Tony La Russa

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La Russa made his major league debut with the Kansas City A's on May 10, 1963, after having played 76 games with A's affiliates Binghamton Triplets and Daytona Beach Islanders in 1962. He spent the entire 1963 season in the majors, as was required by his signing as a "bonus baby". He had suffered an off-season shoulder injury while playing softball with friends, and this limited him to only 34 games in 1963, in which he hit .250. The injured shoulder bothered him through the remainder of his playing career.

Over the next six seasons, La Russa spent most of his time in the minor leagues. He made it back up to the A's, which had since moved to Oakland, in 1968 and 1969. He spent the entire 1970 season with the A's, and then late in 1971 the A's traded him to the Atlanta Braves. His final big league playing stop was with the Chicago Cubs, where he appeared as a pinch runner in one game, on April 6, 1973, scoring the walk-off winning run. He also spent time in the organizations of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox, and St. Louis Cardinals.

In total, he played 132 major-league games, 40 in the starting lineup. He went 35-for-176, for a batting average of .199. His 23 walks pushed his on-base percentage to .292. He had 7 RBI and scored 15 runs. He made 63 appearances at second base, 18 at shortstop, and two at third base, fielding .960 in 249 total chances and participating in 34 double plays.

Managerial career

Having started coursework following his A's signing in 1962, La Russa graduated from the University of South Florida in 1969 with a degree in Industrial Management. He earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Florida State University College of Law in 1978. and was admitted to the Florida Bar on July 30, 1980. He is associated with a Sarasota law firm although he is not eligible to practice at this time. La Russa has been quoted as saying, "I decided I'd rather ride the buses in the minor leagues than practice law for a living." Shortly before graduating from FSU College of Law, La Russa spoke with one of his professors about his post-graduation plans, indicating to his professor that he had an opportunity to coach in the minor leagues and asking his professor what he should do. La Russa's professor responded, "Grow up, you're an adult now, you're going to be a lawyer."

He is one of a select number of major league managers in baseball history who have graduated from law school or passed a state bar exam; others include James Henry O'Rourke (Buffalo Bisons, 1881–84, Washington Senators, 1893), John Montgomery Ward (New York Giants, Brooklyn and Providence, late 1800s), Hughie Jennings (Detroit, 1907–20, New York Giants, 1924), Miller Huggins (St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees, 1913–29), Muddy Ruel (St. Louis Browns, 1947), Jack Hendricks (St. Louis Cardinals, 1918, Cincinnati, 1924–29), and Branch Rickey (St. Louis Browns, 1913–15, St. Louis Cardinals, 1919–25).

La Russa credits Loren Babe and Paul Richards of the White Sox organization for helping him to become a manager. The White Sox gave La Russa his first managerial opportunity in 1978 by naming him skipper of their Double-A affiliate, the Knoxville Sox of the Southern League. La Russa spent a half-season at Knoxville before being promoted to the White Sox coaching staff when owner Bill Veeck changed managers from Bob Lemon to Larry Doby. Doby was fired at the end of the season; Don Kessinger, former star shortstop of the crosstown Cubs, was named the White Sox' player-manager for 1979, and La Russa was named manager of the Triple-A Iowa Oaks of the American Association, choosing to manage in the minors after the White Sox had offered him his same major league coaching role.

The White Sox fired Kessinger with a 46–60 record two-thirds of the way through the 1979 season and replaced him with La Russa. The White Sox played .500 baseball (27–27) for the rest of the 1979 campaign. LaRussa, at 34, was the youngest manager in the major leagues. He credits Paul Richards with first inspiring him to believe he could succeed as a major league manager. La Russa was named American League Manager of the Year in 1983, when his club won the AL West but fell to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series.

The White Sox fired La Russa after the club got off to a 26–38 start in 1986. In 1986, General Manager Roland Hemond, who had hired La Russa as White Sox Manager, was replaced by the White Sox' broadcaster Ken Harrelson as general manager. Harrelson then fired both La Russa and coach Dave Duncan during the season. Ironically, Harrelson and La Russa were teammates at Binghamton in 1962. In later years, White Sox Owner Jerry Reinsdorf expressed regret for allowing La Russa to be fired. He finished his White Sox career with a 522–510 regular season record and a 1–3 postseason record. Decades later, Hemond would say of La Russa: “Tony La Russa is one of the most brilliant managers that I ever encountered in my baseball career. He saw things other people didn’t see. There were some managers who thought he was out of line with what he was trying to do, but later on they had to respect him because it was working. There’s no question he changed the way the game is played.” La Russa is also commonly credited for the advent of the modern specialized bullpen.

La Russa had a break of less than three weeks before his old club, the Athletics, called him to take over as manager. LaRussa and Duncan both joined the A's, inheriting a team that was 31–52 and in 7th place. They went 45–34 the rest of the season to finish in 3rd place in 1986.

La Russa managed the Oakland A's to three consecutive American League Pennants and World Series appearances from 1988 to 1990. The A's swept the earthquake-delayed Bay Area 1989 World Series from the rival San Francisco Giants. The previous season, the A's had lost the 1988 World Series to manager Tommy Lasorda and the Los Angeles Dodgers. In their third consecutive appearance, the favored A's faced manager Lou Piniella, LaRussa's childhood teammate and friend, and his Cincinnati Reds in the 1990 World Series. La Russa's Athletics were swept by the Cincinnati Reds. In both 1988 and 1990 the A's had swept the Boston Red Sox 4–0 in the ALCS, after winning 100 and 99 games respectively. The 1988 World Series was made famous by the Kirk Gibson game-winning home run off of A's Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley. La Russa earned two American League Manager of the Year awards with the A's, in 1988 and 1992, giving him three AL awards, the latter after again winning the Western Division.

After the 1995 season, in which the A's finished 67–77, the Haas family, with whom La Russa had a close personal relationship, sold the team after the death of patriarch Walter A. Haas, Jr. In the off-season, La Russa left Oakland to take over for the fired Joe Torre as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. La Russa had a 798–673 regular season record and a 19–13 postseason record with Oakland.

In his first campaign with the Cardinals in 1996, La Russa clinched the National League Central Division title (and also finished National League runner-up), a feat his clubs repeated in 2000, 2001, 2002 (his fourth Manager of the Year award), 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2009. The Cardinals also tied for the National League Central crown with the Houston Astros in 2001. He became the first manager to win the award four times. La Russa's fourth Manager of the Year award was arguably the most emotional; La Russa led the Cardinals to the National League Championship Series (where they would ultimately lose in five games to the San Francisco Giants) in a year in which the Cardinals were traumatized by the deaths of beloved Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck and 33-year-old pitcher Darryl Kile just four days later. On September 10, 2003, he won his 2,000th career game as a manager against the Colorado Rockies, becoming the seventh to reach the mark in Major League Baseball.

The 2004 edition of the club played one of the finest seasons in Cardinals' history, as they won 105 games. After a regular season in which the Cardinals led the NL in runs scored (855) while allowing the fewest (659), La Russa's Cardinals defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series, 3 games to 1. St. Louis then took on the Houston Astros in the National League Championship Series. In a tense series with opposing pitcher Roger Clemens at the top of his game, Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen hit a game-winning two-run home run off Clemens in Game 7 following Jim Edmonds' rally saving catch. This home run sent the Cardinals to the World Series for the first time since 1987. However, they were swept in four games by an historic Boston Red Sox team that had just surmounted a 3–0 deficit against the New York Yankees and captured their first championship since 1918.

2006 saw a return to the World Series, this time with a 4–1 victory over the Detroit Tigers, managed by Jim Leyland. The team's 83–78 regular season record is the worst ever by an eventual World Series champion, usurping the 1987 Minnesota Twins' 85–77 campaign. La Russa is the second manager to win a World Series in both the American League and National League – a distinction shared with his mentor Sparky Anderson.

When he came to St. Louis, La Russa wore number 10 to symbolize the team's drive to their 10th championship and pay tribute to Anderson, who wore number 10 while manager of the Cincinnati Reds. After winning the championship, he chose to continue wearing number 10 to pay tribute to Anderson.

It was as a player with the A's that La Russa first met catcher Dave Duncan, who would join his coaching staff in Chicago in 1983. The two worked together on every La Russa-managed team thereafter, and he often credits Duncan as playing a key role in his success.

La Russa led the Cardinals to the 2011 World Series, after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS (3–2), and then the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS (4–2). The Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the World Series to win the franchise's 11th World Championship, and the third of La Russa's managerial career. He passed Bobby Cox for 2nd place on the all-time postseason wins list with his 68th win in Game 3. Three days following the World Series win, La Russa announced his retirement, ranking second all-time in postseason wins with 70, third all-time with 2,728 regular season wins, second with 5,097 games managed, and second with 33 years (tied) managing with John McGraw. He finished his Cardinals career with a 1408–1182 regular season record and 50–42 postseason record.

La Russa also became the first manager in Major League Baseball history to retire in the same season after winning a World Series title. Even though he had retired, La Russa managed the National League All Stars in the 2012 MLB All-Star Game for the final time as a member of the Cardinals. The National League won 8–0.

After serving in various executive roles for MLB and for several teams, La Russa was announced as the manager of the White Sox on October 29, 2020, replacing Rick Renteria. At 76, La Russa became the oldest manager in MLB. He also became the first manager in baseball history to return to managing after being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager. A. J. Hinch was known to be another finalist, but was hired by the Detroit Tigers instead when the White Sox decided on La Russa.

On June 6, 2021, La Russa passed John McGraw for second place in all-time managerial wins. La Russa led the White Sox to their first AL Central division title since 2008. They lost to the Houston Astros in the 2021 ALDS three games to one.

In 2022, at 77 years of age, La Russa was the oldest manager in major league baseball, four years older than Dusty Baker. On August 31, 2022, La Russa was ruled out indefinitely after undergoing tests on his heart. On October 3, La Russa announced that he was retiring for good, effective immediately.

As of games played on August 26, 2022.

Executive career

Shortly after his retirement from the playing field, La Russa took a position with MLB assisting former managerial rival Joe Torre in matters of on-field discipline. He held this position for more than two seasons.

On May 17, 2014, La Russa accepted a position as Chief Baseball Officer for the Arizona Diamondbacks to oversee the entire baseball operations department.

After joining the Diamondbacks in 2014, La Russa was reunited with former assistants Duncan and McKay, and the general manager who hired him to manage the White Sox in 1979, Roland Hemond. On December 4, 2015, the Diamondbacks agreed to a six-year contract with free agent pitcher Zack Greinke worth a total of $206.5 million. At that time, it held the highest annual average value in MLB, exceeding $34.4 million per year, and was also the largest contract by total value in team history. La Russa was demoted to Chief Baseball Analyst/Advisor with the Diamondbacks following a disappointing 93-loss season in 2016, which also resulted in the firing of General Manager Dave Stewart and manager Chip Hale. Following the 2017 season, La Russa resigned.

In November 2017, the Boston Red Sox announced that La Russa had joined the team as vice president and special assistant to Dave Dombrowski, the president of baseball operations. In making the announcement, the Red Sox indicated that La Russa would assist with player development, serve as an advisor to the team's coaches at the major and minor league levels, and serve as a consultant for Alex Cora, the team's major league manager. La Russa worked with the Red Sox for two seasons, and after Dombrowski was released by the Red Sox during the 2019 season, the Los Angeles Angels hired La Russa as senior adviser for baseball operations in November 2019.

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