St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa retires – MLB News
The baseball world was in for unexpectedly big news on Monday, October 31 when Tony La Russa announced his retirement. Leading the St. Louis Cardinals for 33 seasons, 16 years as the team’s skipper, La Russa made the announcement three days after his team
won the World Series title for the 11th time in their franchise history.
Under his auspices, this was the Cardinals second victory in the World Series. Tony La Russa had led three teams to the winning stand. He is also the third highest winning manager in baseball history, being among nine managers who won the World Series three
times.
On Monday, during the press conference he made it known to reporters that his decision to retire was made in August. He had intimated to general manager John Mozeliak of the decision which was to be expected.
For the team, however, the revelation came on Sunday when the Cardinals were busy celebrating the glorious victory in the World Series. He informed the players on the stage, as is reported, shortly before the end of celebrations.
The team general manager Mozeliak calmly reacted when asked about La Russa’s decision. While it was news that the Cardinals might not have expected to hear at this point in time, for the team like the Redbirds, it is always necessary to make arrangements.
The first task for Mozeliak, therefore, is to form a search committee that will find an able guide for the Cardinals.
"Today is about Tony," Mozeliak said. "Tomorrow is going to be about the next chapter for the St. Louis Cardinals. We've started to think about it. We've put together a search committee. And we'll begin doing our due diligence late this afternoon, and beginning
tomorrow we'll hit the ground running.”
The 67-year-old former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals had a great record of winning 2,728 games under his managerial leadership. The top among the list is Connie Mack with 3,731 wins while John McGraw follows with 2,763 wins to their credit. Only time
will tell what impact La Russa retiring will have on the team for the 2012 season.
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