Would you trade Parris and Stynes for Piniella?

        After the Seattle Mariners win the World Series or don't, Piniella is a free agent. Wine him, Carl Lindner. Dine him, promise him a private jet for off days, so he can zip home to Tampa and be back in time to post the lineup the next afternoon.

        The Reds are lucky to have another shot at Piniella, who told me five years ago he never wanted to leave here. He left in '92, acrimoniously. Who knows what might have happened had he not?

        Since, Cincinnati has had one very good manager (Davey Johnson) and a cast of ill-fitting thousands. Nothing against Jack McKeon, but basically his best players hated him.

        Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. spat on Uncle Jack's cleats the last day of the season, walking out on him in the sixth inning.

        They wouldn't do that with Piniella. They wouldn't want to. If they asked, he'd tell them to grab some bench.

        This is not your memory's Lou Piniella. With the '90 Reds, Piniella was an emotional, insecure skipper, trying to pull a team to a title with the urgings of his personality. He wanted to prove to his former boss, George Steinbrenner, that Steinbrenner had made a mistake in firing him.

Wanted manager
        Now Piniella is a man-in-demand, a proven success. Players play for him out of respect, not fear.

        “I'd run through a wall for this guy,” said the M's Jay Buhner. “He changed this whole organization around.”

        Buhner said that after Game 3 of the AL divisional series, in which he was benched.

        Rumors of Piniella's softening may be true; he doesn't throw tantrums or bases, he won't make the Wrestlemania highlight shows. What once was a cymbal is now a piano. But Piniella still leads the band.

        Did you see him working against the White Sox last week? Piniella made Chicago manager Jerry Manuel look comatose. In the 10th inning of a tied Game 1, Piniella had a word with Mike Cameron, who was on first base. What are you doing? You have speed. Use it. Cameron stole second and scored ahead of Edgar Martinez' game-winning homer. In Game 3, Piniella ordered a squeeze bunt that won the game in the bottom of the ninth.

        He had a fast pinch runner at third (Rickey Henderson) and a good bunter pinch-hitting. He saw Frank Thomas playing first base. Piniella knew Thomas played the field like Captain Ahab. He told Carlos Guillen to push a bunt that way. He told Henderson to run.

No freshman wanted
        I can't tell you who will get this job. But I can tell you who probably won't: Ken Griffey Sr. and Ron Oester. Senior and Oester may be excellent prospects, but they're not the fit the Reds need.

        Freshman managers are for freshman teams. The Reds are good enough to contend. You don't give a 15-year-old with a learner's permit the keys to the Lexus.

        If Lou Piniella wants to come back, find a way. Piniella's a manager in full. The Reds haven't had many of those. Not since he left.

        Call Paul Daugherty at (513) 768-8454 with your comments.

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