After falling just short twice, will Piniella be elected to the Hall?

CINCINNATI -- Will this time finally be Lou Piniella's turn?

Once again, Piniella -- the longtime great manager -- is one of eight candidates on the Contemporary Baseball Era ballot for managers, executives and umpires, announced last week.

A 16-member panel consisting of Hall of Fame players, Major League executives, media members and historians will consider each of the eight candidates, who must receive a minimum of 12 votes (at least 75%) to be elected.

The results of the Class of 2027 ballot will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 6. Joining Piniella is some very steep competition of fellow managers and baseball executives. The list includes Sandy Alderson, Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Joe Maddon, Brian Sabean, Ted Turner and Bill White.​

Piniella, 83, has come painfully close to election on two previous occasions only to fall one vote shy -- both times -- from getting the long-awaited call from Cooperstown.

During a Major League managerial career with five clubs that spanned 23 seasons, Piniella posted a record of 1,835-1,713. He is ranked 17th all-time in wins. Of the 16 managers ahead of him, 12 are in the Hall of Fame. Two of those managers are Baker and Bochy.

Piniella managed the Yankees (1986-88), Reds (1990-92), Mariners (1993-2002), Devil Rays (2003-05) and Cubs (2007-10). He has led his clubs to seven postseason appearances and helmed eight seasons of 90 or more victories with four different clubs.

The pinnacle of Piniella's managerial career came during his first year with Cincinnati in 1990, when he his Reds led the NL West "wire-to-wire" on the way to winning the World Series in a four-game sweep over the heavily favored Athletics.

Before Piniella's arrival to the Reds, they finished second in four straight years from 1985-88 and tumbled to fifth in 1989 amid the scandal that led to manager Pete Rose's banishment from baseball for gambling.

Piniella came to Reds Spring Training in '90 and looked at a roster knowing it could achieve greatness, if the pitching held up.

“My message to them was, you guys are at the right age with the right experience and the talent to win everything. So go out and play ball, have fun and good things will happen to us," Piniella said in April. "Well, we started off 9-0 and we went wire-to-wire. The one good thing was, we had built a big lead, so I was able to rest the team a lot during the summer and we got into the playoffs.”

Cincinnati's club was led by stars like Eric Davis, Barry Larkin, Chris Sabo and the "Nasty Boys" bullpen trio of Norm Charlton, Randy Myers and Rob Dibble. Still, they were considered big underdogs against the defending-champion A's in the World Series. Oakland was led by sluggers Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco and pitchers like Dave Stewart and future Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley.

“Heavily favored, but I thought we would play very well," Piniella said. "I didn’t know we’d sweep them, but I thought we’d be very competitive because Oakland was a fastball pitching team and our kids hit fastballs well. At the same time, Oakland had those big sluggers where you could throw velocity at them.”

After leaving the Reds when he could not agree on a new contract with then-owner Marge Schott, Piniella moved on to the Mariners and became that club's all-time winningest manager. Seattle reached its first postseason in 1995, and won an MLB-record-tying 116 games in 2001.

The Reds inducted Piniella into their team Hall of Fame in 2026 and he was inducted into the Mariners' Hall of Fame in 2014.

As a player, Piniella enjoyed an 18-year career with the Orioles, Cleveland, Royals and Yankees. For Kansas City, he was the 1969 American League Rookie of the Year and an All-Star in 1972 and won two World Series with New York in 1977-78. Over 1,747 career games, Piniella was a lifetime .291 hitter.

As a player and manager, Piniella was renowned for his fiery temper on the field and wasn't afraid to show it. As a skipper, he logged 64 career ejections, tied for 14th all-time with Clint Hurdle and Bill Rigney. Late in the 1990 season, he infamously hurled first base twice following an ejection from a game.

"Usually, I’m an easygoing guy but on the field, I’m very competitive," Piniella said. "I know when I first started managing, [Yankees owner] Mr. [George] Steinbrenner told me, ‘Look, when you get mad at the umpire, put on a little show. The people enjoy it. I get the back page of The Daily News and New York Post. I’ll pay your fines.’ So I took that to heart.”