Piniella.
Baseball fans who know the 63-year-old Piniella only as a pot-bellied, gray-haired manager might be surprised to learn he once was an outstanding hitter and above-average outfielder with extraordinary instincts. He batted .330 for the 1977 Yankees - a collection of talented, expensive players bought by the win-at-all-costs Steinbrenner.
That summer, I was a 16-year-old kid growing up in Milford, Conn., about 90 minutes up I-95 from Yankee Stadium. That also was the year I had decided to pursue sportswriting as a career. ESPN didn't exist -- horrors! -- so I had to buy the New York newspapers for in-depth coverage. The gritty, emotional Piniella was one of my favorites.
A Midwesterner since 1978, I haven't rooted for the Yankees in decades. As for Piniella, until he was named Cubs manager last October, I never had spent two minutes alone with him. My days of being awed by athletes ended long ago.
Still, it was fun reliving the late-1970s with Piniella.
Many Cubs fans thought June was a month of unprecedented craziness, what with brawls between teammates, fights with opponents and Lou taking on umpires. Piniella, however, told reporters: "It may have been wild for Cubland, but it wasn't wild for me. (Compared to) the teams I played on, it was very tranquil."
He wasn't lying. Billy hated George. Billy hated Reggie. Reggie hated Billy. Thurman hated Reggie, who disrespected nearly everybody. The players hated the meddling of George, who threatened to fire Billy at least once a week.
Laughing as he recalled the "fun," Piniella said he hadn't watched the ESPN series "because I don't need to. I lived it."
As we chatted in the Cubs dugout before Saturday's game, Ron Santo, who had just interviewed Lou for WGN Radio, wore a look of disbelief. Santo, who never sniffed a World Series during 14 seasons playing for the Cubs, was astounded a team could survive so much animosity to win a championship.
"Hey," Piniella said, "I got along with everybody."
He continued: "Look, I didn't give a damn if Reggie batted seventh or fourth or wherever. But Reggie had a big ego and felt he needed to bat fourth, and Mr. Steinbrenner wanted Reggie to bat fourth because he paid a fortune for a clean-up hitter. We thought if we could get Billy to agree, it would help smooth things out.
"The way things were going ... it had to stop. You get tired of coming to the ballpark every single day and some drama is going on. Billy finally batted Reggie fourth, and we went on to win the World Series, so it all worked out."
Thirty years later, things are working out OK for Piniella. After a rough first two months, he actually seems to have convinced the Cubs -- the Lovable Losers -- that they can be big winners.
Can they? Hmmm. Things seem just a little too peaceful in Cubbieland these days.
It's high time Piniella call Carlos Zambrano a pansy and Derrek Lee a fruitcake, no?
Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is the Chicago sports columnist for GateHouse News Service. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com <http://www.thebaldesttruth.com> .