“It has become obvious that the length of the treatment and recovery process for this second health issue makes it impossible for me to be the White Sox manager in 2023,” La Russa stated in a prolonged assertion issued earlier than a news convention Monday afternoon. “The timing of this announcement now enables the front office to include filling the manager position with their other offseason priorities.”
La Russa, who turns 78 on Tuesday, stated in that assertion that well being points didn’t have an effect on his means to handle this 12 months and referred to as the White Sox’s season “an unacceptable disappointment.” The White Sox employed La Russa instead of less-experienced predecessor Rick Renteria within the hopes of turning a group that regarded constructed for a number of years of competition right into a bona fide winner.
But they didn’t make that leap beneath La Russa, who oversaw a loss within the American League Division Series in 2021 earlier than watching the White Sox sputter out of competition by mid-September this 12 months, regardless of their dwelling within the comparatively weak AL Central.
“In the Major Leagues, you either do or you don’t. Explanations come across as excuses,” La Russa stated in his assertion. “Respect and trust demand accountability, and during my managerial career, I understood that the ultimate responsibility for each minus belongs to the manager. I was hired to provide positive, difference-making leadership and support. Our record is proof. I did not do my job.”
That the White Sox and their hands-on proprietor Jerry Reinsdorf gave La Russa that job within the first place was not precisely a shock, given La Russa had managed the group for eight seasons from 1979 to 1986 and had historical past with the old-school proprietor. But the hiring was controversial, even ridiculed across the sport: Not solely had analytics completely modified the best way video games are managed and managers work together with entrance workplaces within the many years since La Russa had managed, however social norms and clubhouse conduct had remodeled, too.
In the years between his managerial departure in 2011 and his return in 2021, La Russa made a number of public feedback that appeared to recommend his old-school, no-nonsense baseball mores might alienate youthful gamers much less keen to curtail celebration and aptitude for the sake of outdated and sometimes racially biased taboos. He was essential of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest, suggesting that he would inform a participant who needed to protest throughout the nationwide anthem to stay in the clubhouse instead.
So when La Russa inherited group that featured one of many recreation’s most vocal Black stars, Tim Anderson, he appeared like an unnecessarily tense match for a roster that had but to coalesce right into a steady winner. La Russa finally earned praise from Anderson and issues that he would possibly attempt to, properly, tamp down enjoyable, went unrealized.
But what did come into query, significantly this season, was his means to deal with the strategic operations of a group hindered by accidents and crippled by inconsistencies. The most outstanding questions on his competence emerged after he issued not one, however two intentional walks to opposing hitters who had two strikes on them. Fans on Chicago’s South Side greater than as soon as chanted “Fire Tony” this summer season — one thing that was not misplaced on the veteran manager.
“At no time have I been disappointed or upset with White Sox fans, including those who at times chanted ‘Fire Tony.’ They come to games with passion for our team and a strong desire to win. Loud and excited when we win, they rightly are upset when we play poorly,” LaRussa stated in his assertion.
The White Sox are on the verge of an organizational reckoning after one other injury-riddled season not solely noticed them take no steps ahead, however take a step again. They started the season with the seventh-highest payroll within the majors. They misplaced the division to the Cleveland Guardians, who started the season twenty seventh on that checklist.