La Russa looks at variety of subjects, By: Dave Newhouse
Cardinals' run to title, steroids, best player he has coached
11/22/2006
The view from the top of baseball's mountain: Tony La Russa enjoying a strawberry smoothie on a Sunday morning at Starbucks.
But La Russa feels as high as Mt. Diablo at the moment, having managed St. Louis to a World Series title against significant odds.
The Cardinals won 83 games in the regular season, the lowest win total of any World Series champion. In contrast, La Russa's 1989 Oakland A's won 99 games before defeating San Francisco in the World Series.
La Russa is only the second manager to win a World Series in both leagues, joining his mentor, Sparky Anderson. Now La Russa's back home in Alamo, busy with his Animal Rescue Foundation, or ARF.
On Sunday, he discussed a number of topics, including the Cardinals' improbable run, steroids, player rifts, coaching another sport, the greatest player he's ever seen, and the A's leaving Oakland.
Q. You've had dynamic teams swept in the World Series. So how do you explain what just happened?
A. The team that got to October was not the 83-win team. Rarely did we put our team on the field during the season. We set a franchise record for wins in April. There's one lesson I've learned from 12 postseasons: In October baseball, a lot of those series swing on a pivotal game — on an at-bat, a pitch, a play.
Q. Like Dave Roberts' stealing that base for Boston in 2004, which turned a New York Yankees sweep into a Red Sox series win?
A. They had a guy like Roberts who could steal that base. A lot of teams don't have that dynamic weapon, so they don't win. So what it comes down to, and this is the lesson of the '88 Dodgers and the '06 Cardinals: The game is won by the team that plays the best.
Q. You're 62. Did this Series win over Detroit stoke the fire, and you'll manage for a long time, or do you have a cutoff point? A. Sparky told me, "Don't decide ahead of time. You'll know when you're done." The test is the fire in your gut. In my case, I know I'm all right for '07. I know I'm not going to make it a lot longer. Then maybe I'll take what I've learned over 40 years, hook up with some club, and be an asset, to stay in the competition. But not general-managing.
Q. You know every big-league city, so what makes St. Louis different?
A. Partly because KMOX had that powerful signal. (Author) John Grisham told me he listened to the Cardinals on KMOX in Mississippi. I've been told the Cardinals are heard in 40 states and some Canadian provinces. So the Cardinals have this historic fan base.
And it's the Midwestern culture. People in the Midwest are more patient and have a nicer edge. If you play hard in St. Louis, fans are very forgiving. Their heroes remain heroes. (Stan) Musial, (Red) Schoendienst, (Bob) Gibson, (Lou) Brock, they're treated as heroes, and they still come around.
Q. Your sawed-off shortstop David Eckstein was the World Series' MVP. What makes him so valuable?
A. I made the comment that he's the toughest guy in uniform I've ever been around. Carney Lansford and Mike Bordick are tough, too, but I gave David the edge because he's smaller than those guys. Players slide into him, they blast him, but nothing backs this kid down. You can't scare him, you can't make him relent. He's got a chip on his shoulder because he's been told he's not good enough, but he's a very good player.
Q. The A's are heading to Fremont. Any reaction?
A. I have mixed feelings, but I could see it coming. When the Coliseum configuration changed with the Raiders coming back, it wasn't the same baseball configuration. If you're an A's fan, which I am, you want to see them compete. The reality is wherever they can go in this area to improve their chances of competing, you've got to be for it. Revenue helps them compete.
Q. Walter Haas, the late patriarch, sold the A's for an under-the-market-value cost on the condition of their staying in Oakland. How would he take their leaving?
A. I wondered about that. If the Haases still owned the club, and Sandy (Alderson) was the president, and Wally (Haas) was involved, I would bet a dollar that they would make the move. Because it's painful to see the (Miguel) Tejadas, kids you've raised, go somewhere else.
Q. On the steroids issue, how have you come to grips with this whole mess, because you've maintained that you didn't know what was going on in your own clubhouse in Oakland?
A. I suspected a couple of guys; that's what I said. I still believe Dave McKay, my longtime coach who has as much integrity as anyone I know. He supervised our (conditioning) program and said nothing happened under A's supervision that was illegal. Were things slipped under the rug where the A's and Dave and Tony we're not (aware)? Evidently. Jose (Canseco) said there was.
What I said was that edge those A's had in strength and stamina were the product of five, six days a week in the gym, which no one in baseball was doing at the time. I watched Mark (McGwire) do this in season and out of season. If you and I did that for a year, we'd get stronger.
Q. But steroids also provide an unfair edge, correct?
A. Baseball dramatically went over the edge in an illegal way. And it happened on the A's on my watch. I got suspicious of two guys who got stronger without working.
Q. McGwire has crawled into a hole after his embarrassment before Congress. Will he ever emerge?
A. I talk to him a lot, and it's all positive. He's got stuff he's learned that he could share with hitters. I think he would like to do that, and sooner or later, I think he will do that. I don't know how he'll handle questions about his playing days, but I believe in him, and I trust him.
Q. You played the game clean. Does it bother you that others chose to get ahead by cheating?
A. I'm going to get philosophical. You've got heated competition, so we're going to do anything we can to get an edge. This has been true since the first day the game was played — spitballs, stealing signs, all that stuff. There's a line, and if you cross it illegally, you should get suspended.
Q. But weren't you taught never to cheat or you might get caught?
A. The difference is when it's against the rules of baseball. Steroids is an illegal out, getting bigger and stronger in an illegal way. That violates the spirit of competition. What baseball has done, through education, is getting that under control.
Q. The home run record is the most sacred record in all of sports. Seeing that record tainted, isn't that what upsets fans?
A. I know every rule change in baseball benefits the hitters. Lower mound, expansion, smaller ballparks. And the ball was hotter, little guys hitting the ball out of the park in the opposite direction. That bothers me, but I don't know how you rectify the record book.
Q. Could you accept McGwire as a Hall of Famer?
A. I go by what I know and what I think I believe. I have no problem thinking of Mark McGwire as a Hall of Fame player.
Q. Which one player during your time in baseball has taken your breath away?
A. I've gasped at a lot of them, but the one who made me go "wow" the most is Rickey (Henderson). He's the most dangerous player of the era I've been involved with.
Q. You've got one game to win. Of all the pitchers you've had, which one gets the start?
A. I would say Stew (Dave Stewart) or (Chris) Carpenter. They're both rise-to-the-occasion guys.
Q. Could you see yourself coaching another sport?
A. I heard John Madden say that the way I coach, I could coach football. If I grew up in another sport, and I knew that sport, I could coach it. But I've had the opportunity to meet coaches in football, basketball and hockey, pro and college. And in all those conversations, you know what we talk about more than anything: "Got any keys to getting the players' attention?"
We're all dealing with the same thing in team sports. The athletes are hearing from their friends, families and agents, "That's coach talk." So it's getting their attention and having them do the team thing.
Q. So why do you wear shades for night games: Deception, so opponents can't see your eyes?
A. They're too far away if I flash a sign. The reason I wear the glasses is because from the lower level (of the dugout), you're looking right into the lights, and the glare gives me headaches.
Q. You're known as a player's manager, but is it hard avoiding rifts, thinking of Ozzie Smith and, more recently, Scott Rolen?
A. Let me correct one thing: I want to be a player's manager only for those players who respect their teammates and the team goals. The Ozzie situation was a unique one. He was an icon, but when I came in, I made the decision he should have a part-time role. Ozzie had an arm problem, so we made a deal for Royce Clayton. I told Ozzie, "The guy who plays the best plays the most." Ozzie said I lied to him, and he refused to let it go. I had a meeting with him and told him I was tired of hearing that I lied.
I had Carlton Fisk, and this goes back to 1983, when I told him he was taking his offensive problems behind the plate. I said, "If you go 0-for-4, we can still win the game, because defense is your strength." The next day, he said, "Everybody needs a kick in the butt once in a while, but no one needs a knife in the heart." The whole rest of the year, we had this tension. He apologized the next spring in Florida.
The Rolen thing (La Russa's sitting him out one postseason game because of injury), it will be interesting to see how it develops over the winter. I don't know how he's going to take it, but I know exactly how I'm going to deal with it.
Q. You could live anywhere in the country. Why Alamo?
A. We got the A's job in the summer of '86. The managers' adage is rent, don't buy. But we took a shot and built a home here. My two daughters' roots are here. And the Animal Rescue Foundation was here, so it made no sense to disrupt the family.
Q. What is the progress of ARF?
A. We've been doing this since 1991, but there are two perceptions, and they're both wrong, that we're doing more outside Northern California and that we're totally funded because we've had celebrated events or supporters. Everything we do is in Northern California; we've just gotten some notoriety. And we're working hard to make money; we don't have an endowment to ensure us forever.
We moved into our new building in Walnut Creek in 2003. The building is 38,000 square feet and cost $17 million; we've gotten it down to $2 million. It's not just people rescuing animals, but animals rescuing people. Wonderful, innovative stuff. Our Web site is arf.net and our phone number is 925-256-1ARF. We have another gala event scheduled Jan. 5 and 6. Meatloaf and Billy Bob Thornton will perform.
Q. Winning the World Series, are you recognized wherever you go in Contra Costa County?
A. The neatest thing about coming home, if I see 10 people, seven are going to say, "Hey, you're doing great work with ARF." One or two will say, "Nice year in baseball." I'm so much more ARF-connected than baseball-connected here. It's great.
