Thursday afternoon found Tony La Russa inside his East Bay home cleaning cat pans and doing due diligence on the previous night’s ineffectual use of instant replay by an umpiring crew in Cleveland. Much of La Russa’s post-managerial responsibilities include reporting to the commissioner about Major League Baseball’s expanding embrace of replay. Anything to do with cat litter, TLR is on his own.
Two years removed from his last season inside the Cardinals’ dugout, La Russa has assumed another role. He has become to baseball what Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden are to the NFL and Phil Jackson is to the NBA, a successful retired coach seemingly tied to every potential vacancy.
La Russa insists he would rather pull a double shift on pan duty than remain the focus of such speculation.
“Nothing has changed,” vowed La Russa, whose last appearance in a dugout remains last July’s All-Star Game in Kansas City. The last time TLR suited up at Busch Stadium will forever be Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. “I’ve had plenty of time to miss it and get back if I wanted that. I don’t.”
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Jackson, the aging Zen Master, played footsy with the Lakers before executive vice-president Jim Buss surprised many left coasters by naming Mike D’Antoni as the team’s third coach this season. The boyish and chatty Gruden, 49, seemingly is mentioned for every pro and significant college opening. Cowher, 56, has yet to look back since leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers one year after winning Super Bowl XL.
La Russa turns 69 in October. Today represents the 50th anniversary of his major-league debut with the Kansas City A’s. If he is impatient, it’s for action in a front office rather than as manager of a fourth franchise.
Still, his message is usually ignored every time a seat warms in a major market.
“The subject becomes newsworthy if some guy’s in trouble,” he says. “People are looking at alternatives and my name will pop up. I think all that’s going to end pretty quickly because I’m not interested.”
The water is boiling in Los Angeles where the Angels of Anaheim are trying to fend off the hapless Houston Astros for fourth-place in the AL West while the Dodgers spiral downward in the NL West following an eight-month shopping spree. Mike Scioscia and Don Mattingly are wearing crosshairs. Charlie Manuel also remains on the clock in Philadelphia, where third-base coach Ryne Sandberg is the presumptive successor.
The rumors grew uncomfortable enough last month for La Russa to ask FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal to quote him denying interest in the Angels’ job. During a nervous visit to Anaheim Stadium the same week, La Russa steered clear of personal contact with Angels owner Arte Moreno for fear of fanning speculation.
The fit in Anaheim would be a neat one: Moreno loves stars and pays them accordingly. La Russa ranks No. 3 on the all-time managerial win list behind Connie Mack and John McGraw. Geography is convenient. Just as significant, La Russa certainly would gain immediate support from first baseman Albert Pujols, who became implicated in last season’s abrupt firing of hitting coach and Scioscia confidante Mickey Hatcher.
“There’s nothing to that. It’s actually irritating,” La Russa said of the easy connection. “I was second-guessing my trip there because I didn’t want to do anything to disrespect Mike. I have tremendous respect for him.”
A media push arose for La Russa to succeed Bobby Valentine in Boston. Conspiracy theories sprouted that Cincinnati Reds owner and former Cardinals minority partner Bob Castellini along with general manager Walt Jocketty would seek Dusty Baker’s ouster before attempting to lure La Russa out of retirement. The Reds, however, won the NL Central, and Baker signed a two-year extension three months after engaging La Russa in a nasty verbal exchange regarding last summer’s All-Star selections. (To throw water on the conspiracy, Jocketty knows La Russa’s intentions perhaps as well as anyone within the game.)
La Russa and Jackson actually crossed paths during spring training. The two discussed career intentions. Jackson made clear he was looking for control. La Russa likewise had been part of a losing bid to purchase the Dodgers.
“It’s one way of being part of a team ... of getting back into the competition,” La Russa said.
Several teams have approached La Russa in the last 18 months, two of which received serious consideration. But for now he continues to wait. He has no desire to get the band back together for another push.
“The last three or four seasons [in St. Louis] I knew it was getting harder and harder for me to get where I wanted to be,” La Russa said. “We wanted players to personalize their contributions to the team, but you can’t make that challenge unless you can look in the mirror and are OK with what you see.”
Pitching coach Dave Duncan long predicted La Russa would exit if his intensity dipped below “a 10.” Beset by shingles early in the 2011 season, La Russa conceded, “It wasn’t as much fun. I’d been there for a long time. A lot of things came together. If I’d been younger it would have been time to go to another club. But since I’m not I didn’t want to start fresh. I’d had enough.”
Dugout gamesmanship and retaliation wore down La Russa. He lost friends in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee (twice) and Cincinnati because of it. Eventually it cost him some of his trademark edge.
“Some things,” he said, “wore me out.”
La Russa walked away from the game as its highest-paid manager. Most franchises now lean toward less experienced men who adhere to a more vertical organizational structure, a structure that allows the front office more sway within the clubhouse. Indeed, the Cardinals’ organizational blueprint changed immediately upon La Russa’s departure as general manager John Mozeliak assigned Mike Matheny his coaching staff.
A baseball lifer, La Rusaa still loves the game and the tethered relationships. He badly wishes to remain part of it, maybe a big part of it. But as rumors spread about managers on borrowed time, TLR promises it won’t be him who comes to collect. He’d rather change the litter.
