Chicago White Sox

Oh he came out and said that once “they” deemed La Russa was a strong possibility they deviated greatly from his original managerial search plan.

Rick Hahn literally informed the media of what he was looking for in a manager at our end of season press conference and implied there would be an extensive interview process. A few hours later, Reinsdorf then went to Bob Nightengale and told him La Russa was a favorite for the job despite not exhibiting many of the qualities Rick was looking for. I’m sure almost everyone was blindsided by this as it appears Jerry orchestrated this all on his own, at least initially.

I signed it

Good way to help mitigate the La Russa PR nightmare

Again, we need to stop equating the front office with Jerry Reinsdorf. They are not the same thing when it comes to views on La Russa.

Not sure what the first statement has to do with anything, but cool I guess? As for the second, no one is saying strip his accomplishments or his HOF record. We just don’t want La Russa as our manager right now for obvious reasons and the DUI is really the final nail in the coffin. And this goes beyond just driving drunk, but rather the fact that La Russa has deemed himself the judge & jury of sincerity and meanwhile is unable to live up to his word. He’s an ego-driven hypocrite and that’s not going to fly in our clubhouse.

Of course it would have.

You seem political when you decide to bring the kneeling issue into this.

I agree, but KW went out and reluctantly signed Kotsay. Having a lifetime contract with Jerry has its perks as long as you’re willing to deal with the occasional bullshit.

It can’t hurt? Do you remember the last time he was here?

I’d wager than Hahn is still the primary decision maker, but the risk is if La Russa pulls an Ozzie by saying he wants Molina as part of his rotating DH and Reinsdorf making Rick accommodate.

By who? Are there even any manager openings at the moment?

And the worst part is the Sox were on the brink of becoming Chicago’s team for the next half decade. They could have captured thousands of young impressionable fans and turned them into lifelong supporters. That could still happen obviously, but hiring La Russa has put that in jeopardy and for no good reason. It’s literally one of the worst business decisions I have seen in some time.

It’s definitely not true, but what can you do when the boss has made his mind up?

I really hope this is the case

I didn’t get a response back from Reifert

sreifert@chisox.com

But if that’s what Jerry & La Russa told them to do what other choice would our PR function have? I don’t think anyone was naive enough to think this would never slip out, but the reality is most teams don’t hire someone with a pending crime to their name. I honestly can’t recall a situation like this in my years as a sports fan.

I don’t think they hid anything. I just think our PR staff was put in an impossible position. It’s not their job to announce the legal issues of an employee you are hiring, but I’m sure they didn’t want it to come out like this. Unfortunately, this all comes to Jerry and he wanted La Russa regardless and they had to work under those parameters.

Sure but I doubt the drunk former lawyer changes his ways in this version.

You are insane.

The problem is even if La Russa is still a good in-game tactician (which remains to be seen at his age and being out of the game for a decade) he’s lost all credibility with this clubhouse before he even coached a game. He’s a hypocritical, ego driven curmudgeon who has already confirmed why it was a mistake to hire him in the first place. If I’m Tim Anderson and was willing to give him a chance to right his wrong when it comes to his anti kneeling comments, why would I listen to Tony now after all his talk about “sincerity” when he himself is not held to such standards. This latest DUI just proves La Russa is full of shit and is not remotely capable of leading young men in this day & age.

Lol...did you really expect them to announce this during his hiring press conference? “Oh one last thing, Tony was charged with suspicion of DUI in Arizona from an incident back in February. If no one has any other questions, I guess we’ll call it a wrap for today.” You need to stop grasping at straws here and focus on the issue which is Reinsdorf. Hahn & KW shouldn’t have to resign over this, the PR group isn’t “lying” about this, no one in the org is at fault for this except for Jerry. He put the entire club in an impossible spot by putting his selfish interests over those of the organization. The reality is we should have never hired La Russa in the first place and everyone other than Jerry is trying to make the best of a shitty situation.

What in the world are you talking about? They acknowledged they knew about this, they have no obligation to publicize the legal issues of an employee. The issue is they hired La Russa in the first place despite this DUI, not that they failed to announce his personal garbage to social media.

Why even hire him if he planned to step away the moment this was to go public?