La Russa, 76, returns to manage White Sox
William Byron
Bell’s
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Christopher
CHICAGO — Tony La Russa didn’t envision returning to the dugout when he stood at the podium in Cooperstown six years ago and took his place alongside baseball’s greats.
That started to change the past few seasons. And he simply couldn’t resist the opportunity the Chicago White Sox gave him.
La Russa, the
Hall of Famer who won a World Series with the Oakland Athletics and two more with the St.
Louis Cardinals, is returning to manage the White Sox
34 years after they fired him.
The 76-year-old La Russa rejoins the franchise where his big-league managing career began more than four decades ago. He takes over for
La Russa
The Los Angeles Chargers placed guard Ryan Groy on the league’s covid-19 reserve list Thursday and canceled practice. The Chargers said they were notified of a positive test Wednesday night and that an unidentified player immediately went into quarantine. The team also identified the player’s close contacts, and they remained away from the complex. All team meetings were held virtually in preparation for Sunday’s game at the Denver Broncos before Coach Anthony Lynn canceled practice, which was supposed to be just a walkthrough. Lynn, who had a bout with the novel coronavirus in June, said he wanted the team to have another round of testing before resuming practice. This is the first time a Chargers player has tested positive since the league’s daily testing started during train- ing camp, and they were one of the few teams to not have a player opt out for the season. The Chargers
Rick Renteria after what the White Sox insisted was a mutual agreement to split.
“How rare it is to get an opportunity to manage a team that’s this talented and this close to winning,” La Russa said. “Most of the time your chances are the opposite. The combination of looking forward to getting back down there and … the White Sox making the call with a chance to win sooner rather than later, I’m excited that they made that choice and looking forward to what’s ahead.”
La Russa inherits a team loaded with young stars and productive veterans that reached the postseason for the first time since 2008, only to sputter down the stretch and get knocked out in the wild-card round. The White Sox have never made back-to-back playoff appearances. But after ending a string of seven losing seasons, they are in position
from Democrat-Gazette Press Services
said they did an extra round of deep cleaning Thursday on top of the regular routine of multiple daily cleanings.
The Milwaukee Brewers have declined to exercise a $15 million mutual 2021 option on veteran outfielder Ryan Braun as the franchise’s career home run leader ponders whether to continue playing. Braun is due a $4 million buyout. The 37-year-old often said this year that this might be his final season. He has spent his entire career in Milwaukee and has a franchise-record 352 career home runs. Braun batted a career-low .233 with 7 home runs and 27 RBI in 39 games this season while working through a back issue, though his .958 OPS in September helped the Brewers earn a third consecutive playoff berth. to change that.
La Russa becomes the oldest manager in the major leagues by five years. Houston’s Dusty Baker is 71.
La Russa, who started his managing career with the White Sox during the 1979 season, is returning to the dugout for the first time since 2011, when he led St. Louis past Texas in the World Series. He also won championships with Oakland in 1989 and the Cardinals in 2006.
La Russa is 2,728-2,365 with six pennants over 33 seasons with Chicago, Oakland and St. Louis. He was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2014. Only Hall of Famers Connie Mack (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763) have more victories. He and Sparky Anderson are the only managers to win the World Series in the American and National leagues.
La Russa got his first major league managing job at age 34 when the White Sox promoted him from
Beasley is charged with using a rifle to threaten a family who was house hunting in his neighborhood in suburban Minneapolis. Beasley was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with threats of violence and drug possession. His wife, Montana Yao, was charged with a felony drug count. According to a criminal complaint, a couple on a Parade of Homes tour last month with their 13-year-old child pulled up to the Plymouth home rented by Beasley and Yao, but saw it was roped off. Beasley tapped on the window of the family’s SUV, pointed a rifle at them and told them to get off his property, prosecutors said. Police said they searched Beasley and Yao’s home and found a 12-gauge shotgun, a handgun and an automatic rifle that matched the description given by the couple in the SUV. The charges come one day after Wolves executive vice president Sachin Gupta addressed the team’s salary-cap situation and said there should be room to sign Beasley. He is a restricted free agent and averaged 20.7 points in 14 games with the Wolves this past season.
Grigor Dimitrov third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 Thursday to complete the quarterfinal line-up at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Dimitrov held serve throughout but lost the opening set despite leading 5-0 in the tiebreaker. Dimitrov converted his second match point for his first career win over Tsitsipas, who had beaten the 20th-ranked Bulgarian in the fourth round of the French Open this month. Dimitrov next plays Daniel Evans, who came back from a break down in both sets to beat Austrian wild-card entry Jurij Rodionov 7-5, 6-3. Earlier, Dominic Thiem beat Cristian Garin 6-3, 6-2 to set up a quarterfinal against Andrey Rublev.
Class AAA to replace the fired Don Kessinger. He took over that August and led them to a 522-510 record over parts of eight seasons.
The 1983 team won 99 games on the way to the AL West championship — Chicago’s first playoff appearance since the 1959 Go-Go White Sox won the pennant. But he was fired in 1986 by then-general manager Ken Harrelson after the White Sox got off to a 26-38 start.
Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has long regretted allowing that move and remains close with La Russa. Now, they’re reuniting.
“His hiring is not based on friendship or on what happened years ago, but on the fact that we have the opportunity to have one of the greatest managers in the game’s history in our dugout at a time when we believe our team is poised for great accomplishments,” Reinsdorf said in a statement.
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