The six months of Tony La Russa's first White Sox regular season in 35 years could be divided into even thirds:
April-May: Featured a number of episodes where either his age or rust was evident. Multiple instances of leaving pitchers in several batters too long. The time he was "looking for a single" in a situation that needed so much more. When he didn't know the new extra-inning rules. When he defended the opposition for throwing at one of his players after a 3-0 swing he didn't condone.
June-July: The in-game decision-making found an equilibrium, so the headlines shifted to the times he didn't act his age, like his attempt at Southside swagger, or running to the plate in defense of José Abreu.
August-September: The White Sox opened this period with an eight-game lead, and they spent the entire two months minding their own business, with the individual results of games and decisions strangely light on consequences.
The Field of Dreams Game occurred during the last trimester, and La Russa wasn't around for it due to a funeral in the family. His absence inadvertently was a blessing, in the sense that the focus remained on the talent. Had La Russa been in attendance, I'm guessing Joe Buck and John Smoltz would've spent an inning talking about the controversial decision to hire him and the Yermín Mercedes episode. Instead, the cameras stayed trained on White Sox players, who pulled off a thrilling victory in front of the biggest television audience for a regular-season baseball game in 16 years.
With La Russa returning to the postseason, there's no ducking the spotlight now, but his ability to weather it is why the White Sox hired him in the first place. Rick Renteria probably could've coasted to the Central this year, especially if you gave him Ethan Katz and Lance Lynn, and especially if Cleveland the Twins put up the same amount of fight. The loss of composure over the 2020 season's final week, and Renteria playing charades and drawing "acid reflux" during Game 3 of the Wild Card Series, is why the White Sox wanted somebody else. Rick Hahn and Jerry Reinsdorf might've disagreed on who "somebody else" was, but they both got the regular season they envisioned from the change.
With two-thirds of the season being smooth sailing, there's a chance the return to the big stage will be relatively normal. It wouldn't be surprising if the story shifted from the times he alienated his players to how he won them over. One example is a column by Steve Greenberg for the Chicago Sun-Times:
After La Russa passed McGraw, he expressed humility to the media but then, behind closed doors, went even deeper than that to all from the Sox who were gathered to mark the occasion. He thanked them. He praised players, coaches, trainers, administrators. He said he was nothing without all the people — in Chicago, St. Louis, Oakland and elsewhere — who had helped him.
“It wasn’t about him at all,” Hahn says. “Just sort of knowing him by reputation and from a distance, that would’ve surprised me a year ago, based on what I’d thought I knew about Tony La Russa. I was wrong.”
And there's James Fegan, polling La Russa's former and current lieutenants about how he operates in October.
“There are leaders that he deemed to be leaders on the field, as well as a coaching staff, to have that kind of mindset so that it permeates throughout the whole team culture,” said Reggie Sanders, who works in Royals player development after playing under La Russa in the 2004 World Series. “It’s about creating bond. It’s about going through the woes and the ups and downs, and learning how to navigate that. It requires you to step up in ways that you didn’t realize you had. So the family aspect of trust and respect and unity is very important.”
Because of this, the typical manager fascination with role players and situational bench and bullpen usage will persist.
“One of the things that we do is we never give up on anyone; we have to find a way — our job is to find a way to make them better,” said White Sox bench coach Miguel Cairo, the only person on La Russa’s coaching staff who’s played under him. “He keeps everyone loose, he keeps everyone involved, no matter how many at-bats you got.”
It also helps that La Russa is facing a fellow septuagenarian in Dusty Baker, with whom he had years of feuds when they both managed clubs in the NL Central. They've managed 208 games against each other, and they're both 104-104. It won't be tied at the end of this series. It's a pretty cool story, and it's yet another reminder that La Russa can't be a standard manager no matter how much he might want to blend in.
Then again, all managers tend to lose their anonymity in October. If Renteria were still in charge, the story would be whether he'd be able to overcome last year's deterioration, or whether he'd spent any time working on his body language to find a more effective way to disguise his nerves.
La Russa can't guarantee wins, but he's tasked with raising the baseline. The White Sox might sweep, or they might get swept, but it can't be for a lack of preparation. The Sox didn't practice bullpen games last year, which made it a problem when their season rested on winning one. Meanwhile, La Russa has only asked his starters to throw 100 pitches three times in the last 40 games. In that regard, the pitching staff has had to assume a very October-looking arrangement since the second half of August, capped off with Michael Kopech making multiple three-inning relief appearances.
The plans appear to be best-laid, which is all he could do going in. The ease of the last six weeks made it possible, but it also took all the edge off the decisions along the way. That edge is back, and it'll be fun to see whether La Russa still has his.
(Photo by Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports)
