Tony La Russa: Cardinals Manager Looks Foolish in Taking Blame for Bullpen Mess

After foolishly throwing bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist under the bus for last night's bullpen mess in Game 5 of the World Series Tuesday night, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa changed his tune on Tuesday, taking the blame for the mishap.

La Russa has reportedly told Lilliquist "10 times" that the bullpen fiasco involving a miscommunication over the bullpen phone that led to Cardinals reliever Jason Motte not warming up when La Russa wanted him to, was indeed La Russa's fault.

The Rangers took the lead 4-2 in the eighth inning and are now within one victory from the franchise's first World Series title.

Taking full responsibility for the situation does not change the fact that La Russa, who is one of the most successful and respected managers in recent memory, acted like a plain fool for throwing his pitching coach under the bus for an incident that the manager must solve.

Was Tony La Russa prepared for the inning in the first place? Even if he was, and he wanted Motte to face certain Rangers batters, he has to walk to the mound and sort the problem out.

If after a few calls to the bullpen there is still no understanding of who should be warming up, La Russa should tell catcher Yadier Molina to go out to the mound and stall for a bit to allow La Russa to make another call.

La Russa's absurdity didn't stop in blaming Lilliquist for the bullpen mess, as he took it a step further, blaming the crowd noise.

Crowd noise, Tony—really?

Said La Russa (via STLtoday.com):

"

They heard Rzepczynski and they didn't get Motte. I looked up there and Motte wasn't going. So I called back for Motte and they got Lynn up.

So I went out there, wrong guy. He's not going to pitch today. I said, 'Go back, get Motte ready.' We'll walk the guy because I don't want Lynn to — he's not supposed to pitch. I didn't want to hurt him. And then Motte came in. That's why — it must be loud. I give the fans credit.

"

Crowd noise is going to be an excuse to why La Russa didn't get the pitcher he wanted in the game?

That's unfortunate, because on a stage as important as the World Series, this communication has to be clear to both parties.

In an age of rapid and easy communication, it's kind of funny how the St. Louis Cardinals chances at an 11th World Series title could have been saved if a simple text message was sent to the bullpen reading "Motte."

There's nothing crowd noise can do to interrupt a text message, Tony.

Nicholas Goss is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for his take on the latest sports news and updates.  

@NicholasGoss35