Tony La Russa, American baseball player and manager
Anthony La Russa Jr. (; born October 4, 1944) is an American professional baseball coach and former player who is the manager for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). His MLB career has spanned from 1963 to the present, in several roles. He is the former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals and Oakland Athletics. In 33 years as a manager, La Russa guided his teams to three World Series titles, six league championships, and 13 division titles. His 2,821 wins is 2nd most for a major league manager, trailing only the total of Connie Mack.
As a player, La Russa made his major league debut in 1963 and spent parts of five major league seasons with the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs. After a shoulder injury during the 1964–65 off-season, he played much of the remainder of his career in the minor leagues until retiring in 1977. Following his playing career, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Florida State University.
La Russa was named manager of the White Sox in the middle of the 1979 season and guided the White Sox to an American League West division title four seasons later. Despite being fired in the middle of the 1986 season, the Athletics hired him less than three weeks later, and La Russa led the A's to three consecutive American League championships from 1988 to 1990 and the 1989 World Series title. He left Oakland following the 1995 season to manage the Cardinals, and led the team to three National League championships and the 2006 and 2011 World Series titles. La Russa retired after winning the 2011 title and 34 seasons as a major league manager. Three months later, he accepted a position assisting fellow former manager Joe Torre, the executive vice president for MLB operations. In 2014, he became the Chief Baseball Officer for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In November 2019, he joined the Los Angeles Angels as a senior advisor of baseball operations. In the 2021 offseason, he was named the manager of the Chicago White Sox a second time after the firing of Rick Renteria.
On December 9, 2013, he was unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame by the 16-member Veterans Committee. The induction ceremony was held at Cooperstown, New York, on July 27, 2014. On August 16, 2014, he was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum.