Tony La Russa Announces Retirement, Stepping Down on Top

Tony La Russa announced today that he will be retiring after spending 33 years managing on the Major League level. Tony La Russa will be stepping down as a World Series Champion, and one of the greatest managers in the history of the game.

La Russa steps down as the longest manager or coach in any of the four major North American sports. His tenure with the Cardinals spanned 16 years and over the course of that time, he won 1,408 games with the Red Birds, the most of any manger in their history. 

His accolades are not hard to find. His 2,728 wins are the third most in Major League History. Four times he has won Manager of the Year (and this year may have been his best ever). He has three World Series titles. He has won his division 12 times and he has won the pennant six times. 

He is in a very short conversation for the greatest manager of his generation, which should be a foregone conclusion, but not everyone has been a fan of La Russa. Some have said he over manages, whines too much and makes too many moves. 

Others call all of that playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.

Whatever else he is, Tony La Russa is a dichotomy. He has managed four teams to 100-win seasons, yet none of those teams won the World Series. At the same time, the  2006 St. Louis Cardinals who won only 83 games won the World Series. That's the fewest wins by any team to ever win it all. 

It appears that La Russa had his mind made up before the World Series even started. It may explain why this year's version, particularly later in the year, seemed looser and was enjoying the ride more than on his two previous World Series runs. 

His legacy in baseball will be remembered as that of a "old school" manager, though La Russa was more of a statistician than most people realized. Most of the time he made a change he was doing it with a reason and he was a master at forcing the other manager's hand by making his move. Several times during this postseason run, his moves were the difference in the game. 

There will be those that remember "phone gate" and use that to highlight his career, but it's frankly, petty and silly. Mistakes or not, the fact is that La Russa managed the St. Louis Cardinals through one of the most improbable late season and postseason runs in the history of baseball.

The Cardinals are the most storied franchise in the National League, and due to La Russa's leadership, that legacy was enriched. He will go down as the winningest manager in their history. He will be a hard person to replace for the 2011 MLB Champions.