White Sox Make It Official: Tony La Russa Hired As Manager

CHICAGO — The notion that the youth-centric, newly rebuilt Chicago White Sox could hand their the managerial reins over to the 76-year-old owner of three World Series rings who started his baseball career on the city’s South Side 42 years ago once seemed like a bit of a stretch.

On Thursday, the team announced that general manager Rick Hahn is giving Tony La Russa a second go-round at managing the Sox. The announcement comes less than 24 hours after WGN’s Dan Roan suggested on Twitter that the Sox could make a major announcement as early as Thursday, teasing the idea of a possible La Russa return by saying “yes, it’s probably what – and WHO – you think it is.

Just a matter of weeks after the Sox fired Rick Renteria after four years, La Russa – who has clearly remained on the top of the wish list for owner Jerry Reinsdorf – was announced as the replacement for Renteria, who was fired earlier this month. La Russa takes over a team that many is built for sustained success and built around a talented and youthful core. La Russa hasn’t managed since 2011, when he guided the St. Louis Cardinals to their second World Series championship under La Russa.

La Russa, who skippered the Sox to a 1983 American League West championship in his fourth season at the helm, interviewed with the Sox shortly after Renteria was fired. USA Today reported shortly after the interview that the job was La Russa’s to lose even with his nine-year managerial sabbatical. While many viewed La Russa’s old-school philosophy as a possible mismatch with the fun-loving, bat-flipping approach the Sox took under Renteria, others saw his disciplined mannerisms and ability to manage the game – and the bullpen – as perhaps just what the Sox needed after the team’s late-season collapse under Renteria.

"While I have had other inquiries about managing since retiring, this opportunity with the White Sox brings together a number of important factors that make this the right time and the right place,” La Russa said in a statement issued by the team. “The on-field talent is amazing, and the front office, led by Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, has done everything necessary to create an atmosphere of long-term success. All of those factors aligned to make this a tremendous opportunity, and I am excited to get going as soon as possible by building a coaching staff and getting to work.”

Reinsdorf acknowledged his long-standing relationship with La Russa but said the decision to bring his former manager back wasn't based on friendship.

“As everyone in baseball is well aware, I have always respected Tony and am proud to have maintained a great friendship with him over the decades in the game,” Reinsdorf said in the statement. “But his hiring is not based on friendship or on what happened years ago, but on the fact that we have the opportunity to have one of the greatest managers in the game’s history in our dugout at a time when we believe our team is poised for great accomplishments.”

Even before Roan’s tweet Wednesday night, the La Russa story took on some serious legs this week. In St. Louis, reports surfaced that La Russa had asked his long-time pitching coach, Dave Duncan, last week if he – at age 75 – had any interest in taking on the job again. Duncan, who worked with La Russa in Chicago, Oakland and St. Louis, said he did not.

“I have no desire to do that,” Duncan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday. “He asked me anyway but he knew I wouldn’t do it.”

When asked about the possibility of La Russa returning to Chicago, Duncan replied, “I do know Tony had some conversations. He’s stayed close with Jerry (Reinsdorf). I think they’re very serious about him being a potential manager there.”

Duncan added: “If he chooses to (take the job), I think he’ll do a helluva job.”

Last week, other Chicago baseball insiders with knowledge of the La Russa interview characterized the discussions with Hahn and executive vice president Kenny Williams as serious and referred to La Russa as a top candidate. While La Russa would likely be brought in on a short-term basis, his ability to at least steer the Sox to the top of the American League’s Central Division and guide them into a deep run into the playoffs could be enough to win Sox fans over.

La Russa built a "Winning Ugly" mantra in Chicago, where he managed until being fired in 1986 by then general manger Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. Three years later, La Russa led Oakland to a World Series title before he won two more titles in St. Louis with the Cardinals.

Bringing La Russa back could also provide the Sox the opportunity to groom someone into a longer-term manager with the rebuild complete and with La Russa having laid the groundwork for much longer sustained success. According to 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine, Williams and Hahn were direct in their questioning about La Russa’s ability to win over the team’s young core of talent.

If his answers satisfied those questions, his track record of producing winning baseball teams – and World Series championships may do the rest of the speaking and may just be the jumping off point the Sox need. And at this point, it seems like a Hall of Fame manager with 2,728 career victories – the third-most all-time among managers ­ appears to be a place the Sox are willing to start.