When he was ready to leave the Athletics, Tony La Russa was intending to manage the 1995 Red Sox.
“At the end of nine years, the A’s had given me permission to interview with the Red Sox, and I was going to Boston,” La Russa recalled to Cardinals Yearbook in 2014. “We even had a discussion about free agents … The one free agent we wanted was Larry Walker.”
If La Russa had gone through with the move, he likely never would have joined the Cardinals, the club he managed to three National League pennants, two World Series championships and a franchise-record 1,408 wins.
A lunch conversation with Athletics owner Walter Haas prompted La Russa to change his plans.
The times they are a-changin’
From 1988-90, La Russa led the Athletics to three consecutive American League pennants and a World Series title, but they finished 68-94 in 1993 and 51-63 in strike-shortened 1994. Though the 1994 Athletics had players such as Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson and Mark McGwire, the club had a dismal 19-43 record until winning 19 of its next 22.
La Russa’s two-year contract with the Athletics expired at the end of 1994 and he was thinking it might be time to leave Oakland. “I came to realize that once you start amassing time _ eight or 10 years in one place _ there becomes a very real perception that the scene needs a change, more for the people around you than for yourself,” La Russa recalled to Cardinals Yearbook. “Fans get tired of reading your same quotes. The media starts to know what you’re going to say before you even say it. Players grow tired of you.”
Also, the Athletics were for sale and the uncertainty that created gave La Russa another reason to consider departing. “If the Haas’ (family) were still in Oakland, I’d still be there,” La Russa told Cardinals Yearbook in 2014.
After the players’ strike halted the season in August 1994, La Russa took his family on an extended vacation to England a month later “amid growing speculation that he could become Boston’s next manager,” the Sacramento Bee reported. “La Russa did nothing to downplay the speculation, acknowledging there are some ‘attractive situations’ out there. He sounded absolutely unsure if he will return to the A’s or seek grander challenges elsewhere.”
The Red Sox were seeking a replacement for Butch Hobson, who never produced a winning record in three seasons as their manager.
“I don’t think that Hobson’s firing will have any impact on our negotiations (with La Russa),” Athletics general manager Sandy Alderson told the Oakland Tribune.
Alderson also said to the Sacramento Bee, “Most of the Boston speculation is just that _ speculation.”
Please come to Boston
Actually, La Russa was the first choice of Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, who viewed him as the person to lead the franchise to its first World Series crown since Babe Ruth played there in 1918. “The Red Sox are dying to hire La Russa and are willing to pay him a record-setting salary,” Baltimore Sun columnist Tom Keegan noted.
In explaining why La Russa would consider joining the Red Sox, Sacramento Bee columnist Mark Kreidler wrote, “Win it all in Boston, and La Russa’s fame is set for eternity, perhaps even the Hall of Fame … La Russa is not a man without ego. He would go into baseball-rabid Boston and he would own it within a year; and he would be paid millions; and he would work for a franchise that has the money and is willing to spend it in service of a diamond-encrusted ring. Heady stuff.”
Though it went unreported at the time, La Russa made up his mind to accept Boston’s offer. Before sealing the deal, he accepted an invitation to lunch with Walter Haas, the club owner who hired him to manage the Athletics in 1986 after La Russa was fired by the White Sox.
“(Haas) had always treated Elaine (La Russa’s wife) and me like family,” La Russa recalled to Cardinals Yearbook. “At this point, he was having serious health problems. He said he had one more year and he wanted me to manage the team. Going home, I told Elaine what Walter had said. At the time, I didn’t really know if he was talking about his health, selling the franchise, or both.”
Regardless, La Russa decided to honor Haas’ request. “I called Boston and declined the job,” he told Cardinals Yearbook.
Haas gave La Russa a three-year contract with a protective clause that enabled the manager to depart if there was an ownership change, the San Francisco Examiner reported.
As columnist Mark Kreidler noted, “You don’t have to make Tony La Russa a prince for accepting $1.25 million (per year) to continue managing the A’s, but know this: Finances and all, La Russa still made a decision of loyalty and personal feeling not to jump to the waiting Boston Red Sox.”
On the same day the Athletics signed La Russa, the Red Sox named Kevin Kennedy, formerly of the Rangers, as their manager.
“The specter of La Russa haunts Kennedy as Kennedy takes over the fabled Boston franchise,” wrote Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy. “It is well known that the Red Sox coveted the A’s manager above all others.”
Twists and turns
About the time he decided to stay with the Athletics, La Russa, a vegetarian and animal rights activist, caused a stir when he hammed it up in a national TV commercial for Wendy’s and its new chicken, bacon and Swiss cheese sandwich. “It was stupid on my part,” he told the Associated Press. “I screwed up.”
La Russa claimed he was misled, saying he thought the commercial was for a salad bar and baked potatoes, but Wendy’s spokesman Denny Lynch said Tony was full of baloney. “He knew that it was a chicken sandwich commercial,” Lynch told the Associated Press.
During the 1995 season, the Haas family completed the sale of the Athletics to Ken Hofman and Steve Schott. On Sept. 20, Walter Haas, 79, died. After that, the Athletics lost their last nine games and finished at 67-77, La Russa’s third consecutive losing season. “It wasn’t like the guys weren’t trying; they were grieving,” La Russa recalled to Cardinals Yearbook.
Meanwhile, Kevin Kennedy’s Red Sox, with a roster that included ex-Athletics slugger Jose Canseco as the designated hitter and former Cardinals such as second baseman Luis Alicea, pitcher Rheal Cormier and outfielder Willie McGee, were 1995 East Division champions at 86-58.
La Russa left Oakland after the season and became Cardinals manager. His first World Series appearance with them was in 2004. Their opponent was the Red Sox. Managed by Terry Francona, Boston swept, becoming World Series champions for the first time in 86 years.
Eventually, La Russa worked for the Red Sox, joining them in November 2017 as special assistant to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. The Red Sox then won the 2018 World Series championship.
RetroSimba 
It’s interesting how just when it looked like Tony Larussa was going to manage the Red Sox he would soon become manager of the Cardinals for 16 years. Its funny how he mentions that after being in the same place for 10 years fans start to grow tired of you. I still remember well that during the 2011 season, heading into the month of August and the Cardinals floundering, most folks here had grown tired of him and were convinced that the game had passed him by. Well, we all know what happened then. Let me say though, that I miss him dearly just like I miss Whitey.
That’s an astute comment you made about the 2011 season, Phillip. In an interview with 2014 Cardinals Yearbook, Tony La Russa said that the 2011 season began to wear on him, too. “You never want to ask somebody to do what you can’t do,” La Russa said. “You ask for a Level 10, but it was getting harder for me to get there.”
Looking back on that 2011 season and the dramatic late surge, La Russa told Cardinals Yearbook in 2014, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about some element that made that whole thing happen. Some of it is still hard to believe. The script had so many parts to it. If you laid it out midway through that August, no one would have believed it … I knew it was my last season. This sounds incredibly selfish, but I was thinking I didn’t want to have a September where I was just counting down, and that was a distinct possibility … but guys didn’t give in and things eventually started turning our way.”
I guess I have my doubts about him not knowing it was an ad about a bacon and swiss chesse sandwich and I only say this because he kind of lied about the DWI’s or at least at the scene of the cops questioning him. Regardless, I’m grateful for La Russa and what he added to the National League Central, specifically the great rivalry between the Cards and Brewers that still exists.
Yes, anyone accepting a fee to do a TV commercial for a fast-food restaurant knows they are endorsing a brand that emphasizes meat in its products and its sales. Tony La Russa was a brilliant manager who struck out on that pitch.
I always admired the togetherness/loyalty of La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan. The two also played together in the minors.
Yes, indeed. In his 2014 interview with Cardinals Yearbook, Tony La Russa said, “Had Dave not been my pitching coach since 1983 I would not have achieved 2,000 wins. He’s worth at least 700, maybe 900, maybe 1,500. He’s had that kind of impact, because pitching has always been so critical and there’s no on better at what he does.”
Always impressive to me when someone credits someone else with their success….very humble.
With respect to the legendary Connie Mack, the Haas family were the greatest owners in Athletics history.
I have a few LaRussa autographs if you want one, Mark.
A’s executive Bill Rigney told the San Francisco Examiner in September 1995, “If baseball wants to look and say ‘How should we operate?’ they should just look at Walter Haas and his family.”
Walter Haas served on the National Committee on Public Service and on the President’s Advisory Council for Minority Enterprise. He also was a director of the National Urban League.
Thank you for the kind and generous offer of a Tony La Russa autograph. I would prefer that you instead sell the autograph and donate the proceeds to a literacy nonprofit, or education fund, that supports and promotes diversity.