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Long before there was Tim Anderson, there was Rickey Henderson


VAfan

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Since today seems to be the Tony LaRussa posts day, I decided to add a post on a topic I've been thinking about for a while. 

One of the recurrent themes about LaRussa is -- how is he going to mesh with Tim Anderson and his bat flips? 

My answer is: if TA is playing winning baseball, TLR is going to be just fine with it. 

After all, Tony LaRussa managed Rickey Henderson for years, and Henderson was as demonstrative a bat-flipping lead off man as there has ever been in baseball. 

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/reminder-rickey-henderson-had-some-of-the-best-home-run-trots-of-all-time-c21198

https://gifs.com/gif/rickey-henderson-bat-flip-and-popping-collar-vZwP8A

Here's a video of TLR telling a story about Rickey Henderson. 

 

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28 minutes ago, VAfan said:

Since today seems to be the Tony LaRussa posts day, I decided to add a post on a topic I've been thinking about for a while. 

One of the recurrent themes about LaRussa is -- how is he going to mesh with Tim Anderson and his bat flips? 

My answer is: if TA is playing winning baseball, TLR is going to be just fine with it. 

After all, Tony LaRussa managed Rickey Henderson for years, and Henderson was as demonstrative a bat-flipping lead off man as there has ever been in baseball. 

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/reminder-rickey-henderson-had-some-of-the-best-home-run-trots-of-all-time-c21198

https://gifs.com/gif/rickey-henderson-bat-flip-and-popping-collar-vZwP8A

Here's a video of TLR telling a story about Rickey Henderson. 

 

You are one of only two posters on this site whose posts I can immediately recognize *by shape.*  Like, if I squint my eyes and blur the words I still know it's you.

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Tony also managed Dennis Eckersley who was another character. 

But we have two hands,  and on the other hand TLR is a bit older now. We'll see how patient he is. 

I know I have infinite patience with my grandson and my kids. I have a lot of patience with my players. I have slightly less with some of my students. As I get older the range gets smaller. 

I think we all agree (well as many ever agree here)  for a number if years he was as great of a manager as there was in baseball. Players liked playing for him. Any team would have been happy to have him at the helm.

The honest debate is should a DUI have eliminated his candidacy and can he be effective at 76 years old and not managing for a long time. Those are real concerns. 

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45 minutes ago, Texsox said:

Tony also managed Dennis Eckersley who was another character. 

But we have two hands,  and on the other hand TLR is a bit older now. We'll see how patient he is. 

I know I have infinite patience with my grandson and my kids. I have a lot of patience with my players. I have slightly less with some of my students. As I get older the range gets smaller. 

I think we all agree (well as many ever agree here)  for a number if years he was as great of a manager as there was in baseball. Players liked playing for him. Any team would have been happy to have him at the helm.

The honest debate is should a DUI have eliminated his candidacy and can he be effective at 76 years old and not managing for a long time. Those are real concerns. 

So was Ron Gant...

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13 hours ago, Texsox said:

Tony also managed Dennis Eckersley who was another character. 

But we have two hands,  and on the other hand TLR is a bit older now. We'll see how patient he is. 

I know I have infinite patience with my grandson and my kids. I have a lot of patience with my players. I have slightly less with some of my students. As I get older the range gets smaller. 

I think we all agree (well as many ever agree here)  for a number if years he was as great of a manager as there was in baseball. Players liked playing for him. Any team would have been happy to have him at the helm.

The honest debate is should a DUI have eliminated his candidacy and can he be effective at 76 years old and not managing for a long time. Those are real concerns. 

This is a fair take.  Where I would quibble is that I don't think most of his critics on this site or others would concede that "for a number of years he was as great of a manager as there was in baseball."  If they had, it would have been a more civil conversation. 

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1 minute ago, VAfan said:

This is a fair take.  Where I would quibble is that I don't think most of his critics on this site or others would concede that "for a number of years he was as great of a manager as there was in baseball."  If they had, it would have been a more civil conversation. 

I would concede that we didn't need another thread for this with three other ones going on.

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1 hour ago, VAfan said:

This is a fair take.  Where I would quibble is that I don't think most of his critics on this site or others would concede that "for a number of years he was as great of a manager as there was in baseball."  If they had, it would have been a more civil conversation. 

I haven't read too many posters denying he was a great manager. He had a Hall of Fame worthy career. I also appreciate how much that induction means to him. He's in a no win situation. If the team fails to win a WS it's clearly his fault. If they win,  it's the players he inherited. No matter how many rings Phil Jackson put on his fingers critics still point to his rosters deep talent. 

The article you posted was the first that I saw that specifically addresses one of the key concerns fans have how will be related to modern players?  Most posters here believe he can't. 

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14 hours ago, Jose Abreu said:

I don't know about you guys but I think we really need a few more TLR threads today

I suggested one catch all thread. The media blitz is on. Hall of Fame manager returns to dugout. It's a movie storyline but every actor I can think of to play Tony is already dead. 

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On 2/18/2021 at 9:29 AM, Texsox said:

I suggested one catch all thread. The media blitz is on. Hall of Fame manager returns to dugout. It's a movie storyline but every actor I can think of to play Tony is already dead. 

What about Clint Eastwood?  They kind of have the same wrinkly old face.

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"Being that I'm a Hall of Fame manager that the front office can't touch,  and I could bench your ass, before kneeling during this anthem or flipping that bat,  you better ask yourself,  do I feel lucky? Well do ya punk?"

Yeah,  that could work. 

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