2011 World Series: Tony La Russa Needs to Lighten Up for Cardinals to Lift off

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa has two World Series titles and three Manager of the Year awards to his name, but he has also received criticism for being too uptight and potentially disrupting team chemistry throughout the years.

Sandwiching those World Series rings has been 11 postseasons in which La Russa's teams have been so close, yet so far away.

Right now, La Russa runs the risk of tightening up so much that he spontaneously combusts.

We all know what happened in Game 5. During the Texas Rangers' eighth-inning rally, La Russa called the bullpen for closer Jason Motte not once, but twice.

Both times he was apparently unheard and eventually had to use reliever Lance Lynn. You know, because "Lynn" and "Motte" sound similar on a telephone.

That came after slugger Albert Pujols decided to call a hit-and-run play through third base coach Jose Oquendo in the seventh inning, swung and missed on an outside fastball, and Allen Craig was thrown out by a mile at second base.

You know what La Russa needs to do?

He doesn't need to rethink things. He doesn't need to scour every matchup for Game 6. He doesn't need to visualize a Game 6 win.

All La Russa needs to do is laugh. That's right, laugh.

It's hard for a manager like La Russa to laugh, especially given the circumstances. La Russa may actually agree baseball is life and death. But part of the reason the Rangers won the last two games is because they have played loose, much like their World Series foes from a season ago, the San Francisco Giants.

When everything is closing in around you, you don't shrink to avoid it. You explode out of it. And you can only do that by being liberated.

La Russa needs to liberate his team. Ironically, telling his team Game 6 means nothing might even work. If I was him, I'd go home after the Game 6 rainout on Wednesday, warm up next to the fire and read a nice book—a joke book, that is.

Before Game 6, tell the Cardinals he needs to have a very serious discussion with them.

Then tell the greatest joke known to man.

La Russa has won two World Series, but he's also lost three times in the World Series and six times in the championship series.

He's a historic manager, but he also has his limitations.

Forget limiting the Cardinals.

Tony La Russa needs to stop limiting himself.