NL-best Cubs pick up Piniella's option for 2010

[October 01, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Manager Lou Piniella plans to stick with the Chicago Cubs for a while. The Cubs picked up their $4 million option on Piniella's contract for 2010 on Tuesday, a day before the NL Central champions open the playoffs against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The 65-year-old Piniella guided the Cubs to a 97-64 record, the best mark in the league.

"I'm thankful and I look forward to a couple more years," he said. "I should be tired, but as long as I have the passion, why not?"

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry announced the move as the Cubs worked out at Wrigley Field.

"We like each other from a business end and from a personal point-of-view, so it's not hard," Hendry said. "So it's a nice thing. Lou's happy about it. He's good to go."

Piniella said the club approached him about his deal 10 days ago, but he shelved the talks to focus on clinching the division title.

"We left it at that," he said. "Because I was focused on getting the team into the playoffs."

Piniella signed a three-year, $10 million deal with a club option after the Cubs went 66-96 in 2006 under Dusty Baker. Sweet Lou has been a wild success in the Windy City, going 182-141 and leading Chicago to consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since 1906-08.

That streak famously ended with the Cubs' last World Series championship. Now, they're trying to end a 100-year drought.

Piniella hinted again that 2010 would probably be the end of a managing career that dates to 1986, when he briefly managed the New York Yankees. He won a World Series title in 1990 with Cincinnati, had an extremely successful decade in Seattle, and a brief, star-crossed turn at home in Tampa Bay.

"I said basically I'm not going to be a lifer," Piniella said. "So I would think it would be very close, yes."

Piniella, who has 1,701 career wins, raised some eyebrows about his future when he told a New York newspaper a week ago, "I don't know how much longer I want to do this."

But Hendry, who has grown close to Piniella, doesn't think the manager is ready to quit.

"I've had a couple of conversations with him behind closed doors and he's never given me any indication that was true," Hendry said. "It's a tough job, it's a grind, and he's 65 years old. Obviously, he still has a passion to win and get after it every day. He definitely wants to do it. If it works out and it's longer than that, so be it, too."

Hendry said Piniella has proven to be the perfect fit for a team that blends youth and experience.

"He's a tremendous asset from the player-development side," Hendry said. "I've never seen a manager who handles guys coming up from the system better than he does. He's done a great job as our manager. He's been terrific."

[Associated Press]

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