World Series Game 5: Tony La Russa's Phone Blunder Causes Twitter Explosion

Tony La Russa is one of the most calculated and meticulous managers or coaches in all of sports. So when he blamed the St. Louis Cardinals' 4-2 loss to the Texas Rangers in Game 5 of the World Series on the dugout phones, everyone knew that something was not right. 

There are monitors all over the dugouts that show every angle on the field, and La Russa had a clear look at what was going on in his bullpen. If he saw that someone was not warming up, or was warming up but shouldn't have been, he could have told the umpire and had the game stopped to figure out what was going on. 

Since La Russa didn't do that, he is left with egg on his face today, and his team is one game away from losing the Series.

On the plus side, La Russa's excuse caused quite the stir on Twitter last night and today. 

Bruce Arthur of the National Post had a lot of fun re-creating the moment by letting us know what La Russa would receive for breakfast this morning. 

Adam Zagoria, who primarily covers basketball for NBA.com, came up with a practical solution to the problem. 

Meanwhile, Kevin Goldstein, who writes for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN.com, asked a practical question.

Of course, that question could not go unanswered. Fortunately, Blue Jays broadcaster Mike Wilner figured it out.

Here are some of the other top tweets about Bullpen-Gate 2011. 

Even as the minutes pass, Bullpen-Gate remains funny the more you think about it. La Russa screwed up, but instead of owning up to it, he blamed the phones. Classic narcissist. Hopefully the Cardinals lose just so he can blame that on bad grass and baseballs that favored the Rangers.