La Russa announces his retirement as skipper

[NV]

Tony La Russa, the third-winningest manager in Major League history and most assuredly a future Hall of Famer, announced his retirement as a manager on Monday, fewer than three days after winning a World Series for the third time in his 33-year career, the past 16 of them with the Cardinals.

The surprising announcement was made during a Monday morning news conference at Busch Stadium.

"There isn't one [factor] that dominates [my decision]," La Russa said. "They all just come together telling you your time is over.

"We went through the season and I felt that this just feels like it's time to end it and I think it's going to be great for the Cardinals to refresh what's going on here."

La Russa, 67, has 2,728 managerial victories, ranking behind only Connie Mack (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763). Only Mack has managed in more ballgames. The Cardinals skipper is also the only manager in Major League Baseball history to win multiple pennants in both leagues and the second to win a World Series title in each, as well.

La Russa's Oakland A's won the World Series in 1989. Hall of Famer Sparky Anderson won World Series titles with Cincinnati and Detroit. The Cardinals' championship was their second in the past six seasons.

More than half of La Russa' victories -- 1,408 -- have come in a St. Louis uniform, making him the franchise's winningest manager, after having led the Cardinals to a surprising World Series title this season.

"We're grateful for what he's done for the Cardinals all these years," Cardinals chairman and chief executive officer Bill DeWitt Jr. said.

St. Louis -- which lost starting pitcher Adam Wainwright for the season before Spring Training and played without key players, such as Matt Holliday, Albert Pujols and NLCS and World Series MVP David Freese, for significant stretches of the regular season -- climbed out of a 10 1/2-game NL Wild Card hole in late August to make the playoffs.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111031&content_id=25849368&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Going out on top. Congratulations to La Russa on a fantastic career.

 

[cruzg24]

Congratz to him, a great way to finish a managerial career. He will be remembered as the man who created the modern day bullpen.

 

[DJT]

Going out on top...thats what i'd do.

 

[WHO-DEY-BENGALS_18]

Wow! Was not expecting this. Like others have said, go out while you are on top, that's the way to do it. What a great managerial career for La Russa!

 

[elcheato]

He's pretty old but Dave Duncan deserves a chance to manage a team.

 

[RipCity32]

Kind of shocked, I read he was going to announce he was coming back for another year.
But yeah, going out on top is the way to go.

However, I feel like this kills any chance of Pujols returning.

 

[SaintFan25]

Sucks to see him go but he had a great career, it's good to go out on top.

 

[Pugz]

i wouldnt expect this after a win but thats because no one does that these days. he was older and has won three already and this was probably the best since his team was doubted just two months ago. went out on top. best way to do it.

my concerns are with albert coming back now.

 

[Elite]

Congrats to TLR on a great career. Probably a top 5 manager of all-time.

 

[Mexi]

i know they won, but man he had a terrible world series
fortunately, ron washington was just as bad if not worse

managers are all overrated. tactical wise, i have always hated TLR
however, managers are so valuable for things you cant truly measure. he was great with his players, was prepared, had his teams prepared. so from the personal side of things, he was a great manager

 

[Elite]

A lot of things people forget that managers do is that they actually teach the players baseball skills. They're actually out there at practice and are teaching the players various different things. People think about them as if they're just guys who make decisions during the game and call them good/bad managers based on the decisions they make during the game when that's really not the case

 

[playmaker7]

What I'm most impressed at is the fact he's 67 and has a full head of brown hair lol

But this came as a surprise, but no better time for him to make this type of decision. Twas a good career and he ended it on a high note.

 

[Pugz]

What I'm most impressed at is the fact he's 67 and has a full head of brown hair lol

if its all his real color thats a really funny point. ha