Memo to Mike Rizzo on Tony LaRussa

There are growing rumors about a rift between Tony LaRussa and the Cardinals after the failure of the Cardinals to perform to expectations in the NL playoff series.  A recent column by Buster Olne y is one of the more expansive to opine on the subject.  I hope Mike Rizzo of the Nationals has read it. 

Before LaRussa came over to the Cardinals, the team had been wandering in the wilderness for almost a decade.  The Cardinals are one of the great franchises and getting them back on track was a challenge that helped draw LaRussa to St. Louis.  Their previous pennant in 1987 had been followed up by season after season of frustration.  Hiring Tony LaRussa not only brought through the Gateway Arch the best manager in the game, but the best group of players and coaches one person could command.

LaRussa brought Dave Duncan with him from Oakland.  Duncan is arguably the best pitching coach in the game.  For anyone who has missed his ability to transform marginal pitching talent into front line starters and relievers, it has been a long, storied, and very classy act. 

Olney opines in his ESPN article that Duncan may leave regardless whether LaRussa does.  Duncan by himself will command a significant following–pitchers who will leave the Cardinals for their mentor.  Specifically, Joel Piniero has reclaimed his career with Duncan’s help in 2009.  Piniero won 15 games in 2009 and pitched to a 3.49 ERA.  Always a prodigous talent, Piniero had almost pitched his way out of baseball after seven less than stellar seasons in Seattle and one in Boston.  

Getting Dave Duncan to come to Washington to work with Stephen Strasburg might be the best arranged marriage outside the Indian subcontinent.  Getting Piniero as a bonus makes computing the dollar value of that one just a set of recurring infinity signs.

LaRussa’s worth is exponentially greater.  His ability to draw players may not be what it once was when Mark McGwire signed with the Cardinals to play for his former boss, but it is up there.  The reunion of McGwire and LaRussa made history.  The value of a manager like LaRussa to a team like the Nationals–one that has to beg players to return phone calls–is, again, off the charts.

There have been numerous local articles in the Washington papers speculating on the value of this player or that to the Nationals in the hope that the team may land top free agents.  Tony LaRussa is the best free agent that is not yet available.  But if for some reason he walks away from the Cardinals, if they are willing to cut the ties to possibly the greatest living manager in the game, then the Nationals should forget all the other free agents until they sign this one.

Anyone who has read Buzz Bissinger’s book about LaRussa, 3 Nights in August, knows something about how hard LaRussa has worked to reach the pinnacle of his profession.  LaRussa did not pile up wins with the Yankees or the Dodgers, he won them the old fashioned way.  He earned them with teams like Oakland, the White Sox, and the Cardinals.  Before there was Billy Beane, there was LaRussa (and Sandy Alderson) making winners of the low-budget Athletics.

The reason the Cardinals may let LaRussa walk is contained in the preface of Bissinger’s book.  He cites a Sports Illustrated survey of players about the best and worst managers.  LaRussa appeared on both lists because, as Bissinger says, he operates with a distinct style “regardless the critics chorus.”  LaRussa is not Billy Martin, but something has pushed him to move on even when winning with both Oakland and Chicago.

Bissinger calls LaRussa, a “baseball man,” and one who loves to be called such.  No one will say in today’s world that Washington, DC is a “baseball town.”  Far from it.  But Mike Rizzo and the owners of the Nationals could made a lot of progress toward changing that with one move.  If he leaves St. Louis, bring Tony LaRussa to Washington to manage the Nationals. 

Bob Short lured Ted Williams into managing in Washington, so it can be done.  It would be the biggest challenge of LaRussa’s life in baseball.  But making the case that LaRussa is the greatest manager of all time–or at least better than Torre and Bobby Cox–could be settled right here on the banks of the Anacostia River.