Tony La Russa- Managing to Get into the Hall of Fame

There are three baseball players that started a game at shortstop in the majors while just eighteen years old- Robin Yount, Alex Rodriguez, and Tony La Russa. Yount is already in the Hall of Fame, A-Rod will be enshrined someday as a player, and La Russa is sure to have a plaque in Cooperstown as well. But it will not be for his accomplishments at the plate or in the field that Tony La Russa will be thusly honored, but for his managerial career. Tony La Russa ranks third on the all-time wins list for baseball managers, and he has been at the helm of the St. Louis Cardinals for eleven seasons now.

Born in Tampa, Florida in 1944, La Russa signed with the Kansas City Athletics right out of high school. Tony was called up by the woeful A's the next year, and he played in 34 games for Kansas City in 1963, hitting .250 in limited at-bats. But La Russa injured his shoulder in the off-season playing softball, and he did not get another chance in the majors until five years later. In 1968, La Russa appeared for the now Oakland A's in just five contests. He was out of the game as a player altogether, after short stints with the Braves and White Sox, by the age of 28 in 1973.

La Russa went to Florida State University, where he earned his law degree in 1979. But La Russa never practiced law. Instead, Tony was hired by the White Sox to be their manager after very little experience in the minors as a skipper. The White Sox were perennial losers, but La Russa was able to turn them around in short order, having them over .500 by 1981 and winning the American League West in 1983 before they were ousted from the playoffs by the Orioles. But in Chicago, La Russa was sometimes referred to as "a lawyer masquerading as a manager".

When the White Sox faltered in 1986, La Russa was let go, but the A's snatched him up and made him their manager. Tony took the A's, with sluggers such as Mark McGuire and Jose Canseco, to the World Series in 1988, '89, and '90. The Dodgers shocked Oakland in the 1988 Fall Classic, and Lou Piniella's Reds swept them in the 1990 version, but La Russa won his only title in 1989 in the "Earthquake Series" against the Giants. Another AL West crown in 1992 went to La Russa and Oakland, but Toronto sent them packing in the post-season. When the A's were sold after the 1995 season, La Russa left to take over the Cardinals, who had fired Joe Torre in '95.

St. Louis has claimed six division titles under Tony La Russa, advancing to the World Series in 2004 against the Red Sox, where they were swept, and in 2006 against the Tigers. La Russa is on the verge of being the longest tenured skipper in Cardinals' history, as only Red Schoendienst's dozen year run from 1965 through 1976 is greater. La Russa's teams have eclipsed the one hundred win mark in a season four times, and he currently owns a won-loss standard of 2,297-1,986, for a winning percentage of .536.

With his wife Elaine, La Russa, who has two daughters and makes his home in California, operates a no-kill animal shelter. Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation, in Walnut Creek, takes in abandoned animals and also sponsors programs that bring dogs and cats to abused children, senior citizens, and hospital patients. When Tony La Russa finally walks away from baseball, the Hall of Fame is a certainty, not bad for a shortstop who hit just .199 in 132 games!