CHICAGO -- The 30th manager in White Sox history has officially become the organization’s 41st skipper with the hiring of Tony La Russa, the team announced on Thursday. La Russa, 76, was rumored by some to be the top choice for the job after Rick Renteria and the White Sox
CHICAGO -- The 30th manager in White Sox history has officially become the organization’s 41st skipper with the hiring of Tony La Russa, the team announced on Thursday.
La Russa, 76, was rumored by some to be the top choice for the job after Rick Renteria and the White Sox parted ways following a 2020 season highlighted by a 35-25 record and the team’s first playoff appearance since 2008. But with the Hall of Famer having not managed since winning the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011, it was not certain whether he would want to return to the daily grind.
Over 33 years as a manager, La Russa has three World Series titles, six pennants and 2,728 wins. He managed the White Sox from 1979-86, posting a 522-510 record and one playoff appearance in 1983, before he was let go by then-general manager Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf called dismissing La Russa one of the biggest mistakes and regrets of his ownership tenure and views La Russa like a brother.
“I stupidly allowed him to be fired, but I can still sort of justify it," said Reinsdorf during the 2013 Winter Meetings after La Russa joined Bobby Cox and Joe Torre as Hall of Fame inductees as voted on by the 16-member Expansion Era committee. “When you are running an organization, you can't tell the head of a department who is going to work for him. So the general manager wanted to let him go, and I couldn't talk him out of it. So I had to let it happen.
“Before I let that happen, I called Roy Eisenhardt, who was president of the Oakland A's at the time, and said, ‘Things aren't working out here. If we let him go, will you hire him?’ He said, ‘In a heartbeat.’ I would like to think if Roy said no, I would have stopped it.”
La Russa joins Nixey Callahan (1903-04, 1912-14), Paul Richards (1951-54, 1976) and Al Lopez (1957-65, 1968-69) as managers with multiple White Sox stints.
Scott Merkin has covered the White Sox for MLB.com since 2003. Follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin and Facebook and listen to his podcast.
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