Tony La Russa is on a slippery slope these days. On October 28th, 2020, a DUI case was filed against Tony La Russa for an incident in February. The next day, the Chicago White Sox hired him as their new manager. These two events all but foreshadowed how bad this hiring was. The words to summarize his tenure in Chicago are irresponsible, lackadaisical, and underachieving.
Why La Russa Was Hired To Begin With
La Russa began his managerial career with the White Sox in 1979, taking over for Don Kessinger. Two years later, Jerry Reinsdorf purchased the White Sox and became the owner. After that, Reinsdorf and La Russa became great friends and share that bond to this day. However, La Russa was relieved of his managerial duties in 1986 by Ken Harrelson. Reinsdorf has gone on record saying that firing La Russa was the “second worst decision” he ever made. One can only assume that this move was made to amend that firing.
Despite the obvious friendship and regret between these two figures, a lot of people never actually thought La Russa would actually be hired. The White Sox have a ton of young talent in Luis Robert, Yoán Moncada, Andrew Vaughn, Eloy Jiménez, Nick Madrigal, Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, and Michael Kopech. The assumption was that the Sox would look to hire someone that could bond and relate with this talent, especially with the young Latin American players. Instead, Reinsdorf decided to pull rank and hire the 76-year-old.
Why La Russa Needs To Go
In his defense, La Russa deserved a chance to prove that he could bond with his players. He quickly proved that that he couldn’t. Barely one month into the 2021 season, rookie Yermin Mercedes launched a 3-0 pitch into the seats during a 15-4 blowout in Minnesota. Instead of standing up for Mercedes, La Russa went so far as to call the home run a “big mistake”, said that the rookie was “clueless”, and even mentioned that there would be consequences. This is a terrible message to send to his young core, and the mood in the clubhouse never seemed to recover.
The Sox managed to win 93 games in 2021, clinching the American League Central division. However, one could argue that they benefited from playing in a very weak division. No other team in that division won over 80 games. Now in late August, the south siders find themselves below .500. They are below the league average in home runs, RBI, stolen bases, walks, SLG, and OPS. They also find themselves leading the American League in GIDP and runners left on base. The pitching staff isn’t anything to write home about either. Their team ERA, yet again below league average, sits at 4.02.
Giving A Bad Image To A Historic Franchise
The White Sox don’t have many banners flying at Guaranteed Rate Field, but they’ve long maintained a reputation of housing a hardworking and respectable clubhouse. Carlton Fisk, Frank Thomas, Paul Konerko, Mark Buehrle, the 2005 World Series team that saw their starting rotation each pitch a complete game in the ALCS, and many others. These are the players that made White Sox baseball enjoyable to watch, even when struggling.
Tony La Russa does not uphold those standards. Intentional walks with a 1-2 count against the batter, failing to protect Tim Anderson from a physical confrontation with an umpire and dozing off during a game. All of these moments go to show that La Russa should’ve stayed retired.
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Players/managers mentioned:
Tony La Russa, Don Kessinger, Ken Harrelson, Luis Robert, Yoán Moncada, Andrew Vaughn, Eloy Jiménez, Nick Madrigal, Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech, Yermin Mercedes, Carlton Fisk, Frank Thomas, Paul Konerko, Mark Buehrle, Tim Anderson
