Diamondbacks' Torey Lovullo Calls on ESPN's Chris Russo to Retire: 'A Deal's a Deal'

Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo must have been a tax collector in a past life.

Because that man has kept a long list of receipts from every single person that has doubted his squad en route to an appearance in the World Series after beating the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies in seven games in the NLCS.

And Thursday, Lovullo came to collect from sports media legend Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, who should be headed to retirement since Arizona won.

"A deal's a deal," Lovullo said. "You can't back out of that one, 'Mad Dog.' You've got to do something. ... .I ain't going to forgive you until you do something unbelievable, maybe show up here and say you're sorry to the entire team. That's all I want to say about that."

Russo, an ESPN "First Take" and MLB Network "High Heat" personality, said on his radio show earlier this week that he'd retire if the Diamondbacks won the two games in Philadelphia after being down 3-2 earlier in the series.

Well, this is awkward.

The Diamondbacks have been using bulletin board material as fuel throughout their postseason run. After being the last team in for the playoffs, nobody believed they could have made it this far.

But it's Russo's comments in particular that have struck a chord with Lovullo's squad.

Russo isn't exactly willing to comply with Lovullo and hold up his end of the bargain.

He responded to the calls to retire during his show Thursday.

Whether or not Russo retires ultimately doesn't matter much. It's been a fun bit of banter between the two sides over the past few days.

The best thing the Diamondbacks can do is just keep him quiet. And what better way to do that than by winning it all against the Texas Rangers.