Tony La Russa Joins Club so Exclusive, Everyone Else in it is Dead
Tony La Russa achieved a career milestone this weekend, becoming just the third man in major league history to record 2,500 managerial wins. To give you an idea how rare an accomplishment this is: in the whole 7,000-year history of MLB, only two other people have gone over that mark, and both did it so long ago, even Peter Gammons can’t remember having a drink with them.
The other guys with 2500+ wins are Connie Mack, who called himself Connie Mack because his real name was Cornelius McGillicuddy, and John McGraw, who called himself John McGraw because he knew that was a perfect, crusty-sounding name for an early-20th-century baseball manager. Both men are, needless to say, no longer with us. But both are basically legendary: Mack as the guy who managed more years – 50 – than any other person, wearing a suit in the dugout for most of them; and McGraw as the guy who hated American League President Ban Johnson so much he chose to boycott the 1904 World Series rather than let his Giants take the field against the Red Sox (who were then called the Americans, but that was before we were born so it doesn’t matter…right Meghan McCain?).
And what, many decades hence, will the youngest member of the 2,500 wins club, Mr. La Russa, be remembered for? Bringing the White Sox to respectability in the early ’80s? Leading the Bash Brother A’s to 1 World Series title out of 3 chances? Reviving the Cardinals after years of mediocrity, winning a second career championship in the process (with a little help from Albert Pujols)? Being the guy whose picture George Will stares up at from his race car bed before he goes to sleep each night?
Defending Mark McGwire even though everyone on earth – even those dildos in Congress – know he cheated and lied and betrayed the little children?
I’m guessing the stuff from the first paragraph will figure prominently, but the thing in the second paragraph can’t be ignored either. Fact is, much of La Russa’s success came about because he had players who were on steroids. He may not have cheated, but they did, and I’m sorry – he knew about it. But does that mean there should be an asterisk beside La Russa’s 2,500 wins? Should there be an asterisk beside Connie Mack’s 3,731 wins, since the vast majority of them were accumulated at a time when there wasn’t a single black player in the league?
There’s always some reason for an asterisk, and La Russa probably doesn’t deserve one any more than a lot of other guys. Still, he looks lame for defending McGwire. Loyalty is fine, but blind loyalty does not redound to one’s glory.
[...] Jonesin’ pays homage to Tony LaRussa on his 2,500th [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:52 am