Soxsi75 Posted September 1, 2023 Share Posted September 1, 2023 It wasn't a mistake huh?? OK. Let's look back at the full chain of events. So Jerry boy wants to claim that since we won the division in 2021 that the LaRussa rehiring made sense. OK, why did we win in 2021? Here's why. We won the division that year because for the first half of the season, Rodon and Lynn were at the very least 2 of the top 4 starters in the AL. This despite Robert and Jimenez being out the whole first half. So the attitude then was, "gee if we're this good now, just think how good we'll be when they come back!!" Well now the LaRussa affect came in to play. Partly because no one was good enough to make a run at us, he treated the entire second half of the year like one long spring training by putting "C" team lineups out there, giving all the regulars constant days off, especially during the last games of series's. He continued this stupid trend into 2022. Except we didn't have a 12 game lead to sit back on while doing this. He never would have done this in 1983. He never put out a lineup with Fisk, Baines, Luzinski and Kittle all not in it. But he did now. He defended this by saying he wanted to keep his players "fresh." Again, he never did this before. In St.Louis, Albert Pujols missed a total of 3 games in 2 years. How was THAT keeping him fresh?? He managed like a tired, old man. Which is what he is. Therefore, we played like a tired, old team. Except we weren't old. So that just created a lazy attitude and atmosphere around this team. For God's sake, he even publicly said "don't run out ground balls too hard so you won't get hurt!!!!" Can you imagine a manager telling his team not to play hard??? OK. So now LaRussa's gone. We needed to change that laissez Faire attitude with a kick in the a## type manager. We did that before. When the corpse like Manuel was fired after 2003, we brought in Guillen to be that way. But instead after LaRussa and his laissez faire ways did we bring in a manager to change that? No. We bring in Grifol. Now maybe, to be fair, Grifol may turn out to be a decent manager some day. Not saying he will, just giving the benefit of the doubt. But he wasn't the right man for this job. We needed a Billy Martin or Dick Williams type to kick this team in the a## and change this Laissez Faire way. He didn't. Instead he's cemented it. So it's not the slightest bit surprising to hear Middleton tell stories of pitchers falling asleep in the bullpen and no discipline. Now a lot's gone horribly wrong the last few years. From injuries, to players underperforming, to Reinsdorf's cheapness, to Hahn's incompetence.....There's a lot of blame to go around. But bringing LaRussa back has been a major part of it. And so for idiot Jerry boy to defend the rehiring of his old buddy LaRussa. That's flat out stupid. And can't be disputed. So I ask Jerry boy again. Why was it right to bring LaRussa back????? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eminor3rd Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 I acknowledge this rant. You are heard, friend. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 As much as I disliked RR he may have been a good fit for the time and possibly got better as a manager. Tony not so. Odd for a HOF manager to walk a player with 1-2 count. You'd think some of the things he did was from dimentia. Maybe the Yermin incident did more harm than thought. I don;t ever recall a manger ever doing that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 7 hours ago, kitekrazy said: As much as I disliked RR he may have been a good fit for the time and possibly got better as a manager. Tony not so. Odd for a HOF manager to walk a player with 1-2 count. You'd think some of the things he did was from dimentia. Maybe the Yermin incident did more harm than thought. I don;t ever recall a manger ever doing that. RR was adamantly not going to learn anything or get better, he made that abundantly clear. The idea that he has anything to learn made him cuss at reporters when they asked fluff questions along those lines. Of course, this was also one of LaRussa’s numerous flaws. Among the things he refused to learn and angrily shouted people down when told about them was “official MLB rule changes”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 1 hour ago, Balta1701 said: RR was adamantly not going to learn anything or get better, he made that abundantly clear. The idea that he has anything to learn made him cuss at reporters when they asked fluff questions along those lines. Of course, this was also one of LaRussa’s numerous flaws. Among the things he refused to learn and angrily shouted people down when told about them was “official MLB rule changes”. Same type of manager, different name but HOF credentials for 2 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 27 minutes ago, kitekrazy said: Same type of manager, different name but HOF credentials for 2 years. Oh I think LaRussa was much worse. I think Renteria at least worked hard and tried to coach. LaRussa was a horrific hybrid of all the worst parts of recent White Sox coaches. You had Ventura’s laziness and unwillingness to enforce any rules, you had Ozzie’s obsession with certain types of ball players and the way the game was played in the 1980s, Renteria’s ignorance, and Ozzie’s and Renteria’s arrogance all rolled into one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wegner Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 54 minutes ago, Balta1701 said: Oh I think LaRussa was much worse. I think Renteria at least worked hard and tried to coach. LaRussa was a horrific hybrid of all the worst parts of recent White Sox coaches. You had Ventura’s laziness and unwillingness to enforce any rules, you had Ozzie’s obsession with certain types of ball players and the way the game was played in the 1980s, Renteria’s ignorance, and Ozzie’s and Renteria’s arrogance all rolled into one. I sure haven't seen the team play as hard as they did under Renteria. They seemed to play a little harder for about a week when Cairo took over, then pfffftt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWSpalehoseCWS Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Tony was the worst manager I’ve ever seen. I’ll never get over the decision to walk Turner when he was down 0-2. That was the ultimate brain-dead move I’ve ever seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeC Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 RR was the right guy to teach the young'ins how to play hard at the big league level. He seemed to hold players accountable, and guys played hard for him. Under TLR it was a fucking shitshow, unless you dared swing full-on off of a position player with a 3-0 count late in an unreachable game. THEN the life lessons would come out, publicly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highland Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Even if one could make the case that LaRussa did a good job, the decision to bring him back was a stupid one. Typical JR. Don't really consider anyone else and then hire a crony for some dumb reason. Maybe Getz will do a good job in the end, but the same dynamic was there. So, it's not shocking that things never seem to change. Because they haven't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted September 3, 2023 Share Posted September 3, 2023 Bring Tony back was what makes Sox baseball so special. You gotta love the surprises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Line Posted September 3, 2023 Share Posted September 3, 2023 Jerry Manuel was not corpse like? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.