Piniella named top NL manager

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Chicago Cubs skipper Lou Piniella was named National League manager of the Year Wednesday in a vote of two sportswriters in each league major league city.

Piniella, 65, a two-time winner in the American League (1995, 2001), was named the best NL manager after guiding his team to a league-best 97 wins in the 2008 regular season, and their second straight NL Central title.

"I'm thrilled and I'm honored," Piniella told the Chicago Sun-Times in response to the voting done before the playoffs. "I'm very fortunate and pleased that I was chosen."

The Cubs won the NL Central after dominating the division for much of the season, but were swept 3-0 by the Dodgers in the first round of the divisional playoffs.

He joined Tampa Bay's Joe Maddon, the AL winner.

Piniella received 15 first-place votes, eight seconds and was third on four other ballots for 103 points, 36 more than Philadelphia's Charlie Manuel, who placed first on eight ballots, second on six and third on nine others.