The Chicago White Sox—specifically, Jerry Reinsdorf—stunned the baseball world on Thursday by announcing the hiring of Tony La Russa as the team's next manager.
The White Sox fired Rick Renteria after losing in the American League Wild Card round to the Oakland Athletics.
La Russa, 76, managed the White Sox from 1979-86 before World Series–winning stints with the A's (1986-95) and the St. Louis Cardinals (1995-2011). Yet, there are justifiable concerns about his ability to manage a baseball team in 2020—especially one as full of young and exciting players as Chicago.
The hiring was doubly surprising because of who didn't get the gig. Namely, former Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch or ex-Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora—both of whom won recent championships and were considered amongst the best skippers in the sport before facing suspensions for their roles in cheating scandals.
In fact, due to a hilarious graphics mistake by the White Sox communications team, we may have learned that the organization was preparing to announce Hinch as its next manager before, presumably, some ninth-inning intervention from Reinsdorf.
As multiple observant Twitter users pointed out, the email announcement sent out by the White Sox included an image of Hinch's digital signature, rather than La Russa's.
Can confirm the White Sox emailed out a photo with AJ Hinch's signature pic.twitter.com/ckf8LxbmJD
— Austin Guy (@Dzikhead) October 29, 2020
Buddy pointed out to me…is that AJ Hinch's signature? pic.twitter.com/EhlSBhu9xS
— Goff (@Jason1Goff) October 29, 2020
Graphics department prepared for AJ Hinch? https://t.co/2YtAM3DEg3
— James Fox (@JamesFox917) October 29, 2020
just checked my email again and yep. great job, guys. bang up job all around. https://t.co/wVN2xkzHu5
— Riles23 (@Riles23) October 29, 2020
After "trust but verify," I can verify this. Wow. https://t.co/7M0eAb9xBm
— Jim Margalus 🥌 (@SoxMachine) October 29, 2020
White Sox GM Rick Hahn said they were looking for a manager who has “experience with a championship organization in recent years,” which could have applied to Hinch (or Cora).
Even beyond the initial Twitter blowback to the announcement and the graphics mistake, La Russa's first day back with the Sox didn't get less bumpier. During his introductory press conference, La Russa was asked about about his views on players speaking out on racial injustice and social issues. In 2016, he said players who wanted to protest during the national anthem should stay in the clubhouse and, in 1999, Ron Gant accused him of being racist.
La Russa, for his part, said his stances on protesting have changed—though he did throw in the dreaded “there's not a racist bone in my body” line.
Tony La Russa said he would support White Sox players using their platform for protest, saying his views have changed.
He said: "Not only do I respect, but I applaud the awareness that's come into not just society but especially sports. … There's not a racist bone in my body."
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) October 29, 2020
In addition to analytics and peaceful protest, La Russa will have to display a newfound open-mindedness to bat-flipping, too, with star shortstop Tim Anderson on his squad.
Tony La Russa: "There's a lot of great, new information, a lot of great ways you can improve how you either coach up or prepare. The difference is that once the game starts, there is no formula that can measure the head, heart and guts of a player that day, or even before."
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) October 29, 2020
We'll see how this all goes.
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