Columns

La Russa salvages tainted reputation

By JOHN ROMANO
Published October 28, 2006

ST. LOUIS - Finally, the genius can act like a fool.

He can wear his heart on his sleeve and champagne on his head. He can dance from here to there without partner or tune.

Finally, Tony La Russa can let his IQ down.

The Cardinals became history's most unlikely World Series champion on Friday night, and La Russa will forever be remembered as the man who led them there.

The intellectual manager won with an inferior team. And it wasn't because of strategy or wits. The Cardinals simply played better and looser, and it was La Russa who convinced them it was possible.

Imagine that. The law school graduate has become a psych major. And a reputation that was in danger of decline is suddenly soaring again.

"Tony has had a very long and successful career," Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. "And this, by far, is the best job he's done."

In the final moments, Jason Isringhausen and Chris Carpenter were stalking La Russa in the dugout. Looking for cracks in the famously serious facade.

"I could see them out of the corner of my eye," La Russa said.

"They kept looking to see if I was going to break down."

La Russa held it together but just barely. He hugged players and coaches in the dugout and then ran onto the field to join the celebration. He tipped his hat to his family in the stands before being blindsided by Albert Pujols, who lifted La Russa in the air and spun him in a bear hug.

"Here in St. Louis, this is the way they measure their managers," pitching coach Dave Duncan said. "You have to make it to the World Series, and you have to win."

For La Russa, it had been 2,769 regular and postseason games since his one, and only, World Series triumph with Oakland in 1989.

Back then, he was still something of a boy wonder. Smart enough to impress and arrogant enough to annoy.

In nearly two decades since, La Russa has continued winning everywhere but October. He has won 2,297 games in the big leagues, and for that reason alone, the Hall of Fame will eventually call.

La Russa did not need another World Series title as vindication for his career, but perhaps it will work as a balm for his soul.

"This is nothing personal because it's totally about the players," La Russa said. "There is no way the manager or the coaching staff did anything less than the staff on the other side of the field. Our players just played a little better."

Only two managers in history have won more games than the kid from West Tampa, but for all that effort, he had only one ring to show for it.

He has been called a genius and overrated, sometimes at opposite ends of the same conversation.

It is true that La Russa is one of the most astute baseball minds of his generation, blending old-school sensibility with a willingness to experiment.

But it can also be said that La Russa sometimes falls in love with his own strategies. He may out-think other managers, but he can also out-think himself.

Once, he was smarter than the rest. All these years later, he became the manager who was too smart for his own good. Too intense. Too uptight. Always relying on matchups and game plans instead of letting his players play.

Before this week, La Russa was tied for the second-worst winning percentage in World Series history at .294. He had lost 12 of 17 games, including eight in a row.

His teams had been to the postseason 12 times in 28 seasons, yet La Russa seemed to be beaten by underdogs on practically every rung.

And now, finally, he has his revenge.

From this point forward, any conversation of World Series underdogs will begin with the '06 Cardinals. The team that won fewer games, at 83, than any Series champion in history. The team that fell to its knees and had to crawl across the finish line in the regular season.

The team that lost one of its best starting pitchers and its closer down the stretch. The team with a banged-up shortstop and a ticked-off third baseman.

This is a team that nearly buried La Russa's reputation - coming within days of the greatest regular-season collapse in history - only to bring him back to the promised land three weeks later.

"Tony and I have been through some tough times together," Jocketty said. "And it was all worth it, to make it here."

La Russa was 17 when he signed with the Athletics out of Jefferson High on June 6, 1962, and was playing shortstop in the big leagues 11 months later.

He never stuck as a major-league hitter, but look at him today.

He is 62 and celebrating like a child. He is still smarter than most and, perhaps, more relaxed than you recall.

He is, as before, one of the best managers the game has known.

[Last modified October 28, 2006, 06:37:22]