RetroSimba

(Updated Oct. 22, 2022)

Winning the 2006 World Series championship with the Cardinals sealed for Tony La Russa his eventual election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

By joining Sparky Anderson as the only managers to win World Series titles in both the National League and American League, La Russa elevated himself into a special class.

La Russa and managers Joe Torre and Bobby Cox were elected to the Hall of Fame on Dec. 9, 2013. Each received 16 unanimous votes from the Expansion Era committee. Whitey Herzog, who, like La Russa and Torre, managed the Cardinals, was one of the voters.

La Russa (2,902), Cox (2,504) and Torre (2,326) rank second, fourth and fifth in career wins for managers. Connie Mack is No. 1 (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763) ranks third.

Herzog, Torre and La Russa managed St. Louis from 1980-2011, giving the Cardinals the distinction of having been led by Hall of Fame managers for 31 consecutive years.

High expectations

The Cardinals fired Torre in June 1995 and, after Mike Jorgensen finished that season as interim manager, La Russa joined the Cardinals in October 1995 after resigning as Athletics manager.

La Russa had won a World Series title and three consecutive American League pennants with the Athletics. In his first 10 seasons in St. Louis, he led the Cardinals into the National League playoffs six times and won a pennant in 2004, but the expectation was he would win a World Series title with the Cardinals.

Doing so with the 2006 Cardinals _ a club that won just 83 regular-season games and ranked fifth in the league in pitching and sixth in both batting and defense _ capped La Russa’s reputation for managerial excellence.

The 2006 World Series championship, achieved in five games against the Tigers, was the Cardinals’ first in 24 years (when Herzog led St. Louis against the Brewers in 1982).

Here is what a couple of St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnists wrote of La Russa after the 2006 championship:

_  Jeff Gordon: “If this is the worst team to ever win a World Series championship, as some will argue, then La Russa’s managerial performance ranks as his greatest effort. … By winning the World Series, La Russa has cemented his place in baseball history.”

_ Rick Hummel: “His reputation here this year has been enhanced by his ability to guide a talented yet flawed club through injury, illness and overzealous expectations.”

Classic Cardinal

Four Cardinals players in the Hall of Fame _ Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Bob Gibson and Lou Brock _ were on hand to witness the clinching of the 2006 World Series championship in Game 5 at St. Louis. All four “applaud La Russa as an equal,” Hummel wrote.

La Russa capped his career with another World Series title with the Cardinals in 2011. That was another exceptional achievement _ La Russa became the first Cardinals manager to win two World Series crowns since Hall of Famer Billy Southworth did it in the 1940s _ but by then his reputation as being of Hall of Fame caliber already was secured because of what he accomplished in 2006.

Mike Shannon, the club broadcaster who played for Cardinals teams that won two World Series titles and three pennants in the 1960s, provided the Post-Dispatch with the most concise and astute analysis of La Russa after the 2006 World Series.

“There’s no doubt he’s going into the Hall of Fame as a manager,” Shannon said in October 2006. “… The people who really understand the game know his worth, his greatness.

“His value and his greatness will be appreciated more in his absence than in his presence.”

Previously: Great debate: When Tony La Russa first batted pitcher eighth