Lou Piniella, who guided the Seattle Mariners to their first postseason appearance, was voted American League Manager of the Year on Monday.
In a close race, Piniella finished with 86 points, 12 ahead of Boston Red Sox manager Kevin Kennedy and 15 ahead of Cleveland Indians manager Mike Hargrove.Piniella was picked first on nine of 28 ballots cast by voters from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Piniella received 12 second-place votes and five thirds in the balloting, conducted on a 5-3-1 basis.
Kennedy, who led the Red Sox to the AL East title, got 11 first-place votes, five seconds and four thirds. Hargrove had eight firsts, eight seconds and seven thirds after leading the Indians to a first-place finish for the first time since 1954.
Piniella, 52, managed the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds before taking over the Mariners in 1993. Seattle trailed California by 13 games on Aug. 2, then rallied and won the AL West by defeating the Angels in a one-game playoff.
The BBWAA panel - two writers from each AL city - voted before the start of the playoffs. The Mariners overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the best-of-5 first round, then lost to the Indians in six games in the league championship series.
Piniella, 52, was voted AL Rookie of the Year by the BBWAA in 1969. He has a 689-633 in nine seasons as a major league manager. At 210-209, he is the only Mariners manager ever with a record over .500.
Buck Showalter, who won the award in 1994, finished fourth with eight points after taking the New York Yankees to the playoffs as a wild-card team. He left the team two weeks ago and is a candidate for the vacant manager's jobs in Detroit and Oakland and with expansion Arizona.
California manager Marcel Lachemann was fifth with five points, followed by Phil Garner of Milwaukee (4) Bob Boone of Kansas City (3) and Johnny Oates of Texas (1).