Jerry Reinsdorf gets his man with Tony La Russa. The White Sox are an afterthought.
Here’s how Rick Hahn described his future manager as they set out on the hiring search to replace Rick Renteria earlier this month:
“This is an opportunity for us as an organization,” Hahn said Monday. “Ultimately, I think the best candidate or the ideal candidate is going to be someone who has experience with a championship organization in recent years. Recent October experience with a championship organization would be ideal. But we’re going to keep an open mind.”
Here’s how Jerry Reinsdorf described his man, Tony La Russa, after yet another managerial non-search resulted in an underwhelming selection made official this afternoon:
Sure it isn’t. Just like Reinsdorf and La Russa denied having an active role in getting Harold Baines into the Hall of Fame. (Speaking of which, Bob Nightengale says La Russa wants Baines back on the coaching staff. His presence didn’t yield any incredible benefits the first time around.)
I’ve been disinclined to defend Hahn for ownership-related issues over his tenure because it’s part of his job to succeed within the boundaries ownership sets. Here, I don’t blame him if his aspirations got trampled. Hahn said he wanted to avoid being “insular,” and Reinsdorf instead wanted to make amends for a decision plenty of White Sox fans weren’t even alive to see.
There’s a chance this could end up working out, if only because talent dictates results more than management, La Russa knows how to manage conflict, and he’s probably more analytically inclined than he lets on. There’s also a chance it could explode, because he seems like the worst candidate to oversee a clubhouse of expressive individuals in an era of player empowerment.
There’s also the matter that he hasn’t managed since 2011, which is around the time Don Cooper’s effectiveness started to tail off. The White Sox fired Cooper because they needed to overhaul their approach to developing pitchers. The White Sox now hired a manager who hasn’t shown particular acumen for evaluating talent under modern training regimens.
Sox fans have generally known that their hopes ride on the weird whims of a billionaire who doesn’t really keep them in mind, and this confirms it more than anything. As always, there’s no choice to but to see if the guy who interrupted one potential White Sox golden age by engineering a labor stoppage will avoid short-circuiting another by hiring his ostensibly out-of-touch friend at a critical juncture in his team’s development in an attempt to correct a decision from the 1980s.
There are way more questions than answers, and it’s worth scanning the skies to look for potential fallout from the undermining. For the time being, If you’re looking for solace, at least La Russa now has something to do..
This is the only job that would lure him out of retirement simply to help realize Reinsdorf’s dream of winning at least one more time.
Besides, to be honest, La Russa has been bored.
(Photo by Jerome Davis/Icon Sportswire)
Author
I guess we can cross off Marcus Stroman in all of those offseason plans.
Well there is at least one positive to the hire then.
Please explain how arguably the second best available pitcher probably no longer being an option solely because of the managerial hire is a positive? Never mind that this could very well extend to other big free agents like Springer and Semien.
While I have serious reservations about La Russa’s prospects, you don’t see a difference between “disagrees with players protesting the flag” and “won’t sign Black free agents”?
And now he’s said in the press conference that he now supports players’ rights to protest.
Michael is referring to Stroman liking posts saying that hiring La Russa will make the White Sox less likely to be able to sign free agents. It makes them a less attractive destination for some. He wasn’t saying La Russa doesn’t want to sign black free agents or they wouldn’t be able to sign any. However, Stroman would be less likely now.
Pnoles and others pointed out that Stroman has been liking a bunch of tweets about La Russa’s racist comments and how black players wouldn’t want to sign here if he’s the manager. Edit: What Foulkelore said.
Sorry to put words in your mouth, but I’m glad that is what you meant.
Well this is getting weird. Fansided wrote an article about Stroman’s likes, and now he’s directly debunked the whole thing.
…his agent probably reminded him how other free agents have successfully used the White Sox to improve the offers from the rest of the market.
To their credit at least the White Sox didn’t hire someone who has made recently made alienating statements about the actions of players or has been arrested on video.
I’m sick to my stomach.
Three World Championships. Enough said
That is not nearly enough
No, it’s really not enough said when he hasn’t managed in nine years, is 76 years old, and has publicly verbalized social opinions (much more recently than he managed, mind you) that really don’t mesh with what his best pitcher and most dynamic position player believe.
I agree. This is precisely the number of championships the White Sox will have won in their history by the end of LaRussa’s tenure.
What’s especially frustrating is this is the year the Bulls finally engaged in merit-based hiring. Clearly that was Michael Reinsdorf’s doing.
Back around 2016, I opined that Sox fans were stuck waiting for Jerry to die. That is harsh, but the Sox will not become a functional organization while he is alive.
Will Hahn still be here in 2 years when we sell off all of our good pieces because everything goes to shit under La Russa?
Hahn has the greatest job in the world. If this falls apart, he can now lay 100% of the blame on Jerry, and gets to engage in another rebuild. He has never once been held accountable for the horrid teams he built, and now he won’t be held accountable if his most recent attempt at building a contender is also a disaster. Rick is the luckiest GM in baseball.
Hahn has built exactly one team and it is considered one of the best managerial spots in baseball. I have no idea what you’re referring to. He inherited a mess from Kenny and spun it into gold in a matter of four years.
Hahn has been the GM since 2012. He was with the organization for 12 years before that…….hardly four short years
This is the worst sort of revisionist history. Good god, it’s just downright delusional.
Well, Dayton Moore got about 9 years to win a championship, only fair Rick gets a dozen or so.
We haven’t won a playoff series since Hahn took over as GM, which was about a year after La Russa last managed. If it all goes to you-know-what under La Russa, please remember that it’s not like it’s been paradise under Hahn’s helm at GM.
If JR was so obsessed with doing this, which it appears he was, why not hire him in 2011 or at any point during Ventura’s tenure? Why now in this climate? I can’t wait until I’m old and just don’t give a shit about anyone else anymore. Even hiring him after 2016 would have been miles better than doing this right now. 76!?!?!
Maybe Reinsdorf is just now getting nostalgic
Jerry no longer knows what year it is
This isn’t senility. This is the same good judgement that brought us SportsVision and Harrelson as GM.
That’s very funny and very true!
Because LaRussa didn’t want to manage a dumpster fire. Jerry has probably called him every year for fifteen years and this time LaRussa picked up the phone. Like Cosmo Kramer when he got burned by the hot coffee ….. “We’re prepared to offer you free coffee for life AND … “I’ll take it! ”
Like Kramer, Larussa probably said yes before they even got to the contract terms because this was a joke that never should have happened.
I’m pretty sure La Russa would not have allowed himself to be lured out of retirement without the promise of guiding a team poised to contend for a championship. The upside of that, as others have pointed out, is that Tony is certain to use his influence with JR to insist on acquiring top flight talent through free agency.
Then the problem becomes, which top flight talent wants to come play for this organization and is Jerry going to pay them what they want just because Tony asked him to?
Jerry saw Renteria and Cash pull starting pitchers too early in a playoff game and decided that he would hire a manager who will absolutely never do that.
This is a legitimate question: how do I voice my displeasure as a loyal fan in a way that the organization will hear?
I don’t feel like harassing a ticket-sales rep is the way to do this. Twitter is just like yelling into the void. Any suggestions?
moveon.org?
Seriously, my wife suggested I write a letter. But who would read it it? Or care. I’m wondering if I can carry on being a fan any longer. This feels like one mis-step too far.
That’s a good question since between covid and labor stoppages it might be a few years until we can boo him at game.
SoxFest.
Oh, wait….
eh, i say just yell into the void. that’s what i do. and i’m not on any social media.
I texted my rep and said “I’m not getting tickets this year and here is why….”
I assume that will be escalated and if enough people say it then it will be escalated even higher.
Decline to purchase tickets and switch to a cable/streaming service that doesn’t include subscriber fees for the Sox RSN.
The White Sox marketing department does regularly send out surveys to get fan sentiment for various players and the organization as a whole. If you watch the Sox website, you can get hooked into them. I have to assume that’s one of the best ways to get sentiment directly into the marketing department.
The last time La Russa managed the White Sox, 0 players on the current roster (assuming Gio and Edwin are gone) had even been born yet.
The last time La Russa managed the White Sox began when Bill Veeck hired him. Is Herm Schneider coming back?
It is an interesting point. In my mind, one of the main goals isn’t the manager but the pitching coach he brings. So who are the names LaRussa would be interested in
It’s going to be Richard Dotson
It won’t be Dave Duncan. Ron Schueler’s still alive. He’s the only other pitching coach La Russa’s had.
Dave McKay is the one long-term La Russa coach who was still in uniform this year, so I expect he’s coming on board.
“OK Boomer” memes don’t even work on him because he’s TOO FUCKING OLD
Apparently he’s of “the silent generation.” I never heard of that generation before today. Hey, look, I learned something indirectly from old man La Russa! It’s all going to be ok!
Eh, my original comment could be taken the wrong way.
I kept hearing over and over that firing Renteria was the first step in a “hire Phil Jackson” move, how they needed someone to take them over the top.
I didn’t think they meant “rehire Phil Jackson to coach the Bulls in 2020, grumble at the players to stop shooting so many doggone 3 pointers.”
It seems to me Hahn should resign. I don’t know why he would want to be GM in an organization where is he isn’t allowed to hire the manager.
Get paid big money to not actually be allowed to make consequential decisions? That’s a great job. Especially now that it’s clear to his critics that he isn’t really the one making the bad decisions.
I highly doubt Hahn feels that way.
People that make the effort to attend places like Harvard law school typically aren’t content to be someone’s lacky. They want a big time job where they can make critical decisions.
There are several people in the current administration who basically fit this description.
Kayleigh went to Harvard, requirement for being the Clown White House Press Secretary.
This is just idiotic. Hahn is in baseball because he loves the game. If he didn’t, there are plenty of HR jobs at Fortune 500 companies where he could hire and fire nameless drones every day. No one in their right mind would actually enjoy a job where you have been cucked in front of the entire sport. What’s next? Timmy tosses his bat a bit too far and now La Russa is sitting him? Robert hits a 3-0 homer and sits behind Engel for a week? Hahn has spent time building this team only to watch someone he didn’t want come in and ruin it. Why on Earth would he stay for that?
Exactly. There are some people who are perfectly content to hide away and have as little responsibility and authority as possible – given Hahn’s background, it doesn’t seem likely that he is one. This has to kill him.
This is even more groundless than the “Chris Sale hates his contract extension” talk.
Just like Rob Manfred is in baseball? Because he loves the game?
Where did you see Hahn disagrees with LaRussa’s hiring? Hahn saw tony manage before and he isn’t like all these jbags who are worried about social justice issues and what Tony may or may not have said when he was young (like 70)
For all we know, Hahn had exactly as much power over Renteria’s hiring and firing.
He gets paid well to run an MLB organization and live in his hometown.
Also, the dude’s been in the org for all or part of 2 decades. I think he knows the score. He’s probably OK with the arrangement.
Sorry if someone posted this already, but NBC Sports Chicago will be carrying the La Russa press conference at 2:30 pm.
Right before dinner time.
The lunch price for the buffet at the Ponderosa ends at 3:30, so they need to make the press conference quick.
Ponderosa still exists?
The one in my hometown burned down like 20 years ago. Left a lot of us scrambling to find someplace new to take our dates. Enter Montana Mike’s…
There was one in Aurora a few years back. I went to it not long before it shut down, and I have to say, sadly, I understand why it did. One of my favorite places as a kid, but damn, they really went downhill.
Does he come with 10% share in Blockbuster or AskJeeves?
Alta Vista
Pathetic – I was right to make this team an afterthought after they refused to build around Sale.
Sell the team Jerry! Or better yet end the tax step-up at death.
OK, not the popular choice but it’s Jerry’s candy store and he gets to make the call. So Tony is the manager selected to get the Sox the ring we all suffered through the rebuild for. What can we identify as positives:
1. LaRussa would not likely do this if he didn’t get a commitment to win it all. Jerry has already ponied up more in payroll than what Renteria would cost. Not a guarantee but much better chance that key additions will follow.
2. LaRussa is smart. Really smart. Smart matters in any walk of life.
3. LaRussa is a winner.
4. LaRussa has stayed involved in baseball, he’s not coming out of retirement.
5. All of his championships came with other organizations. This is not an insular pick.
6. He speaks Spanish, if that is a concern for some.
Please feel free to add to the positives. The negatives won’t change the call.
If he drinks and drives again, he’s more likely to fall asleep than have the car remain in motion, so he’s probably not going to threaten anybody’s life. Hell, that was 13 years ago, when he was only 63. The 76 year old version will pass out before even getting in the car. This will be safer for all Chicagoans.
7. Talking about this dumb decision is better than talking about the election.
8. Talking about this dumb decision is better than talking about COVID.
9. Talking about this dumb decision is better than talking about the Bears.
10. Reinsdorf is probably gonna force a lockout after next season anyway, so we’ll only have to watch this idiocy for a year.
11. I now have a handy example to define the term “white privilege” for sports fans.
Somebody called the score and said that they wanted Alomar because he speaks Latin. This “woke” individual almost made me drive off the road
Well now, hold on, let’s not jump to conclusions. Maybe Alomar is a student of the dead languages and that caller thinks it would be a good idea for the team to learn actual Latin, so they could see the roots of where much of their language comes from, whether it be Spanish or English. It was a sports radio caller, so I’m sure that’s what he/she meant.
If anyone is going to circulate a petition or an email or whatever, I would like to sign. Beyond disappointed in this. Can’t believe how quickly this tanked all my positive feelings about this team.
Looks like a petition has been started by someone:
https://www.change.org/p/jerry-reinsdorf-white-sox-should-not-hire-tony-la-russa?recruiter=208652966&recruited_by_id=ebf6e050-97b4-11e4-8e47-7b32e9f9f72b
aaaaaaand it’s locked for some reason.
and for the second time they signed a first-rounder Beckham from the 2008 draft
some kind of weird time-traveling goin down
maybe we can get shoeless joe to play right field?
If they have a time machine, can we please not trade Tatis Jr.???
It will probably work out as well as the reprises of Al Lopez and Earl Weaver.
And Paul Richards.
Good call. Danny Murtaugh’s second stint was actually successful. The Sox would gladly take that. Most of the time it’s lazy nostalgia.
Aside from dying on the job!
What is Reinsdorf thinking?
This guy is 76 years old and and around 6 times older than me.
The more I think about it the more maddening it is, Hinch and Cora are right off their suspension, and Jerry swoops in and gets a guy that has no idea of the current era of players, and is around 3 times the players’ page. Dang, I would even be open to re-hiring Hawk if it means that he can fire him.
Path seems pretty simple from here! Hahn quits, Jerry hires Hawk, Hawk fires LaRussa, hires manager Carlton Fisk.
Wait, are you 12 years old?
Poor bastard can’t even drink to cope with the misery of this franchise.
It does say 2008.
Jerry is 84. He probably thinks he’s doing a pretty good job as chair and La Russa’s a young whippersnapper who’s got at least another decade in him.
Ya, I’m 12 I signed up cause I wanted to do the offseason plan…
Just when I thought the Sox were going in the right way Jerry comes in an plays spoiler…
And the Hahn resigning announcement in 5, 4, 3, ..
Was Connie Mack available?
La Russa being asked directly about his opinions about kneeling for the anthem vs. having 5 new players who kneeled to start this year. His response, “Not only do I respect, but I applaud, and would support, that they are now identifying and addressing the injustices, especially on the racial side, especially if it’s peaceful and sincere.” He did hedge a bit, seemingly saying that he’s ok if it has clear action at the end of it, which is a bit odd. Sorry, I didn’t capture everything. I don’t know how reporters/stenographers do this live.
While I was hoping they’d go another direction, my hope all along was, if they did go with La Russa, these kinds of things would be addressed by the White Sox FO before the fact. If he really is on board with kneeling for the anthem, with having fun (aka bat flipping), and willing to aggressively use numbers and new school ways of thinking in-game, then there really is a lot to like about La Russa. My worry is… that’s a HUGE “if.”
I can’t watch the Press Conference, so more updates like this would be helpful!
Stenographers don’t type on a keyboard; they have a whole specific instrument which looks more like a small piano and basically types in shorthand. It’s wild shit but they can type like 300 wpm.
they record the comments
Terrorist attack in Nice, re-confinement starts tomorrow, and now this cherry on a shit cake of a day.
Ouch, I hope things get better.
I’m personally ok. Was off work today and had a great daddy-daughter day. She’s toi young to understand what a manager does, but is just happy Eloy is still on the team.
Tony, what would you say about your comments against players kneeling during the national anthem?
“Oh I didn’t think they were sincere. If it’s sincere it’s okay”
Tony, what would you say about your comments against players batflipping and exhibiting other outward displays of joy and enthusiasm for the game?
“Oh I didn’t think they were sincere. If it’s sincere it’s okay”
——–
I, for one, am sincerely embarrassed for my team on this day.
Is it too late to make an offseason plan that involves acquiring Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina?
“Hey! We spent money!”
fun fact – the equivalent of this would be hiring Ozzie in…. 2040!
Hahn sounded like a hostage at the presser. Should’ve opened it up by quitting lol.
I was positive he was going to start crying
embarrassing. let’s all try to remember this does not reflect on us personally.
Rick Hahn was an excellent law student. I applaud the wording “it is believed.”
Yep, instead of saying, “we believe.” His whole introduction was gold for reading between the lines if you know Rick like we all do. I’ve heard a ton of his interviews. His tone was defeated. He spent a lot of time explaining “consensus” that didn’t need to be there. There was a lot.
Tony LaRussa called Tatis “unsportsmanlike” when he hit that grand slam up 7-0….
That’s enough to tell me I would like to hear less of him, but unfortunately, now we are stuck with this d-bag.
I guess Al Lopez turned them down.
No. He just never got back to them.
A.J. Hinch signature on La Russa announcement? Did anyone get this? I didn’t vet this, but this is crazy if real: https://twitter.com/GabeNotDave/status/1321903108604264448
Multiple different people saw this in their email. At least one person saw it, then checked their email again, and the picture changed to have La Russa’s signature.
Yeah, I got the Hinch autograph in mine and saved a copy. They replaced the image on the server.
So Hahn had his man, like Josh said. Now the Tigers are going to sign him. What the hell.
i guess on the bright side (for me) is that i didn’t want hinch or cora. but if those two and la russa were the choices i was rooting for a meteor anyway.
Hahn’s Rebuild: four years forward, thirty-seven years back.
Relatives of mine who were born in the nineteenth century were still alive when the Sox hired Tony La Russa.
ugh.
I sure wish this Jerry Reinsdorf guy, whoever he is, in this video from February, was the one making the decisions around here. As he says, you don’t want to be dealing with people who are 22 years old when you’re 75 years old.
This could be the opening scene of a sports-themed Arrested Development episode. Or Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Ha ha, yep. The whole interview is worth a watch. A couple of things stood out to me. La Russa wants to return to managing in order to correct how things are being done these days (specifically as it pertains to numbers/percentages – they don’t use the analytics of the head, heart, and guts of a player that day). Also, he strongly hints that he would have come back to manage in 2020 if Dave Duncan said he’d come back as his pitching coach. However, Duncan said no, so Tony said no.
Those comments scare me. He “thinks teams would win more games” if they followed percentages less? Yipes.
Well this is really stupid and I do not like this. However, there is exactly one way they can redeem themselves this offseason. Go sign some really good players. No nickel and dime shit, no stupid team friendly options, no signing players’ relatives. Go offer George Springer a bunch of money and if someone tops it, top it by another 10-15 mil. Ditto Bauer and whoever else is at the top of the market.
This move makes me fear the money has already been spent.
Unfortunately I think this is a “we were pretty good with a sub par manager and now we have a better manager so I don’t need to spend any money”. I hope I am wrong but I don’t think I am
I think you folks are failing to see the larger significance of this hiring. In 1986, JR allowed his GM to fire Tony LaRussa. LaRussa went on to win 3 World Series with other teams. In 2020, JR overruled his GM to hire LaRussa back. This restores balance to the force, so now the White Sox will win 3 World Series under LaRussa. Absolute brilliance!
Best analysis of this hire and it’s not even close…sorry Jim
Well, La Russa is trending on Twitter in NYC. #NationalLaughingstock
Ted Lasso should’ve been the hire. This is bad. I feel like I just walked into a ‘mother-in-law changing into her swimsuit’ dodecahedron. Not good, not comfy with this, make it stop.
Kinda tired of all this “Tony la Russa is racist” crap people are insinuating if not outright saying. The guy managed somebody like Ricky Henderson and never seemed to have any problems with him. As mentioned here he was one of the driving forces behind Baines getting into the Hall. He hired guys like Dave Stewart to run Arizona. Im sure there are many other instances that show he has no problem with black people. There are many reasons to dislike this hire. And i pretty much agree with all of those. But for people spouting that hes some frothing racist that wont let TA flip a bat are out of their minds and need to take a break from twitter.
I think you may have a very simplistic standard for what “racism” is. Working publicly with a black person doesn’t clear you from saying outwardly racist things at others times, despite what you and Tony may think.
I think you may have a very twitter-centric standard for what “racism” is.
Anyway im not going to get into it anymore here. I vented my thoughts on why people are overreacting on that part of this stupid hire.
Tony La Russa supported Arizona’s papers please law. That’s racist AF on its own.
And unconstitutional! TLR is a fascist AND a racist.
I’m a white guy born when Kennedy was president who grew up on the southwest side and the southwest suburbs. I have never been on twitter in my life. It took a lot of life experiences for me to recognize the racism I grew up surrounded by was still in me long after I thought I’d left it behind. I try to use the dictionary definition of racism not some “twitter-centric standard”. Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed at people because of their race. There’s plenty of racism in TLR’s past including the recent past.
I wasn’t going to reply but the way you disparaged and dismissed those who don’t share your view and then declared the discussion over is something us old white guys do way too often and it annoyed me.
I believe Rickey does not have glowing reviews of his experience. Ozzie Smith and Ron Gant certainly had issues with him. I could be wrong, but I imagine most of the players are not happy about this, and to some degree, embarrassed and angry. You fire a guy who seemed to have a real connection, level of respect and love for the people he worked with to bring in this turd. Backwards and outrageous.
That nice, lovable little fella they fired was a baseball moron. There were much better options than hiring TLR to replace him but the bottom line is the White Sox are better off now than they were with Ricky. We will never have to watch another game like game 3 against Oakland.
Well, as an African American White Sox fan, I’m getting pretty tired of people implying his previous words don’t mean anything. They do. Does that mean his stance can’t change? Of course not. But spare me the, I like “some black people and have done things for them.” I live in a culture where no one has an issue with me if I do what they “feel” is appropriate. That’s what the whole kneeling disconnect was about in the first place. I have other problems with the hire besides that. Can the White Sox win with LaRussa? Of course, they can, but this seems like a self-inflicted wound by a meddling owner.
The hire 100% confirms that MLB has a problem with structural racism.
damn man, you’re tired of racism and it doesn’t even affect you. imagine how people of color feel.
How do you know it doesn’t affect him/her?
Because I can read.
Just when I thought I was in, they push me back out!
No joke – it was great to read your comments this year after not seeing you around for a while.
He is one year and ten months younger than Joe Biden. I’m sure some days will be better than others just like Joe!
Fuck this fucking team.
Yep bottom line is that Reinsdorf did an old friend a favor … probably so he can quickly break the all time managerial win record. I think he has made a huge mistake like most other commentators but we will soon find out in 2021. As a fellow geezer just a half a decade younger than Tony I do not understand why he would not just enjoy his well earned accolades and his grandkids and just politely refuse Jerry. On the other hand maybe he could bring Nancy Faust back on the organ I miss her. I miss Andy the clown too … Jerry if you read this site that is something you really need to atone for and it is unfortunately way to late to bring him back RIP Andy .. You are still remembered
Is anyone else upset about the potential loss of Menechino as hitting coach? I thought he did a really good job.
Yes, especially since the reported coaches that he is interested in are Dave Duncan (see Coop – turned him down, thankfully) and Harold Baines (nice guy). Do these sound like progressive baseball hires?
It’s going to be goddamn Cocoon in the dugout.
I dunno, sharing life force with one another could prove beneficial.
Wallace was blind-sided by betrayal in this (nonsense) movie, we can’t claim the same. As soon as it was even floated, it was clear that Reinsdorf wanted to.
So we avoid the distaste of the Hinch/Cora scandal. Great! Why hire a modern cheater when you can hire a guy who managed old-school cheaters like Canseco and McGwire?
If Madrigal shows up in 2021 looking ripped and starts jacking home runs I’m gonna have some questions.
Well, it might work out. Or it might not. Eat at Arby’s.