The fact remains that the Sox do not build up the massive lead they did in May, June, and early July under Robin Ventura.

The Sox did not answer the bell, but I fail to see how its LaRussa's fault that the starting pitching struggled to get 9 outs a game, and had an ERA over 10. If anything, time to hold Ethan Katz to the fire.

I'm not saying I want LaRussa back next year, but as far as not answering the bell, the players need to look themselves in the mirror. They didn't answer under Raw Deal, they didn't answer under Tony.

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I'm the last guy who is going to devote a lot of words discussing managers. I don't care. Good teams win. Shitty teams lose. Managers sit on the bench. But it's a fact that most objections to LaRussa had nothing to do with baseball.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Did Tony do a good job getting guys ready to answer the bell after the injury depleted season? Making sure guys had their legs underneath them. Pitching arms at their optimum. Things of that nature? Really well thought out strategies, most thought. I dunno, not caring about opening up in Houston against a battle hardened team might have been a misstep.

Yeah, I railed about Ozzie's Sunday lineups all the way to the World Series. This is just shit fans talk about. The players have to play. The old guy in the dugout wearing a hoodie doesn't do shit.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

They lost game 162, but had a 6 game winning streak up until then, matching their longest of the season. They won 3 out of 5 against Cleveland before that streak, which included a game with a B/C squad lineup out there after a clinch. Over the last 2 weeks of the season, the Sox were playing their best baseball of the year IMO because they had guys like Eloy and Robert in the lineup who were not there when they were hot in June.

As a manager, that's all you can ask for. We saw the opposite going into the 2020 playoffs.

The players failed more than anything.

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and Bochy will be scooped up this off season

I never expect Reinsdorf to hire a name guy. However, if that is the pool he is swimming in, those other guys would have all been preferable.

We had to talk Ventura into taking the job and he was a disaster. We had to do the same for Larussa.

and I will be very up front in saying, you have to attribute the unlikely regular season winning to Larussa to a very big degree. People take the white sox record for granted. They could have very easily sucked when all those key players went down to injury and they were starting Vaughn, Hamilton and Goodwin in the outfield. There were a lot of players that just so happened to have unexpected runs while playing for Tony. Maybe you can excuse it as luck if it was one guy but at times guys like Lamb, Goodwin, Mercedes, etc. carried this team. They were all on the scrap heap

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Bochy has an under .500 career record.

I'm not saying I wouldn't want him, but if managers matter that much, why didn't he win more games with the Padres?

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LaRussa is fine. He is the least of the Sox concerns this offseason.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I still don't see why it wasn't Ozzie.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

He'll be 78 next year. That alone makes me question if he can handle it. Its the same as Biden and Trump. These old timers, they can keel over at any time. I know that can be said for all of us, but its more likely of a guy in his mid-upper 70s than it is for me and you.


Also, these old guys, they're up at 4am, by 2:30 they're wiped. How did we get back onto you?!

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well clearly if he keels over then there is an issue. But you could just prop him up in the dugout and let Abreu run things.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Weekend At Tony's! I like it

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We should also let Abreu run things if Biden can't.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Frank just got this moved to politics.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I am good with that too, he is FAR SUPERIOR to Biden

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I think you are missing the forest through the trees.

3x world series manager for teams that didn't have the best talent in the year's he won.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Look, the Padres have been one of the worst organizations in baseball since their inception. By my count they only have 15 seasons in the franchise history where they finished over .500. Bochy has five of those. He's also got one of their two WS appearances. He was clearly the most successful manager in Padres history.

This probably does more to underscore JORR's point that at the end of the day 98% of the wins/losses are attributable to the players on the field, and 2% at best is attributable to the manager.

I believe a manager is a rising or a lowering tide that carries the players. Players notice when they've been beached too often. Hell, they beach themselves quite enough. It's why Ricky would have no chance this year after what he did the final 2 weeks of the season. Fucking Capt Bligh, he was. Ventura is moot. He had no experience and spent most of his time filling the bat rack and rolling out the balls. JORR's perfect manager.

I would save the money they pay the manager and let Abreu or Anderson make out the lineup card. Spend it on an upgrade at utility infielder or middle reliever. Better yet, buy all the fans on a beer or two on Opening Day.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Those things aren't connected.

You yourself said the guy was old as fuck and hadnt been in a dugout in a decade. It was very easy to make a case against his hire using his age and time away without getting into politics

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Was the DUI connected to his age or politics? Cuz I think that could be a legitimate complaint. I didn't give a shit about it, but I can certainly understand why others would. Especially because this wasn't his first rodeo in that regard.

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What DUI? It was reckless driving according to the court records. He knows how to push all the right buttons

Whatever, suspected DUI. Again, I couldn't care less, but I can understand that being a legit criticism of the man.

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do you think he's an alcoholic ?

LaRussa or everyone who posted on this page?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Baseball hasn’t changed that much in 10 years to the point where LaRussa wouldn’t be a good manager anymore . That’s ridiculous .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

That's politics. It has zero to do with baseball. Unless he's driving the team bus.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Tony is back:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/324 ... ource-says

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

This.

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If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed & we'll deserve it.- L Graham
I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.- DJT 2016
MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!- DJT 12/25/23