Checking in on what’s going on with Mets and White Sox
Nightengale: New owner says right things; Lacques: La Russa’s return and arrest.
It’s quite possible that, come midFebruary under the unrelenting sun of Camelback Ranch, Tony La Russa will look his White Sox players in the eyes and sufficiently explain himself.
He’ll assure them that, at 76, baseball has not passed him by. That he can abide a game that now belongs to a generation far removed from his own, a game liberated from the eyewash of rigid conformity. That, beyond the sound bites, he has learned why Colin Kaepernick’s voice and Black lives both matter, exuding the sincerity he says he’ll expect from his players.
And that, despite a second arrest for DUI after a spring training night this year, he can demand discipline from them while providing accountability for his own actions.
Yet the revelation late Monday that La Russa faces charges of driving under the influence in Phoenix, some 20 miles from where he’ll meet his full squad in February, raises the question of whether he can credibly manage this talented, hungry and diverse group of young men coming off a breakthrough season.
His hiring after the firing of Rick Renteria – who finished second to the Rays’ Kevin Cash for American League Manager of the Year honors Tuesday – was widely panned across Chicago.
The move was not indefensible. Sure, it’s been a decade since La Russa last managed. Yes, the famously testy skipper will inherit a team that’s dynamic on the field and engaging off it, epitomizing the “We play loud” ethos that’s gone from a flouting of the unwritten rules to a marketing tool for MLB.
But as a three-time World Series champion with Hall of Fame dugout chops, it wasn’t hard to imagine a common cause emerging between the kids and their septuagenarian skipper. Now, though? That got a lot harder. Just ask free agent pitcher Marcus Stroman, who tweeted Tuesday that “no amount” of money could compel him to play for La Russa.
It was impossible to ignore that La Russa was replacing a manager of color. And impossible to ignore he’d be inheriting a team whose heart and soul, shortstop Tim Anderson – who like Stroman is Black – took a knee before the season opener and inspired seven teammates and coaches to join him, this three years after La Russa’s derisive comments regarding Kaepernick.
La Russa aimed to allay those concerns in his introductory news briefing.
Yet the conditions surrounding his latest DUI arrest – on Feb. 24 – are just so hard to ignore.
According to court records obtained by USA TODAY Sports, La Russa refused breath and blood tests at the scene of his single-car incident, forcing an officer to obtain a warrant to take two tubes of La Russa’s blood. More than two hours after his arrest, La Russa’s blood-alcohol content registered 0.095.
La Russa told the officer on scene he was coming from dinner with colleagues employed by the Angels, for whom he worked as a special adviser, when his car struck an impediment, puncturing a tire. An affidavit obtained by ESPN noted La Russa became “argumentative” with officers and told one, “Do you see my ring? I’m a Hall of Famer, brother.”
The conditions of February’s arrest and his March 2007 arrest – and subsequent guilty plea – in Jupiter, Florida, are remarkably similar.
That’s what makes his second arrest all the more galling. If a 76-yearold man cannot learn from the lessons his 62-year-old self provided, when will he ever?
White Sox leadership knew of the arrest before it became public knowledge and a high-ranking official told USA TODAY Sports La Russa will keep his job.
But it just got a lot more uncomfortable – perhaps untenable – for all parties involved.