With Tony La Russa, There Was The Good And The Bad

By Leslie Monteiro

Here’s a stunner: Tony La Russa announced his retirement yesterday afternoon. This comes in light of him winning his third World Series championship Friday night.

TLR decided he had enough. He was having health problems, going through the case of shingles this summer. He also thought now it was the time to walk away while he was on top. He knows managers or coaches don’t get to leave on their own terms in this day and age, and that surely played into his equation in leaving.

His departure will get people to talk about his career as a manager. This is painful to say something nice about a manager I don’t like, but here goes.

La Russa is the best manager in my generation. Those are the words that came out of my mouth when the Cardinals won the World Series Friday night.

His third championship puts him in the class of other great managers such as Sparky Anderson, Connie Mack, John McGraw, Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel. He is one of the few managers that won a World Series in both leagues.  He managed for 32 straight seasons, and he won 2, 728 games as manager.  To say that he is a Hall of Famer is an understatement.

This year is his best year of his managerial career. After it appeared the Cardinals would miss the playoffs for the second straight season, they made an impressive run in September to qualify for the playoffs. They continued their magic ride by beating three teams that were supposed to beat them in the Phillies, Brewers and the Rangers.

La Russa did this with castoffs and young players. Yes, he had stars in Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday and Chris Carpenter to help him win games, but this roster featured more of unknown names that played a role in leading them to the playoffs and a championship. No one would have thought Allen Craig and David Freese would be stars in the playoffs, but that’s exactly what happened.

La Russa’s biggest strength is getting the most out of his players. His players play for him, and he coaches them well when it comes to playing baseball. They do a good job of working up the count, hitting the ball and playing good defense. They also pitch well.

The Cardinals are always in the mix every year when it comes to contending in the NL Central, and that’s a testimony on La Russa’s success. The new manager has lot of work to do in replacing the legend, and it won’t be easy.

Want to know what was impressive about La Russa? He did this at 67- years -old, and he has the command and respect of the players. Normally, players tune the manager out when he reaches that age. It’s why most teams hire managers in their 30s and 40s.

That being said…

For all the good things La Russa has done, he bothers others for the way he does his business. And when discussing the guys legacy, the negative should be acknowledged just as equally as the positive.

He has enabled players such as Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire to use steroids. He hasn’t apologized for his role in it.

He hired McGwire to be his hitting coach despite the fact his star embarrassed himself and baseball for using steroids. Some called it loyalty to a player. In reality, it was La Russa showing more concern for Big Mac than he did for the sanctity of the game… for the second time.

He always has to change relievers after each batter just so he can get the matchup that he likes. It works for him at times, but it can also come back to haunt him as we saw in Game 5 of the World Series. He should let his relievers get through a 1-2-3 inning rather than do that stupid mixing-and-matching matchup that tends to make the game longer with the change of pitchers. Hard to argue with results, sure, but it’s also hard to argue after a five hour snore fest. If there was ever a manager that belonged in the Yankees – Red Sox rivalry…

And haven’t you ever noticed that during the baseball season, it’s the Cardinals who are always in the highlight reel for their role in the brawls?? This stems from them throwing at the opposing team’s batters. It’s La Russa’s way of wanting guys to intimidate their counterpart by throwing at them.

The Cardinals manager behaves like a bully in his strategy, and he behaved like a bully when a media member questioned his motives or his strategy after the game.

La Russa makes a point to tell everyone how great of a manager he is by his behavior in the dugout. He acts smug when there is a camera shot of him in the dugout. He took shots at the umpire during an in-game interview during the NLDS.

Still, none of that matters to an average fan or La Russa’s fawning admirers. That’s what winning championships does.  The manager’s crimes will largely be ignored, because winning is the ultimate cure.

When La Russa enters the Hall of Fame, expect adulations and strong testimonials about him. There will be everyone disregarding some of the stuff he does in baseball.

There’s nothing to like about his ethics, but there’s something to like about his ability to win games.

This is why we call him as a polarizing figure, and now, he is out of our baseball lives for good.

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Tags: St Louis Cardinals, Tony La Russa, world series