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For now, the calm suits Lou

By GARY SHELTON
Published April 16, 2006

No game for Grandpa. Not today.

No thoughts about the starting pitcher. No worries about the bullpen. No time for hitting matchups or injury reports or trade possibilities.

Today, Lou Piniella has it tougher.

Today, he has to figure out how to hide an egg.

For Piniella, this is no easy task. As best as he can remember, he has never hidden an egg, let alone colored one. A few days ago, Anita Piniella turned to her husband and said, "Lou, we do this every year." And Piniella answered, "We do?"

On most Easters of his life, Piniella has awakened thinking about baseball, deciding about players, pondering how to win a game. In those years, if Anita had handed Lou an egg, he probably would have shown her how to grip a curveball with it.

Today is different. Today, Lou will stuff gift certificates to the mall inside plastic eggs, and he'll scatter them around the lawn of his Avila home. Not too easy, or there won't be enough of a challenge for Kassidy, his 9-year-old granddaughter. Not too hard, or the eggs won't be found by Sophia or Annika, his 5- and 3-year-old granddaughters. Not too tricky, or the whole thing might not be over quickly enough for the grilling to begin.

Such is the life of Lou, 62, former big-league manager. He golfs a little. He fishes a little. He pays bills a lot.

In case you are wondering, no, he does not ache to grip a lineup card in front of him.

"I'll be honest, I haven't missed it," Piniella said Friday. "Of course, I haven't allowed myself to get involved. I didn't go to a game during spring training."

Ah, come on. This is Piniella, a man who breathed fire, often into the face of the nearest umpire. Until this year, he had spent every spring since 1962 in a professional baseball uniform. How long before inactivity drives him crazy?

"We're going to find out," he cackles.

Oh, he'll be back. Piniella is a baseball animal, and a dugout is his natural habitat. If Jim Leyland can come back at 61 after sitting out for six years, how are you going to hold back Piniella?

For now, he is relaxing. He has been working with a personal trainer twice a week since November, and he says he's in his best shape in years. He rides a bike. He plays with his grandkids. Starting next month, he'll do a little analyst work for Fox.

Sometimes, retirement is hard. In January, Piniella found himself on a fishing trip to Idaho to catch steelhead. It was 20 degrees, and the plan was to camp outdoors for three nights. Piniella kept saying he wouldn't last three nights, but his friends kept saying the trip wouldn't be a problem.

After one night outdoors, the group landed its biggest catch: a reservation at a nearby Ramada Inn.

"If I had been on the expedition with Lewis and Clark," Piniella said, "I don't think we would have discovered the Northwest."

Despite the cold, you might suggest it was not the harshest conditions Piniella has been around. After all, he spent his last three seasons at Tropicana Field. It was an awful fit, a team that needed patience and a manager who was plumb out. Piniella and new owner Stuart Sternberg negotiated a deal to allow him to leave for half of his contract ($2.2-million).

"I don't have any animosity," Piniella said. "The Rays gave me a chance to manage in my hometown at a time when I needed to be home (Piniella's father, Louis Sr., died last year). I'm appreciative of that. I'm sorry things didn't work out."

These days, Piniella watches the Rays on television. Not full games, but here and there, he looks to see what his old players are doing.

"When they do well, I'm happy for them," Piniella said. "I'm happy to see things have gotten better and they're developing. I think it's a young ballclub that is going to struggle from time to time, but it has a chance to have a successful season. It's really going to depend on the pitching. It usually does.

"Over the next 4-5 years, with a successful game plan, the Rays can succeed. The owner is going to have to keep on top of it, and it's not going to be easy. But yeah, it can be done."

Say this for Piniella. He may be the first guy to leave Tropicana with his dignity intact. He was competitive and direct, and he wanted things to be better as badly as the fans.

Still, managing the Rays took a toll, he admits.

There were times a year ago when Piniella struggled to sleep, nights when he would lie there until he heard the newspaper drop outside.

"When I manage a baseball team, I take it seriously," Piniella said. "Those wins and losses are on my record. When you're a manager, you get engrossed in this. You care about it. Maybe some managers wouldn't take it personally. I don't know."

Next year, maybe later this year even, he will try again. Of course he will. A team with a chance to win will call, and Lou will answer, because the game is a lot of who he is. Next Easter, Piniella may not even take time to eat eggs, let alone hide them.

For now, he is Grandpa. A million miles from the Rays' game, he's going to take his grandkids to church. He's going to play Easter Bunny. He's going to flip burgers.

Sweet Lou.

Sweet day.

[Last modified April 16, 2006, 00:43:12]