Tony La Russa got the Matt Nagy treatment on Saturday, but at least he’ll only hear it at his home ballpark
Fortunately, for Tony La Russa, the chants of his firing won’t follow him everywhere around Chicago. Even if the Chicago Bulls are playing in the NBA Finals right now, there likely won’t be enough White Sox fans at the game for the song to resonate enough in a viral moment. Also, La Russa’s kids weren’t young enough to play high school football in the Chicagoland area, so no noisy and immature group of teenagers Those who think they are funnier than they are may start a tactless song in front of him.
Matt Nagy was far worse when tributes went to him as the coach of Chicago’s most famous football team, the Bears. He’s the #1 public enemy to everyone from Kenosha, Wisc., to Munster, Ind. Sure he defied, and a lot of times inescapably, in the post-game press conferences, but fans and media took turns adding charcoal and lighter liquids to the grills they gave them. he sits.
La Russa ended those songs Saturday, in an 11-9 extra-time loss at home to the Texas Rangers. The White Sox are far from escaping the playoff hunt with just over a third of the season completed, but a team that was supposed to improve after 93 wins in 2021, has been disappointing in 2022. At this point , last season, the White Sox were back half a match against the best overall in the US Championship. They played 15 games over .500 and had a difference of 80 runs. Today, they have six back-to-back games in their division, three under .500 and have a difference of-54 runs.
They certainly miss Lance Lynn, Eloy Jiménez, and more recently Tim Anderson. Lynn’s absence may account for some of the big game totals against them, but last season the White Sox were without both Jiménez and Luis Robert, and remained one of the best teams in the league. This season, the White Sox have the 4th worst OPS+ team in the MLB. They failed to make some of the necessary upgrades in the offcourt area, on second base, and the rotation started, but La Russa didn’t help.
He went viral because confusing decision last week in the game against Los Angeles to deliberately walk Trea Turner when Turner was 1-2 and rewarded with Max Muncy’s three home runs and one loss. That wasn’t the only baffling move he made in that series, though. The previous match he had put Leury García in the squad as a leader. He’s currently beating 0.199 by a whopping 35 OPS+. The White Sox are in a bad position with Anderson on IL, but his replacement – Danny Mendrick averaging .292, 118 OPS+ – has at least fought in his two games in the series as a man. leader. He scored in every game, scored a run and drove in a game.
Even during the White Sox’s playoff loss to the Houston Astros last year, La Russa made some confusing decisions. He didn’t knock Michael Kopech out of the bullpen until Game 3, and left the starting pitchers struggling in the game for too long in a series of the best games of the year.
With the Los Angeles Angels firing Joe Maddon after a 12-game losing streak, questions have been raised about whether La Russa is next, and whether it will take place this season. Jerry Reinsdorf brings La Russa back 10 years after he last managed an MLB team, and 35 years after Reinsdorf fired him when the White Sox finished under 0.500 two of three seasons after winning the AL West in 1983. La Russa would go on to win three World Series as a manager with Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinals, and had four seasons of more than 100 wins.
The reality is that Reinsdorf has that deep feeling, and that the White Sox still have a playoffs spot with Lynn due to return on Tuesday, Anderson begins the rehab assignment and Jiménez returns at some point even after Having suffered a recent defeat, it is highly unlikely that La Russa will feature before the end of the season.
Even Nagy has reached the end of the season for the Bears. And he almost had the entire third largest metropolitan area in the United States yell at him, not just one side of town.
