So far, the Tony La Russa hiring has been incredibly beneficial to White Sox fans who wanted to learn the inner workings of Maricopa County's justice system.
For instance, did you know that there are 26 separate jurisdictions within the Maricopa County court system? I do now, because La Russa's DUI charge was filed in the wrong one, leading to the dismissal of the case and briefly causing a Monday morning uprising among people who thought Jerry Reinsdorf pulled strings with the prosecution.
Instead, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office refiled the case with the proper jurisdiction, so La Russa's legal fate remains unknown. So too does the timeline of the case, which was supposed to have a pretrial hearing on Dec. 8. The White Sox have said that they're not going to comment on the case until it's resolved, so this is either the last thing they wanted, or the thing they most wanted.
Probably the latter, because, Kenny Williams finally emerged from the shadows to talk to Scott Merkin about La Russa, and he too disassociated himself with the hiring. Williams pulled the same move as Rick Hahn -- claiming to stand by the decision, but only referring to it in the passive voice.
The final decision to return was discussed among Reinsdorf, Williams and general manager Rick Hahn.
“You know, you sit in a room and you debate, you discuss,” Williams said. “And you come out of the room and you come out pulling from the same rope and headed in the same direction.
“So, it doesn’t really matter how it came to the decision. The decision was made, and now it’s up to all of us to pull together and make it work.”
Williams' halfhearted attempt to present a unified front is undermined by Hahn already being on the record. Put 'em together, and if there are three men in the room, and two of them don't want their names attached to La Russa, then the idea of a consensus can be laughed right out of whatever world they're trying to create for themselves.
