Players Vote Piniella Least Popular Manager

Sports Illustrated's latest poll condemns Sweet Lou

By EAMONN BRENNAN

Updated 2:13 PM CST, Tue, Jun 30, 2009

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At first glance, it's not too hard to see why Lou Piniella wouldn't be the most popular manager in the majors. Lou is combustible. He's legendary for his temper. He's demanding, and when players don't live up to expectations they get a one-way trip to his doghouse, and there's no getting out.

Throw all of that in with the obvious gulf in age between Lou and so many of his players -- they're generations apart now, some more than others -- and you've got a recipe for an unpopular manager.

But the most unpopular manager in the majors? We admit it. We wouldn't have seen that one coming.

Alas, that's the word of the 380 players polled in Sports Illustrated's latest players survey. Piniella took home 26 percent of the unpopular managers' vote, flanked closely by Ozzie Guillen (21 percent) and Tony La Russa (10 percent). We suppose those three names will be always be somewhere near the top. Fortunately for Lou, players on your own team aren't allowed to vote for you, so the Cubs had nothing to do with this result. Though we can imagine how Milton Bradley might have voted.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.