Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa, citing a need to return to the dugout after years in the front office, will guide the Chicago White Sox in 2021, returning to the franchise he started his career at in 1979.
With the “South Siders” LaRussa will take over one of the most promising rosters in baseball, flush with young stars and productive veterans. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Chicago reached the postseason for the first time since 2008, but slumped late in the season to lose a potential American League Central title, before being bounced out by Oakland in the opening round.
With the hiring, LaRussa, at 76 years young, becomes the oldest manager in baseball, surpassing Houston’s 71-year old skipper Dusty Baker. The former White Sox, Athletics, and Cardinals manager has not been in the dugout since 2011, when he led the Cardinals past the Rangers in the World Series. He won two championships in St. Louis, and before that, the 1989 World Series with Oakland.
In Chicago, LaRussa managed the White Sox from 1979 to 1986, including leading the franchise to 99 wins and the AL West championship in 1983, bringing postseason baseball to the city for the first time since the 1959 “Go-Go” White Sox that lost to the Dodgers in the World Series. The ’83 Sox, the last team to reach the postseason in old Comiskey Park, lost to Baltimore in that year’s ALCS.
LaRussa has won 2728 games and lost 2365 with six trips to the World Series in 33 years as a manager. He was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2014, now becoming the first manger in MLB history to already have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The Detroit Tigers became the second AL Central team to name a new manager within a 24-hour timeframe, announcing the hiring of former Houston Astros skipper A.J. Hinch on Friday. In Detroit, a franchise looking at brighter times after a multi-year rebuilding product, Hinch replaces former Twins and Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire, who announced his retirement following the 2020 season.
Photo credit – Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia / Phoenix, AZ
