Italian / American Manager: Tony LaRussa (1979-2010)

Anthony La Russa Jr. was born on October 4, 1944 in Tampa Florida. He grew up in the same neighborhood as former White Sox Hall of Fame manager Al Lopez. He was also childhood friends with Lou Pinella.

He was signed as an infielder in 1962 by the Kansas City A’s. He came up for 34 games the next year batting .250. He would play parts of the next four seasons as the A’s moved to Oakland, playing a career high 52 games in 1970, batting only .158 with 6 RBIs.

In Oakland he became intrigued with Dick Williams style of managing. His contract was purchased by the Braves in 1971 & then he was traded to the Cubs. He spent the rest of his playing career in the minors with Pittsburgh, Chicago (A.L.) & St. Louis. In his brief six year playing career he batted .199 in 176 at bats, never hitting a HR with 5 doubles driving in 7 runs. He spent 15 seasons in the minors batting .265 there lifetime. When his playing career didn’t pan out he attended Florida State University earning a law degree in 1978. The following year he passed the bar exam, but chose a coaching job instead of becoming a lawyer. He is one of four MLB managers in history to have a law degree.

In 1979 the White Sox gave his first chance at managing, putting him at the helm of their Knoxville AA team. Midway through the year he was put on the coaching staff of Larry Doby who had replaced Bob Lemon. In 1979 Don Kessinger became the White Sox player manager & Larussa was sent to manage the AAA Iowa Oaks. Kessinger was gone in the summer & Larussa was named the Chicago White Sox manager. His team showed improvement immediately & played .500 ball the rest of the way.

He would manage the White Sox for nine seasons; by 1982 they improved to a third place finish winning 87 ball games. In 1983 he took them to their first A.L. Western title with a team lead by hitters Carlton Fisk, Greg Luzinski, Harold Baines & Ron Kittle. His pitching staff had two 20 game winners in Lamar Hoyt & Richard Dotson. They won 99 games but fell short to the eventual World Champion Orioles in the ALCS. For Larussa he won the A.L. Manager of the Year Award.

That season he hired his old team mate & friend Dave Duncan as his pitching coach. He often credits Duncan with the success of his teams & the two have been together ever since. He remained in Chicago until 1986 when after a 26-36 start; he was fired by GM Hawk Harrelson, who only served one year in the front office. He had been the team’s play by play man before that & still is today.

Within three weeks Larussa was offered the job as manager of the Oakland A’s. He took over and brought them to two straight third place finishes. By 1988 the mighty A’s were the monsters of the American league with the “Bash Brothers” of Mark McGwire & Jose Canseco, & the pitching of Dave Stewart, Bob Welch & relief ace Dennis Eckersley. He led Oakland t three straight World Series, winning the Championship in the 1989 Bay Area Earthquake World Series in a sweep. In 1988 he lost to Tommy Lasorda’s Dodgers & in 1990 Lou Pinella’s Reds, both times Larussa’s teams were heavy favorites. In those seasons he won two more A.L. Manager of the Year Awards. After the 1995 season when A’s owner Walter Haas passed away, & the family sold the team, Larussa moved on. He took over as the St. Louis Cardinals manager in 1996, replacing Joe Torre.

Larussa found a new home in St. Louis & has been there ever since, a stretch lasting 15 seasons through 2010. He has taken his team to a first place finish seven times, won 100 games two straight years, won two pennants (2004 & 2006) and one World Series title (2006). He became the first manager to win the Manager of the Year Award four times. In 2007 he became the Cardinals all time leader in wins passing Red Schoendienst & that season he won his 2500th game, placing him third all time behind Connie Mack & John McGraw.

In 2009 he passed the New York Giants John McGraw for second most games managed all time. In St. Louis he lured his old slugger from Oakland Mark McGwire to the team, where he went on his historic 1998 HR chase. He broke the all time single season record, battling with Sammy Sosa most of the season putting baseball back into the spotlight. Later in the decade he managed one of the game’s best Players in Albert Pujols.

In 1998 he began his strange approach as sometimes putting the pitcher in the number eight spot in the lineup. His 2004 World Series loss came against the Boston Red Sox who won their first Series since 1918. In 2006 Larussa’s team won the fewest games ever by for an improbable World Champion- 83. In his 32 year managerial career he is 2627-2287 through mid September 2010. He has won two Worlds Championships, 5 pennants, & 12 first place finishes.
In 2007 he was found asleep at a red light in his SUV, in Jupiter Florida. He was arrested and charged with a DUI. Embarrassed by the situation he made a public apology to his family, team & fans. In 2009 he sued Twitter for having someone impersonate his identity on the social network.

He has been married twice and has four daughters. He & his second wife started the Tony LaRussa's Animal Rescue Foundation in Walnut Creek California.

He was elected to the Italian American Sports hall of fame in 1998 & also is a member of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum.

He has been the subject of numerous books, like Moneyball & Three Night’s In August. He also gave his name to the popular video game Tony Larussa Baseball in the 1990’s.

He is supporter of America’s Tea Party movement saying "I'm actually a supporter of what Arizona is doing... you know if people don't fix their problems they have to take care of it themselves."