Family calling Piniella home

With his heart increasingly torn between his team and his family over the second half of the 2002 baseball season, Lou Piniella made up his mind in the last week of games.

The Seattle manager and wife, Anita, who had made one of her increasingly rare visits to Seattle, got a call from home that daughter Kristi and her 4-year-old daughter Kassidy had been in an automobile accident.

Both were all right, but the accident heightened Piniella's feeling that he needed to be closer to his family.

"The accident scared Lou, it panicked him," said a close associate, who has spent much time with Piniella in recent years. "After that, he had to get home."

Yesterday, minutes after he was told by Mariners President Chuck Armstrong that he was free to resign as manager, if compensation can be agreed upon with another team, or retire if it is not, Piniella acknowledged the impact of the news about Kristi's mishap.

"It played a big part in my decision," Piniella said by telephone from his home in Tampa, Fla. "But over the years, it's been really tougher and tougher on Anita."

In June 2001, Anita lost her father, a man with whom Piniella was close. He took four days away from the team and went home to be with his family.

Piniella's own father was hospitalized and believed near death during spring training last year, and again he left the team for a few days.

"You know, I might have managed another year there if family situations had not become more critical for me," said Piniella, 59. "It all comes down to the distance. I could never get home without possibly affecting the team. If I'm closer I can get home on an off-day occasionally.

"I'm a long-term guy, but I couldn't consider coming back, not any more, not with that distance."

As if the weight of his personal situation wasn't enough, he also lost Gary Mack, one of the few people in whom he confided just how much he was hurting. Mack, for years the coordinator of the team's employee-assistance program, died suddenly last Monday in his Arizona home.

"He wasn't even as old as me, and I miss him," Piniella said. "But that, along with other things, drives home the fact that life's too short."

So Piniella is gone, with 840 of his 1,319 career wins coming in Seattle, easily making him the only winner among Mariners managers.

His era, 1993 to 2002, resulted in an American League record 116 wins in 2001, 300 wins over three seasons (2000-2002) and postseason appearances in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2001.

"Ten years, that's a long time," he said. "I gave the people in Seattle 10 good years of my life and they gave me 10 good years of employment. In that time, I've made a lot of ties, memories, friendships. I leave with a lot of thoughts of all of them.

"It's not easy, it's really not. And that is the truth."

Whether or not he is a Hall of Famer as a manager, he had the privilege to work with some Hall of Fame-caliber players in Mariners uniforms.

"I got to manage some great players in Seattle — Junior, Randy, Alex, Edgar, Jay," he said. "And that Japanese kid, Ichiro, he was a special treat for me. Yeah, some of them took some handling ... but that's what they pay a manager for."

His favorite Mariners moment? Piniella hardly hesitated.

"Watching Junior slide across home plate with the winning run to beat the Yankees in 1995, seeing Edgar hit the ball into the left-field corner and the ball hug the wall and Junior turning third base to score — all at the same time — a manager's peripheral vision," he said. "That was the play, the game, the series, the season that put baseball on the map in Seattle, and I hope it continues to prosper there.

"They've got a group of players who should see to that. They've got the hearts of lions in that clubhouse.

"Outside of not coming back, which does hit me hard, the only disappointment was not bringing a World Series to Seattle," he said. "The organization and fans deserve it, and they'll get it. And when they do, they'll love it."

He is aware he leaves a legacy, but does not consider it solely his.

"I'm proud of the things we've done there, from the beginnings in the Kingdome to that beautiful new park. I'm proud of the friends I made there — Chuck Armstrong, John Ellis, Pat (GM Gillick), Lee (assistant GM Lee Pelekoudas) and Roger (assistant GM Roger Jongewaard), and so many others. They made it a real nice place to work."

He is curious where he will work next, or if he will work next year at all. If the Mariners and either the Mets or Devil Rays or any other club cannot work out compensation, he is ready to stay at home in 2003.

"I might be sitting out next year," he said. "I really don't know. People all over are assuming I'll have a job, but I don't know that. We'll find out.

"This will be an opportunity to see if there is as much interest as there has been speculation. There's been a lot of talk around me, now we'll see if anyone wants to talk to me."

And we will see whom the Mariners want to talk to, to succeed Piniella.

Gillick, who will lead the search, said there is no list of candidates.

"We'll see how it works out with Lou and go from there," Gillick said.

Asked if the Mariners would seek a veteran manager, Howard Lincoln said: "We want to get the best person for this particular job, for this group of players and for this park. If it's a veteran manager, fine."

Piniella said whoever is next will inherit a good club.

"I think our 10 years there laid a good foundation for the organization to move forward," he said. "For the next man coming in, it will be a nice situation."

As expected, Louis Victor Piniella — and, you might wonder, was there ever a more aptly named competitor? — left with a lot of class and more than a little sorrow.

"It's hard, but everything comes to an end," he said. "You retire, or you're fired or you go out this way.

"And each of those endings are always sad. I know I'm sad. I hope everyone understands it is something I sincerely felt I had to do."

Bob Finnigan: 206-464-8276 or bfinnigan@seattletimes.com.