Tony La Russa steps down from the White Sox and takes responsibility for the team’s disappointing season:
I hope his health problems don’t prevent him for enjoying his retirement. Baseball Reference is giving him credit for the White Sox season record, putting La Russa at 2900 wins and 2514 losses for a career .536 winning percentage. Most managers are lucky to finish over .500.
Bob Nightengale reports that Tony La Russa will retire on Monday. That is based on advice from his doctors:
La Russa, feeling much stronger, still planned to return as manager. He flew to Oakland on Sept. 10 to attend Dave Stewart’s jersey retirement ceremony, spent time visiting with his team, and felt refreshed. He flew back on the team plane to Chicago, and watched the White Sox’s next two home games from owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s suite.
It was the last time he was with his team.
La Russa returned to Arizona and underwent more testing, and there were further procedures. The doctors sat him down and provided their expert medical opinion: He should not manage again.
USAToday.com
I think it was evident from the many strange intentional walk decisions that La Russa was no longer up to the job. He had a great career, but we all grow old, and age and health won out this time.
Tony La Russa‘s doctors told him not to manage this season:
La Russa, 78, has been advised by his doctors not to manage again in 2022. He has been out since late August with a heart ailment, and after undergoing additional testing and medical procedures over the past week, it was determined he should not return.
It’s not clear if La Russa will manage the White Sox next season. By all accounts, the team has underachieved this year, which has included another season of injuries to key players.
ESPN.com
It also La Russa making odd intentional walk choices, issuing those a few times with strikes on the batter. It makes me wonder if the heart condition was causing poor blood flow which led to cognitive issues.
Tony La Russa may return to the White Sox soon.
The White Sox are 9-3 in La Russa’s absence with bench coach Miguel Cairo at the helm while the Hall of Fame manager has been out. The team did not indicate a timetable for La Russa’s return to managing, but signs point to him resuming his duties in the near future.
ESPN.com
If I’m running the White Sox, I’m telling La Russa, “Your health is too important to us. Take the rest of the season off.” The team is playing well under Cairo, so I would see if he can take them to the playoffs. So far, Cairo has not intentionally walked a batter who had two strikes.
Tony La Russa is on indefinite medical leave:
Following a medical evaluation this morning, Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa now is scheduled over the coming days to undergo additional testing in Arizona by his personal physicians. His absence from the club will be indefinite pending the results of these evaluations.
MLB.com
I suspect all the two-strike intentional walks tipped off the doctors. 🙂
Sorry, but I would not be surprised if White Sox fans are secretly happy about the change.
Here’s wishing La Russa a quick recovery. Miguel Cairo will remain interim manager. The Sporting News has a profile of the new field leader.
Update: La Russa has a heart issue.
Tony La Russa did not manage the White Sox Tuesday night:
The team said the 77-year-old manager would skip the game on the recommendation of his doctors and would undergo further testing Wednesday.
ESPN.com
Unfortunately, when someone is 77, you start worrying about the worst happening. Let’s hope this is something minor.
Previously injured White Sox hitters don’t need to run hard on routine outs.
La Russa, whose team has 10 players on the injured list, said the pool of players under those instructions included shortstop Tim Anderson, who returned from a groin injury this week, along with first baseman Jose Abreu, outfielder Luis Robert, designated hitter Andrew Vaughn and outfielder AJ Pollock.
…
“As long as the fans understand it,” La Russa said, “they’re not lazy, but their legs are important.”
ESPN.com
This will not go over well when a poor throw in turned into an out due to slow running.
Tony La Russa is old enough to remember this:
Correction: Fixed the link to the article.
It would appear White Sox fans lost faith in Tony La Russa:
Loud chants of “Fire Tony!” broke out at Guaranteed Rate Field as manager Tony La Russa and the Chicago White Sox blew a five-run lead and lost to the Texas Rangers 11-9 in 10 innings on Saturday.
La Russa has been under increased scrutiny this week since ordering an unconventional intentional walk in a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The White Sox won the AL Central last season, but now are just 27-30 under their 77-year-old Hall of Fame manager.
ESPN.com
I suspect the loss of Tim Anderson has more to do with the 4-6 record in June than La Russa’s managing acumen. We will see how long he lasts.
Tony La Russa is catching a lot of flack for this decision:
La Russa explained his decision after the game:
“You know what he hits against left-handed pitching with 0-1 or two strikes? You know what he hits? Well, do you know what Muncy hits with two strikes against a left-handed pitcher? I mean is that really a question? Because it was 1-2?” La Russa said. “Turner with a strike left against a left-hander is something you can avoid if you can, and we had an open base and Muncy happened to be the guy behind him, and that’s a better matchup.”
SportingNews.com
If Muncy makes an out, La Russa is a genius. He believe he had a higher probability of an out with Muncy than Turner. I’m not a big La Russa fan, but it the strategy was pretty likely to produce an out with the lefty on lefty match-up. Of course, some people believe that all players have such a high probability of making an out that an intentional walk is always a poor move.
Angel Hernandez made an out signal that confused a base runner, so Hernandez let him have the base:
Benintendi was eventually awarded third base on the premise that one of the umpires, presumably Hernandez, had ruled either Ramirez or Naylor initially caught Perez’s fly ball. Video appeared to indicate Hernandez casually making his way from behind first base toward the area where the catch/no catch occurred. The replay appeared to show Hernandez raising his arm as if to indicate an out on a catch, which could have prompted the confusion for Benintendi.
An incensed Cleveland manager Terry Francona argued with Hernandez near the third-base line while pitcher Sam Hentges threw a few warmup pitches to stay loose.
Francona eventually returned to his dugout without being ejected. Ultimately the call did not end up costing the Indians any runs. Hentges struck out Jorge Soler, and after walking Hunter Dozier, got Michael A. Taylor on a fly ball to right to end the inning.
Cleveland.com
Indians fans are calling for Hernandez to be fired.
Meanwhile, Tony La Russa didn’t know the full extra-inning rule when he placed a runner who was a pitcher:
La Russa claimed he didn’t fully know the extra inning rule, which would have allowed him to avoid using closer Liam Hendriks as a baserunner in a 0-0 game against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday.
Hendriks had double-switched into the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, inhabiting the No.5 spot in the batting order which made the last out in the top of the ninth. Per MLB rules, as extra innings begin, the spot in the order to make the last out in the previous inning becomes the base runner at second base. However, if that spot is occupied by a pitcher, the team has the option to use the preceding player in the batting order as the runner. In this case, it would have been Jose Abreu.
“I didn’t know that,” La Russa said after the 1-0 loss. “We all thought Liam was going to be the runner. I wasn’t aware Abreu could have run. I thought it was the guy that made the last out or the spot in that order.”
ESPN.com
I must admit that I didn’t know that rule, but then again, I’m not paid millions of dollars to know the rules.
I’ll leave it to the Who to explain what’s going on:
South Side Sox appears unhappy about the penalty handed to Tony La Russa, and the White Sox actions in light of that.
The penalty for driving drunk, as a repeat offender, in a “strict” state such as Arizona, has today been revealed: one day of house arrest, $1,383 …
… and untold bad publicity and embarrassment for your employer.
Of course, the White Sox would need to have an awareness of such things to feel embarrassment over this fatuous hire.
SouthSideSox.com
La Russa did talk about his drinking:
We know what a real drinking problem looks like:
Here’s the latest on Tony La Russa’s DUI:
He agreed to plead guilty to reckless driving, as opposed to driving under the influence. We will see how the White Sox handle this.
The AP reports Tony La Russa will change his not guilty plea to drunk driving charges, but it doesn’t say what the change will be.
It appears Tony La Russa still drinks and drives:
Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa was charged with driving under the influence after he allegedly ran his car into a curb in February, leaving it smoking on the side of a Phoenix-area road, according to court records obtained by ESPN.
It is the second known drunken driving arrest for La Russa, who in 2007 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DUI in Jupiter, Florida.
ESPN.com
The 2007 arrest was in the back of my mind when the White Sox hired La Russa, but it seemed unfair to hold a thirteen year old mistake against him when nothing else had happened. La Russa was quoted in 2007 as saying, “this will never occur again.”
The White Sox were aware of the incident at the time of the hiring.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again, high level professional athlete have the means to hire a driver, and it’s easier than ever with modern driving services. Don’t drive yourself if you’re going to have a drink.
Tim Anderson and Eloy Jimenez spoke with the press after winning Silver Slugger Awards, and the questions went to how they will work with new White Sox manager Tony La Russa. Anderson says he will not change:
“I won’t change my style, the way I play, for Tony,” Anderson said, laughing. “That won’t happen. I will continue to be me. I always have and I always will be. We’ll see what happens, I guess, if I do do a bat flip.”
…
“I’m gonna ask him, ‘How much have you been reading? You know, a lot of people have been saying we’re not gonna get along.’ So I’m gonna ask him, ‘Why do you think that?'” Anderson said. “I’m excited about it. Hopefully, we can turn this negative around into a positive. Keep moving, keep enjoying the game and keep having fun with it. You can’t get sidetracked with what the ultimate goal is.”
ESPN.com
La Russa began his career managing his peers, then spent a long time managing his children, and now he returns to manage his grandchildren. In general, people are much easier on their grandchildren than their children.
My guess is La Russa will be fine with the bat flips.
The White Sox hire Tony La Russa to manage the team, thirty four years after they fire him.
He becomes the oldest manager in the major leagues by five years. Houston’s Dusty Baker is 71.
ESPN.com
I’m old enough to remember when La Russa was the youngest manager in the majors.
I liked La Russa when I was young, as he seemed to be a much more cerebral manager than most in that day. I came to dislike his constant pitching changes, however. I also have a real problem with La Russa and Sandy Alderson being in the middle of ground zero of the steroid scandal and ignoring the problem. They’re very much in the mold of Jeff Luhnow, being willfully ignorant of the situation around them.
So good luck to the White Sox. Rick Renteria developed the talent. The front office thinks La Russa can take them over the finish line. We’ll see.
Jack McDowell credits Tony La Russa with inventing modern electronic cheating. He also makes a good point about La Russa in general:
“He was also the head of the first team … with people doing steroids,” McDowell said, referencing La Russa’s decade-long stint as manager of the Oakland A’s, which included managing infamous steroid users Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. “Yet he’s still in the game making half a million. No one’s gonna go after that.”
SportingNews.com
I agree with McDowell, and have complained about La Russa’s free pass for a long time.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place today, Sunday afternoon at 1:30 PM. Three players considered non-cheaters, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and Frank Thomas receive a plaque in the hall, as well as managers Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa, and Joe Torre (although you could argue Torre is going in for his complete baseball career, as he was a very good player). I don’t know why Maddux was not elected unanimously. Given the high run era in which he pitched, Greg might very well be the greatest pitcher of all time. Glavine was more of a number accumulator, blessed to be a good pitcher on a very good team. Tom also was a reverse lefty during his great years, doing a great job of limiting the offense of right-handed batters. Thomas was a right-handed Ted Williams, hitting for average, drawing a ton of walks, and hitting for power. Over his career, he was a .300/.400/.500 player.
Torre had limited success as a manager before joining the Yankees. He hit New York at the right time, as the building of Bob Watson and Gene Michael bore fruit. He was the buffer, taking all the heat from the owner and the press, allowing his professional players to function without distraction. He was one of the great personnel managers of all time.
Cox, too took over the Braves at exactly the right time. Blessed with a GM who knew how to constantly let go of a weak player and replace him with a stronger one, Cox guided the Braves to one of the most dominant streaks in NL history. In the case of Cox and Torre, synergy between the manager and GM led to great results on the field.
La Russa, may be the most controversial pick. His record certainly deserves induction, but he managed players at the heart of the steroid scandal, and his titles in Oakland were certainly tainted by players juicing. Why he gets a pass and his players don’t is beyond me. Either he knew about what was going on and ignored it, or he simply was willing to take the wins. Of course, La Russa’s election comes from a committee made of former players, who might be more forgiving of PED transgressions than the writers. It might be a while, therefore before players with the taint get in.
The three managers on the expansion era Hall of Fame ballot won election to Cooperstown:
Three legendary managers who combined for 7,558 wins and eight World Series championships are entering the Hall of Fame together.
Contemporaries Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre, who rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively, on the career list for managerial victories, were elected unanimously to the Hall on Monday by the expansion-era committee.
All three managers surpassed 2,000 wins, a magical figure of sorts because no manager with at least that many has been excluded from the Hall.
Congratulations to all three. It’s a well deserved honor, unless you’re upset with La Russa benefiting from all the steroid use in Oakland.
Jesse Spector bends over backwards to make the case that PED use by his players doesn’t diminish Tony La Russa’s Hall of Fame credentials:
Ultimately, the responsibility for drug use in baseball falls on the drug users. There are enablers, certainly, and there is little argument against putting that label on La Russa, but it’s not relevant to whether or not he is a Hall of Fame manager. That much should be clear from the fact that all of McGwire’s home runs still count, no asterisks have been applied to any records from the late 1980s through the early 2000s, and that nobody so much as blinks at Joe Torre’s name being on the expansion era committee’s ballot when Torre’s greatest success — four World Series wins in five years from 1996-2000 with the Yankees — came courtesy of rosters loaded with players who were fingered in the Mitchell Report.
Maybe Torre doesn’t belong in the Hall, either. My problem with La Russa was that Oakland was ground zero for steroid use. La Russa is supposed to be a smart guy, having earned a law degree. He’s supposed to be a keen observer of the game, yet he allowed steroid use to grow out of his control in Oakland. I find it nearly impossible to believe than neither he nor Sandy Alderson were unaware of what was going on. The wins were more important than how they were achieved.
If the star players of that era are kept out of the Hall, then consistency suggests the managers who benefited from the cheating should be kept out also.
Word leaked that Tony LaRussa will start Matt Cain instead of R.A. Dickey in the All-Star Game. Rob Neyer is fine with the idea:
Dickey’s story is certainly better than Cain’s. But this is probably the last game Tony La Russa will ever manage. He probably cares a lot less about stories than about winning. He probably thinks Cain pitching two innings gives him the best chance to win. And it’s not obvious that he’s wrong.
On the other hand, since Dickey is a knuckleballer, he might be able to go five innings in the game. If Tony really cared about winning, he would start Dickey and let him go as long as he could. I find this a strange choice. Maybe Tony was drinking at the time.
Tony La Russa would take a front office job, especially in the Bay Area.
Q: What about a front-office job with the A’s or Giants?
A: “I signed with the A’s and managed the A’s. I’ve been in the National League, so we played a lot in San Francisco, and the Giants have been outstanding to me over the years, particularly with ARF-related requests. I’d like to find a club where there’s a fit, and I don’t know if the A’s or Giants need any help that I would provide. Both are very solid.”
He also thinks the Giants should give up their territorial rights to San Jose and let the Athletics move there.
Rob Neyer takes a critical look at Tony La Russa’s post-season record:
One hundred and sixteen games still isn’t a truly significant sample size, and La Russa’s .552 winning percentage in those games still doesn’t tell us much about La Russa that we didn’t know already.
One thing it does tell us, though: Tony La Russa has been far from a postseason failure. He’s won more than his fair share of postseason games, with a record perfectly in keeping with the rest of his career. The only thing that’s missing is another World’s Championship or two.
Rob compares Tony’s record to a number of other managers who worked fewer seasons and won more championships. I’ll just bring up Gene Mauch, who of course never won a World Series title, or even a post-season series. He was always considered a great manager. He lasted 26 seasons despite an overall record under .500 and overseeing one of the great collapses of all time. I have to assume that the front offices of those teams thought Gene made his teams better, even if they were not championship quality teams. Tony may be the same kind of manager, just with better teams.
Dave Cameron looks at the relationship between pitches in the strike zone and power of the batter. Do pitchers avoid the strike zone only against power hitters?
Patient hitters can absolutely take advantage of this flaw in order to get themselves into better hitters counts, even if they lack intimidating power. A patient approach at the plate may come with a byproduct of taking strikes from time to time, but it will more often involve hitters not swinging at pitches out of the strike zone, and the net gain is significantly positive.
There’s just no evidence to support the idea that batters being selective in what they swing at is “dangerous” or is producing sub-optimal results relative to a more aggressive approach at the plate. Good hitters swing at strikes, bad hitters swing at balls. There are a few notable exceptions, but if you want to have a good line-up, you’ll do a lot better collecting “Moneyball” type of hitters than going the other direction.
La Russa’s thinking on this point could be one reason he’s no longer managing the Athletics.
Jeff Passan savages Tony La Russa.
Inconsistencies between La Russa and Lilliquist’s stories were plentiful enough that it’s impossible to know what is truth and what isn’t. There could be more. Did La Russa forget the number of outs when he walked Cruz? Did he forget to mention Motte’s name on the first phone call? Most important, in what universe does “Motte” sound like “Lynn”? Especially a Lynn who isn’t supposed to throw.
“If he hears ‘Lynn’ and I’m the manager,” La Russa said, “what is he going to say?”
What he should say is: Hey, skip, he’s not supposed to pitch, right? It’s what any employee with a working relationship and not one of subservience would say to his boss. That La Russa runs a ship in which such communication isn’t encouraged personifies who he is and how he manages. It makes his successes great. It makes his failures spectacular.
It all smells fishy, and it’s because La Russa played guppy in the ultimate role reversal. This was supposed to be Ron Washington, the Rangers’ high-energy, low-strategy manager, the one who at the beginning of the series seemed the certain of the two to explain away tactical flubs with incomplete reason and mindless rationale and circuitous sentences. Even though he issued too many intentional passes and batted his best hitter, Napoli, eighth, Washington got away with it. His rationale for keeping Napoli there – he wanted to split up Murphy and Moreland, his lefties – ended up contributing to La Russa’s confusion, and at night’s end Washington found himself one victory away from a ring fitting.
Maybe we should ask Tony’s family if he was driving the team drunk.
Michael Young gives his manager, Ron Washington, high praise:
“I don’t really compare my manager to other managers, I just know how he works for us,” said the Rangers’ Michael Young. “I think the mark of a good manager is putting your players in spots where they can have success, and Wash does that consistently with us.”
I agree with Young’s definition of a good manager, and the Rangers successes outweighed their failures on Monday night.
I was also hoping for a better explanation of the first Allen Craig caught stealing, but all we got from Tony La Russa was:
Allen Craig was caught stealing in the seventh with Albert Pujols at the plate, a play that La Russa called “a mix-up.”
The Fox broadcast team thought Albert called for the hit and run himself.
Update: Jeff Sullivan doesn’t praise Washington:
It’s been swept under the rug, but Washington had himself a pretty shitty game, too. He left C.J. Wilson in too long. He relived Wilson with Scott Feldman instead of someone else. He intentionally walked Albert Pujols three times to face Matt Holliday. While I understand the playoffs have been the playoffs, Pujols’ OPS+ this season was 150. Holliday’s was 153. Matt Holliday is really good, too. Results-based analysis suggests that Washington managed La Russa’s pants off, but process-based analysis has them both standing naked.
It turns out Tony La Russa wanted to go to Jason Motte earlier:
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said he wanted hard-throwing right-hander Jason Motte to pitch to Texas’ right-hand-hitting catcher, but when he called down to the bullpen, coach Derek Lilliquist misunderstood his instructions.
“They heard Rzepczynski and they didn’t hear Motte,” La Russa said. “And when I called back I said Motte, they heard (Lance) Lynn. So I went out there, wrong guy. It must (have) been loud. I give the fans credit.”
Lilliquist agreed, saying he didn’t hear Motte’s name during either phone call. La Russa said it’s happened before, just never in a World Series game.
I can understand confusing Mark with Motte, especially given Tony’s pattern of use. But Motte for Lynn or Lance? When Rzepczynski came in, Tony should have sent a runner to the bullpen to make sure Motte was warming up. Maybe La Russa should start tweeting his moves. It would be faster and more accurate.
Baseball Time in Arlington sings the praises of Derek Holland, but also notes this managerial reversal (emphasis added):
The pitcher listened attentively, gently nodded his head at the appropriate moments, and then served as the eager recipient of a playful slap to the cheek from the manager as he wrapped up his talk and sent him on his way. I don’t know exactly what was said during that conversation, and I doubt we’ll ever know exactly what was said (though Richard Durrett gives us a fairly decent idea this morning), but then again, I’m not sure that what was said matters so much as the fact that the manager and the pitcher truly connected on a visceral level in that moment. The kid simply didn’t want to disappoint his baseball dad again.
Three hours later, the pitcher was being serenaded with his own name by one of the largest crowds in the history of Texas baseball. A few minutes later, the win was carried across the finish line by the erratic-but-thankfully-just-good-enough closer, and the plaudits began to shower down upon the pitcher who had just turned in one of the most brilliant pitching performances in World Series history. His manager beamed, while the purported managerial genius helming the other team found himself — and his decisions — peppered with second guesses almost immediately. It turns out that you don’t have to win the managerial “chess match” if you overturn the table upon which the chess board is resting.
The manager of men beat the manager of strategy Sunday night.
It’s amazing how fast a manager goes from genius to idiot:
Game 2 put La Russa in the cross hairs that had been trained on Texas manager Ron Washington after Game 1. La Russa’s magic touch with his manic bullpen usage finally came under question. The Cardinals were in position to win when the trap door finally opened on their charmed bullpen.
As the Rangers had the tying run on third and go-ahead run on second with no outs, this is what La Russa scripted: he yanked his closer, Jason Motte, and in a situation in which he needed a strikeout, brought in his relief pitcher least likely to get a strikeout, Arthur Rhodes (career-low 5.7 strikeouts per nine innings as a reliever). And behind Rhodes, rather than veteran righty-killer and troubleshooter Octavio Dotel, La Russa wanted rookie and converted starter Lance Lynn to finish the game — the same Lynn who has finished precisely three games in his professional life.
I’m sorry, either Tony knows how to use his bullpen, or he doesn’t. Given that he’s been managing this way since his days in Oakland, and his success, I’d say La Russa made the moves that most likely improved his chances of winning. After all, his relief pitchers did get three outs after Jason Motte gave up two singles. In most cases, that would work. It doesn’t take much to turn fly balls into pop ups, and then Tony looks like a genius again. Give the Texas hitters credit for delivering.
Rob Neyer breaks down the managing around the Esteban German at bat.