The Chicago White Sox and Tony La Russa have officially moved on. Due to health concerns, he is out as the Chicago White Sox manager. It became officially official on Monday that he won’t return in 2023. That is also good news for the White Sox for a variety of baseball reasons.
In his second go around with the team, there were plenty of bad lineups, horrid strategy decisions, and terrible bullpen management. All of those things combined with a flawed roster and underwhelming players led to the season that the White Sox just had.
Tony La Russa’s first game away from the teams was on August 30th as they began a series against the Kansas City Royals. That means that the last game that La Russa ever coached for the Chicago White Sox was the Sunday afternoon game on August 29th.
You might remember that as the game where Cease pitched amazingly against the Arizona Diamondbacks only for the bullpen to blow it late. That certainly was a tough loss as Cease was in the middle of chasing the Cy Young Award.
The final move that Tony La Russa ever made as a manager is really funny.
The final move that Tony La Russa made in that game will make you laugh as it will always be the last game that he managed in his Major League career. With one out in the ninth inning down a run, La Russa pinch-hit his favorite player Leury Garcia who struck out.
One batter later, Romy Gonzalez struck out and ended the ballgame. It is honestly really funny that La Russa’s last-ever managerial move will be a pinch hit that resulted in a strikeout of Leury Garcia. Love it or hate it, La Russa loved him some Leury Garcia.
Everyone will always remember the time that Tony La Russa defended Garcia against the media. He was really angry when a reporter referred to him as a utility player. There is no doubt that he defended the players that he liked when he needed to.
For all of his issues as a baseball manager, we wish Tony nothing but health and happiness in his second go-around of retirement. It wasn’t the best baseball played by the White Sox in the end but there were plenty of stories to keep us entertained.