White Sox hire Tony LaRussa as manager

Harry Hooper

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First question for the press conference, "Are you bringing back the the Bill Veeck uniforms with the shorts too?"
 

jon abbey

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Truly awful decision for so many reasons, the usually calm Jeff Passan eviscerated him here in 2016:

"Tony La Russa, a convicted drunk driver who managed one of the most steroid-addled clubhouses in modern baseball history and today oversees an organization that at the trade deadline passed along to multiple organizations private medical information about a player it wanted to deal, spent Wednesday playing moralist, a role that suits him about as well as chief baseball officer for a major league franchise.

The impetus behind La Russa’s barrage of illogic was Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones, who called baseball a “white man’s sport” when asked why no ballplayer had emulated the protests of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Were La Russa not so fundamentally myopic, he may well have realized he is exactly the white man of whom Jones speaks. And the worst kind at that: an authoritarian happy to share his opinion but not respectful enough to allow others to use their platforms in the same fashion."

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-hypocrisy-of-tony-la-russa-and-the-understandable-fears-of-black-baseball-players-045857175.html
 

Nator

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What a nightmare for this team full of youthful fun players. They hire the grouchiest curmudgeon possible to suck the joy out of that ball club.

I am not sure what the Red Sox offseason plans are, but I hope they try to bring in Don Cooper as their pitching coach. He was awesome with the White Sox.
 

BaseballJones

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So thankful for this hire. It completely takes him out of the realm of possibility for Boston (not that I think Bloom would hire him, but still...).
 

soxhop411

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View: https://twitter.com/martinonyc/status/1321876778038808578
Tony La Russa to @MaggieGray in 2016: "I would not, to the best of my ability, I would not sanction somebody taking a knee ... I think that's disrespectful, and I really question the sincerity of somebody like Kaepernick."
La Russa's new SS @TimAnderson7 is on the board of the board of the Players' Alliance. Jerry Reinsdorf has now put him in the position of having to play for a man who openly opposes peaceful protest against racism and racial violence.
View: https://twitter.com/martinonyc/status/1321880344820436993
TLR to Dan LeBatard on @SimplyAJ10's prescient comments about baseball being a "white man's game" because the power structure is almost all white : “When he says it’s a white, like, elitist kind of sport, I mean how much wronger can he be?”
Also to LeBatard: :I would tell [a player protesting the anthem to] sit inside the clubhouse. You’re not going to be out there representing our team and our organization by disrespecting the flag. No, sir, I would not allow it." (via an old @JeffPassan col)
So which players does TLR force the white sox to trade?
 

54thMA

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"The Chicago White Sox have hired Hall of Famer Tony La Russa as their new manager. La Russa, 76, managed the White Sox from 1979-86, and his firing was owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s great regret."

Guess he never heard that two wrongs don't make a right.....................admit your mistake and move on, you can't undo the past.
 

LogansDad

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Well, this is as bad as news of a hiring for a team I only follow because they are fun could possibly be.

What a terrible, terrible decision.
 

nattysez

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Last edited:

Oppo

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They got Cashed.
LaRussa or Dusty would’ve left Snell in for 130 pitches.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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That loud, thunderous applause you are hearing coming from the Midwest is from Minnesota and Cleveland.
Yeah, as an Indians fan I was going to say pretty much exactly this. I couldn't have handpicked a better hire for them. Even when the Red Sox hired Valentine there was an apparent reason for their direction, even if it was shortsighted and ham-fisted. This was for no other reason than he's Reinsdorf's (drinking?) buddy.
 

VORP Speed

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Reinsdorf heard every other team is hiring people from Tampa, but he didn’t realize it’s people who worked there not who grew up there.
 

Steve Dillard

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Can't wait for the first time he starts going lefty on lefty in the 7th inning, and then tries to change for the righty and learns his biggest innovation is now outlawed,
 

nattysez

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Was there a discussion of La Russa's anti-progressive attitudes when he was recently working for the Red Sox? If so, I missed it.
There was definitely main board unhappiness about his hiring, but I think it was somewhat muted by the unclear nature of his job and the fact that it was clear that he was not a final decision-maker or working directly with players.
 

joe dokes

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Why is that a wonderful take? How is Tony LaRussa, who spoke Spanish as his first language growing up in Ybor City, not equipped to relate to Latino players?
Speaking Spanish may be necessary, but it is far from sufficient.
 

nvalvo

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Why is that a wonderful take? How is Tony LaRussa, who spoke Spanish as his first language growing up in Ybor City, not equipped to relate to Latino players?
I'd be less worried about LaRussa's relationship with the Latin players on the roster than that his past statements suggest that he basically sees Tim Anderson as a social problem.
 

VORP Speed

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I'd be less worried about LaRussa's relationship with the Latin players on the roster than that his past statements suggest that he basically sees Tim Anderson as a social problem.
Yeah, I don’t think he’s a good hire but people are just flinging shit against the wall to make it seem OUTRAGEOUS. He had steroid users on his teams during the steroid era? Come on.
 

Cellar-Door

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I'd be less worried about LaRussa's relationship with the Latin players on the roster than that his past statements suggest that he basically sees Tim Anderson as a social problem.
Also that Black players have been calling him a racist since Ron Gant in the 1990s
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Why is that a wonderful take? How is Tony LaRussa, who spoke Spanish as his first language growing up in Ybor City, not equipped to relate to Latino players?
I believe the argument is that 76 years old and out of the game for a decade might as well be 176 years old when it comes to relating to any modern players, Latino or otherwise. That's before even getting to his stodgy old white guy views.
 

nvalvo

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Yeah, I don’t think he’s a good hire but people are just flinging shit against the wall to make it seem OUTRAGEOUS. He had steroid users on his teams during the steroid era? Come on.
I think that argument is more animated by the contrast with Hinch.

We have a pretty good idea that many (most?) teams are doing some sort of boundary-pushing with sign stealing. Hinch's Astros, though, are seen as at the center of that, so the idea of signing him was criticized. But LaRussa's A's — and Cardinals, to a lesser extent — were kind of like the Astros of that earlier scandal.

Does that make sense?
 

Humphrey

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They got Cashed.
LaRussa or Dusty would’ve left Snell in for 130 pitches.
That makes no sense. LaRussa and Sparky Anderson were the original Quick Hook guys. Bob Ryan coined the phrase LaRussa-ism to describe it.
 

Devizier

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Yeah, I don’t think he’s a good hire but people are just flinging shit against the wall to make it seem OUTRAGEOUS. He had steroid users on his teams during the steroid era? Come on.
The big flag is his age. This reminds me of when the Marlins brought back Jack McKeon.
 

santadevil

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I wonder if this will end up worse for the White Sox than it did for the Red Sox and Bobby V

As mentioned, this is a young, fun and upcoming team and I expect progress will get stuck in the mud for a year
 

Hank Scorpio

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What the hell?
This sums it up perfectly.

I saw the thread title, and thought it was a joke.

What’s next, Tommy Lasorda?

This is like if they made Creed III, in which Adonis Creed starts “blinging out”, gets too uppity, and threatens to bust a cap in Spider Rico’s ass - so Rocky Balboa comes out of retirement to put Creed in his place.

This is a 2028 Democratic Primary featuring John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, while Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee square off for the GOP.

This is getting out of the shower fully refreshed, with the AC on, right before bed after a sweltering hot July day, and immediately realizing you suddenly have to take a massive, explosive shit for the ages.

What the fuck?