“Lou Piniella has the red ass. He doesn’t think he’s been playing enough. He’s a good-looking ballplayer, 6’2, handsome, speaks fluent Spanish and unaccented English. He says he knows they (Seattle Pilots) don’t want him and he’s going to quit baseball rather than go back to AAA. He says once you get labeled AAA, that’s it.”
~ Jim Bouton, Ball Four
Lou Piniella’s people came from the Asturian/Basque region of Spain. I had read that the Piniella family name, properly spelled in Basque is “Pi Niella X”, which loosely translates to “The Jesus”.
Lou Piniella was not the second coming of Jesus, but to many he was the first savior of the Kansas City Royals.