Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Tony La Russa

From SABR member Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times on November 7, 2011:

Last week, as most of you already know, Tony La Russa retired. This marks the end of an era for managers. Just 14 months ago, three sure-fire Hall of Fame skippers still worked the dugout: Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, and La Russa. All are now gone, along with fellow veteran managers Lou Piniella and Jack McKeon.

This is not to take a look back at the end of that entire era of managers. La Russa, as the longest lasting and winningest of the bunch, deserves his own space. Last week, when news of his retirement broke I posted a career highlights retrospective of La Russa’s life and times.

The goal here is different; it’s to look through and note some key themes and points of his entire (and lengthy) career. Oh, and if it rips off the old “10 things I didn’t know” format Boss-man Studes used to employ all the time. That’s an added bonus.

There’s an extra wrinkle in this for me. I wrote a book, Evaluating Baseball’s Managers (winner of The Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award!) that already profiles La Russa. That profile is already available online and there’s no point in just rehashing it.

Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/ten-things-i-didnt-know-about-tony-la-russa/



Originally published: November 9, 2011. Last Updated: November 9, 2011.