When the Chicago White Sox named Tony La Russa as their manager last month, it seemed like a good hire. Only two managers in baseball history have won more games than La Russa, and Connie Mack and John McGraw were not available for hire.
La Russa, a member of the Hall of Fame, has managed three teams — the White Sox, the Oakland Athletics, and the St. Louis Cardinals. All three made the playoffs under his leadership. Two of them won the World Series. The Cardinals did it twice.
Nonetheless, headlines I read about La Russa’s hiring in the Washington Post suggested that the White Sox’s decision was problematic. Why? I figured it was because baseball strategy has changed pretty radically since La Russa stepped down as manager of the Cardinals after winning the World Series in 2011. Although La Russa is very intelligent and has stayed in touch with the game, it’s not unreasonable to wonder whether he has kept up with the “analytics” revolution.
But that wasn’t what concerned the Washington Post. The problem with La Russa’s selection, according to some of its sportswriters, is that he isn’t woke enough.
La Russa is politically conservative. He spoke at large Tea Party style rally in Washington, D.C. that I attended ten years ago (or so).
La Russa was also highly critical of Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem. At the time (2016), he told Sports Illustrated that he would not allow one of his players to do this.
La Russa’s position was hardly an outlier back then, although I disagreed with it. And upon being hired by the White Sox four years later, La Russa said his view of the matter has changed — as, indeed, has the mainstream view.
But this wasn’t good enough for the woke, lefty sportswriting establishment. It fretted, or more likely hoped, that the White Sox would suffer dearly for hiring a conservative manager who had once “dissed” the revered, America-hating Kaepernick.
The caravan moved on and the dogs stopped barking for a while. But then, it came to light that La Russa was arrested in February of this year after running his car into a curb and initially refusing to take a breath test or give a blood sample.
This relatively meaningless bit of information gave the Washington Post the opportunity to have another go at La Russa. Dave Sheinin, who ably covers baseball for the paper, did the honors.
Sheinin noted that free-agent pitcher Marcus Stroman, who is Black, ruled out the White Sox as a team he would sign with. But there is no evidence that the White Sox were interested in signing Stroman or that the pitcher had any interest in playing for the team.
Stroman is a good pitcher, but he’s not Gerrit Cole. Moreover, he quit on the New York Mets, in the middle of this year’s shortened seasoned.
La Russa’s teams made it to six World Series without Marcus Stroman. Even in the very unlikely event that Stroman would have signed with the White Sox had the team picked a different manager, that loss should not cause owner Jerry Reinsdorf to lose a minute of sleep.
A widespread boycott of the White Sox would, of course, be a problem. But major league baseball isn’t the NBA. To borrow a dreadful slogan from the race hustling left, MLB players “look more like America.” I assume that, as in America, there are about as many right of center players as there are left of center ones (although, as in America, the former group may be less vocal than the latter). I also assume that, as in America, many baseball players don’t care much about politics.
La Russa will need to get along with Latin American ball players, including his team’s young stars, Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez. There’s no reason to believe that his politics, or his former view of Kaepernick’s antics, will stand in the way of accomplishing this. It’s worth noting that La Russa got along famously with Albert Pujols. His track record with Latino players is fine.
The team’s current star is Tim Anderson, a Black who knelt before the 2020 season opener. As noted, though, La Russa’s position on kneeling has changed. I doubt that Anderson wants to make a big deal out of La Russa’s 2016 statement. If he does, then he’s not the kind of player a team should build around.
It’s an open question as to how the White Sox will fare under Tony La Russa this time around. What’s clear to me is (1) the sportswriting establishment will be rooting for him to fail and (2) if he does fail it’s not likely to be due to insufficient wokeness.
UPDATE: Stroman has signed a qualifying offer from his current team, the Mets. This means he won’t become a free agent, and I’m sure he know this when he said he wouldn’t sign for the White Sox because of La Russa. This talk was empty virtue signaling — nothing more.
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