La Russa, 76, returns to manage White Sox
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 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.
La Russa becomes the oldest manager in the major leagues by five years. Houston’s Dusty Baker is 71.
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.
●Elsewhere: 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, 37, who had an outstanding college career at the University of Miami, is due a $4 million buyout. Among a number of other MLB players whose options were declined was Seattle second baseman
Dee Strange-Gordon (who was due to make
$14 million), a former Marlin. … New York City Mayor
Bill de Blasio deflected questions about whether he wants to block the sale of the New York Mets to hedge fund manager
Steve Cohen. De Blasio said the city law department is legally obligated to review the sale because Citi Field, where the Mets play, is on city land. Cohen’s former company, SAC Capital Partners, pleaded guilty in an insider trading case in 2014 and paid $1.8 billion in fines. Cohen himself, though, was not charged in the case.
HIGH SCHOOLS
●Girls’
volleyball — Mourning d. Norland (25-11, 25-14, 25-10): Milana Cvetkovski 4 kills, 5 aces, 6 digs; Manuela Vasconcellos 3 kills, 1 ace; Livia Gimenez 6 aces, 10 assists, 2 digs.
ETC.
●Soccer: AC Milan cruised past Sparta Prague 3-0 for its second consecutive win in the Europa League, while Tottenham fell to a surprising 1-0 loss at newcomer Antwerp. Milan easily overcame a missed penalty by Zlatan Ibrahimovic to remain unbeaten in 23 games in all competitions, dating to least season. Tottenham saw its 10-match unbeaten run end, despite having Gareth Bale in the starting lineup for a second consecutive game in the competition. … Fellow Premier League clubs captured their second consecutive wins. Leicester beat AEK
Athens 2-1 away while Arsenal scored three goals in a four-minute span either side of halftime in a 3-0 victory over Irish club Dundalk. … A minute of silence was held ahead of the game between Nice and Hapoel Beer Sheva to honor the three victims of a knife attack in the French city earlier Thursday. The players from both teams wore black armbands during the game, which the hosts won 1-0. … The LA Galaxy fired coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto after less than two seasons. The Galaxy is last in the MLS Western Conference at 5-11-3 with three games to play.
●Boxing: Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. got permission from California’s athletic commission to return to the boxing ring next month because their fight on Nov. 28 would be strictly an exhibition of their once-unparalleled skills. These fifty-something former champions aren’t viewing it as an exhibition, though. “Not a real fight? We got Mike Tyson versus Roy Jones,” Tyson said in an online news conference. “I’m coming to fight, and I hope he’s coming to fight, and that’s all you need to know.”
●Tennis: Grigor Dimitrov outlasted thirdseeded Stefanos Tsitsipas
6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 to complete the quarterfinal lineup in the Erste Bank Open at Vienna. Dimitrov next plays Daniel Evans, who came back from a break down in both sets to beat Austrian wildcard 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.
●N●SC●R: The pit crew for NASCAR driver William Byron has been benched because of multiple positive tests for COVID-19.