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i like La Russa, i would be a nice idea.


opinions?

In the words of the BigLeagueChoo: "Rerish noooooooo!!!!!!"

God, I hope he doesn't come to Seattle.

Basketball Jesus wrote:In the words of the BigLeagueChoo: "Rerish noooooooo!!!!!!"

God, I hope he doesn't come to Seattle.

why?

i might be short of information and knowledge, but i thought he was some kind of above good coach...

Nah, he's a meticulous meddler. An egomaniac too.

I've read elsewhere that LaRussa would come as part of a package deal with Walt Jocketty. LaRussa manages the way Peyton Manning quarterbacks, in terms of style. He wants the world to notice that he's managing, rather than do his job quietly. Kind of like the Master Thespian that Jon Lovitt once played on SNL -- he wants everyone to know that he's "Acting!"

In terms of substance, LaRussa and Jocketty are both old-school types, like Bavasi, Gillick, Hargrove, Piniella and all the others who have ever run the M's organization. My general view is that a new-school type should come in and lift the organization out of the stone age. But the Jocketty-LaRussa team has had a lot of success, more than most of their counterparts. If the organization stubbornly refuses to hire forward-thinking leaders, they can certainly do worse than these two.

On the other hand (yes, I know I'm running out of hands here), if it's just LaRussa and not Jocketty, I don't think I would like it as much. Jocketty is the one who puts good teams together, while LaRussa just does a passable job while making a big spectacle of himself. This is the guy who had his own player, Albert Pujols, the greatest hitter in the universe, sitting on the bench at the end of the All Star game when he sent Aaron Freaking Rowand to the plate, leading to the NL's loss.

In baseball, there are two kinds of executives: those who thought Moneyball was a great book, and those who thought Three Nights in August was a great book. Everyone is one or the other, and there's no in-between. Me? I thought Three Nights in August was total crap, a glowing paean to a guy who overmanaged and didn't do common-sense things like letting hitters hit and pitchers pitch.