La Russa recalls his playing days.
Hit in A’s first game in Oakland is rare highlight of his playing career
Tony La Russa is a complex man. But we still think we know him. Over the course of his meticulously crafted, wildly successful 33-year managerial career we’ve seen the traits that helped earn him an eternal spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Intense. Driven. Compassionate. Creative. Loyal. Competitive. Prepared.
There’s a lot that goes into being one of the best. Yet, there’s even more to the man, particularly when it comes to La Russa’s life in baseball. Ask him about his major league playing career and you’ll see a more vulnerable, unrecognizable side of him as he winces and unlocks his inner Bob Uecker.
“I was what they called a 7 up/7 down player. They’d only play you when they were up by 7 or down by 7,” La Russa joked from his Scottsdale, Arizona, home during a recent phone conversation.
Without skipping a beat, the self- deprecation kicked into high gear.
“What’s kind of sad is I only have two or three major league highlights. Let me see, what was the first one?” La Russa said.
Of course La Russa can quickly recount his shining moment while serving as a backup infielder during parts of six seasons in the majors with the A’s, Braves and Cubs. It actually occurred on this day 52 years ago during the A’s very first game in Oakland.
“I had the first pinch hit in Oakland Coliseum history,” La Russa boasted, before chuckling and adding. “If that’s your highlight, if that sums up your career, it shows you had a lousy career.”
But it was still a pretty sweet occasion that night in 1968 when the A’s took the field for the first time in Oakland. More than 50,000 people were on hand to see history made as Gov. Ronald Reagan put on a glove and threw out the first pitch to christen baseball in the East Bay.
Then they watched Orioles lefthander Dave McNally no-hit the A’s until the seventh inning before Rick Monday ruined his gem with the first A’s homer in Oakland.
With the A’s trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth, La Russa, who hadn’t left the bench during the A’s season- opening five-game road trip, was called on to pinch hit. Perhaps a bit overconfident, McNally threw him an 0-2 fastball right down the middle. La Russa ripped a line drive to left field for a single to instantly become an answer to an Oakland A’s trivia question.
He didn’t have much time to savor his hit, though. He was quickly erased when Campy Campaneris grounded into a double play, then Reggie Jackson struck out to seal their home- opening loss.
Even La Russa’s seminal moment as a player came with a humorous twist — it was capped off later that night with some laughs at his expense. He and most of the group of guys he’d played with for years in the minor leagues — guys like Reggie, Sal Bando, Catfish Hunter, Joe Rudi and Monday — all went out to enjoy themselves at a Jack London Square nightclub.
Once they arrived, the emcee’s voice blared throughout the club, “Hey, the Oakland A’s are here!” The man then virtually ignored the presence of the young A’s stars in attendance by acknowledging La Russa, and congratulating him on his “big base hit.”
“I’m there with Reggie, Sal, Rick, and he’s talking about me? We all laughed about it,” La Russa said.
La Russa spent the next three weeks firmly attached to the A’s bench while getting just two at-bats. One day, A’s manager Bob Kennedy called him into his office to tell him he was being sent back to the minors. La Russa went to his locker and started packing his belongings.
“So now the guys all come over to me and say, ‘Oh, we’re really gonna miss you.’ And ‘ You’re an important member of this club’ and all that,” said La Russa.
Because La Russa was flying out the next morning and he had ridden to the ballpark with Catfish Hunter and a couple of other teammates, he took a seat in the stands to watch the game. He, along with nearly 6,300 fans at the Coliseum, wound up seeing baseball history when Hunter threw a perfect game against the Twins.
La Russa uses humor to point out some other career highlights, like that 1968 season when he played in just five games with the A’s.
“I hit .333 in the American League one year. Just look at the book and you’ll see it. Just don’t look any farther than that and see that I only went 1 for 3,” he cracked.
Still, he’ll likely cringe if you mention he’s one of just three players in big league history — along with Alex Rodriguez and Robin Yount — to start a game at shortstop as an 18-year- old and wind up in the Hall of Fame.
He didn’t realize he held the Kansas City/Oakland A’s record for most games to start a career by just appearing as a pinch runner — his first 11 games with the Kansas City A’s in 1963 were strictly as a pinch runner. Although, he never stole a base nor even attempted one that year or during any of his 132 career games.
“I didn’t attempt a steal?” he asked. “Well, I didn’t get on first base a whole lot so it’s not like I had a whole lot of chances.”
One of those chances in ’63 accounted for one of La Russa’s career highlights. La Russa pinch ran against the Indians and scored his first major league run on the night Indians pitcher Early Wynn won his 300th game.
The last of La Russa’s three memorable moments came in 1973 with the Cubs when he scored the gamewinning run in the bottom of the 9th inning on Opening Day. La Russa forgave the man on the other end of his call when said he didn’t realize that.
“It’s painful. Everything about my playing career is mostly painful to remember,” he admits.
The hard times and the injuries robbed him of the kind of career scouts forecasted for him when Kansas City A’s owner Charlie Finley signed him to a $100,000 contract as a 17-year-old “bonus baby” in 1962.
Those forecasts got cloudier by the year, though. In four of his first five years as a pro, La Russa suffered serious injuries — two shoulder dislocations, a crippling arm injury, a busted up knee and a torn muscle in his back.
“For years, Finley said I was the only mistake he ever made,” La Russa said.
After La Russa built a World Series champion in Oakland, the old A’s owner reached out again to him.
“He said, ‘ Maybe I didn’t make a mistake. You were a manager and I just didn’t realize it.’ ”
Also on this date … 2001:
Barry Bonds became the 17th major leaguer and fourth Giant to join the 500 home run club by blasting a shot off the Dodgers’ Terry Adams into McCovey Cove. He joined other Giants Willie Mays (660), Willie McCovey (521) and Mel Ott (511).
1979: The A’s set a unwanted major league record when just 653 fans attended their game at the Coliseum against Seattle.