Lou Piniella, who guided the Cubs to the best record in the National League, was named Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Wednesday. It's the third time Piniella, 65, has won the award and first time in the National League. He was named the American League's top manager in 1995 and 2001, when he was skipper of the Seattle Mariners. Piniella finished with 15 first-place votes, eight second-place votes and four third-place votes for a total of 103 points, well ahead of the runner-up, Philadelphia's Charlie Manuel, who totaled 67 points. This season, Piniella and the Cubs posted a 97-64 record and won the National League Central for the second consecutive year. He's the first skipper to lead the team to back-to-back postseason appearances since Frank Chance did so in 1906-08. The Cubs, however, were unable to end the 100-year drought since they last won a World Series, being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series. In 2008, the Cubs were either tied or had sole possession of first in the division for 151 of 181 days and reached a season-high 35 games over .500 on Aug. 29 for the first time since 1945. The 97 wins this year were the most since winning 98 in 1945, which was the last time the Cubs were in the World Series. The team was successful despite beginning the season with a few experiments. For example, Ryan Dempster was switching from closer to starter and ended up winning a career-high 17 games and finishing sixth in the NL Cy Young voting. Kerry Wood was making the transition from starter to closer and finished with 34 saves. Piniella also welcomed in new right fielder Kosuke Fukudome, the first Japanese player to play for the Cubs, and when he struggled, the manager was quick to make changes. The biggest burden, though, was dealing with the expectations placed on the Cubs in the super-hyped 100-year anniversary season. "It's not fair to put all the expectations of all the past failures here and all the past successes here on the 2008 team," Piniella said earlier this year. "You let this team stand on its own merit, and you let them do what they can do as well as they can do and let them go as far as they can. "This team has played hard all year, they've treated the people of Chicago to a [great] season of baseball and believe me, they all want to win as much as I do, but the problem is there's only one team that can win. For people to say that this team is built for the World Series and if it doesn't win the World Series, it's not a successful year, I just don't buy that." One of the main reasons the Cubs signed Piniella was to end the franchise's championship drought, the longest in professional sports. "I'm trying the best I can," Piniella said. "If I don't win it, there will be somebody else here who you'll be talking about, and if I do win it, there will be somebody else here anyways, so what's the difference? "Everybody who puts on a uniform wants to do it, but it doesn't happen," he said. "It's not an easy thing to do. You talk to these players and they play hard all year. Talk to the other team in contention and they'll tell you the same thing. "I understand it's been a long, long, long time here," he said. "I can empathize, but at the same time, this is the 2008 team. Period. This is not the 1968 team, this is not the 1943 team, this is not the 1918 team. This is the 2008 team. These kids will play as well as they possibly can for as long as they possibly can and we'll go out there and give it all we've got, and that's all we can do. Nothing more, nothing less." After losing to the Dodgers in the NLDS, Piniella said he was looking forward to 2009. He agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in the Cubs dugout through 2010. "I'm excited [about next year]," he said after Game 3 in Los Angeles, "but I want to do more than play the part of the good loser. I really do. I want to do more than play the part of congratulating the other team in the first round of the playoffs."
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