SKIPPER OR GILLIGAN?

Hall of Famer La Russa losing credibility with questionable decisions, outright mistakes

You almost couldn’t have scripted it: Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tony La Russa leaving the managerial grind together in 2010 and going into the Hall of Fame together in 2014. Three greats — no doubt about it, right?

Before you agitated White Sox fans answer that question, please remember that

La Russa ranks second all time in regularseason wins (Cox is fourth, Torre fifth) and that these very men are the top three skippers (Torre first, followed by La Russa and Cox) in postseason victories.

Such legends — and yet one can’t help but wonder what nasty things baseball fans would be saying about Cox and Torre had they, too, made surprising comebacks to the dugout heading into the 2021 season. Three wise men? More like three stooges.

These are hard times for managers everywhere. Big-timers Joe Maddon and Joe Girardi got kicked to the curb by their teams last week. Dave Martinez, who led the Nationals to their first World Series crown in 2019, is on the hot seat. So, too, it seems, are the Mariners’ Scott Servais (2021 runner-up for American League manager of the year) and the Marlins’ Don Mattingly (2020 National League manager of the year).

But La Russa is the recipient of more fan resentment than any of them, in part because of his personality, in part because of his cozy friendship with Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and in part — the biggest part — because of his questionable decisions and outright mistakes since coming back. This is not going to get better unless the Sox get much better, and fast.

Here’s what’s happening:

Tony La Russa was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014 with fellow managers Joe Torre (center) and Bobby Cox. Things aren’t as simple now for La Russa, whose White Sox are struggling more than expected.

MIKE GROLL/AP; NAM Y. HUH/AP (LEFT)