Tony La Russa

Anthony La Russa, Jr. (born October 4, 1944, in Tampa, Florida) is a manager in Major League Baseball, currently with the St. Louis Cardinals. He is one of six managers in history to win pennants with both American and National League teams. He is ranked third all-time for total number of career wins, trailing only Connie Mack (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763). He is one of only two managers to be named Manager of the Year in both of baseball's major leagues.

La Russa in Books and Computer Games

In 2005, La Russa was the focus of a book by sportswriter Buzz Bissinger. Bissinger's Three Nights in August delves into La Russa's role as manager during a 3-game series in 2003 between his Cardinals and manager Dusty Baker's Chicago Cubs, their longtime rivals. The book received much praise from both fans and critics, though some complained that Bissinger sets out to glorify La Russa's "old school" managerial style as a direct challenge to the statistical analysis theses of Michael Lewis's 2004 book Moneyball.

Related Topics:
Buzz Bissinger - Dusty Baker

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As David Leonhardt of the New York Times wrote of the "stats vs. hunches" debate in an August 29, 2005 piece,"What makes this fight truly comparable to those that periodically roil the world of art history or foreign policy is that the differences between the sides are not as great as the sniping between them suggests. La Russa spends much of his time jotting down information on index cards and studying statistics in his office."

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George Will's book, Men at Work likewise depicts La Russa and his long-time pitching coach Dave Duncan as making more use of statistical analysis than any other team in the major leagues.

Related Topics:
George Will - Men at Work

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La Russa also provided the AI for a series of successful computer and video games, Tony La Russa Baseball. The games won numerous awards and featured "new" statistics selected with La Russa (and provided by prominent sabermetrics authors John Thorn and Pete Palmer) as tools for players as they managed their teams.

Related Topics:
AI - Computer - Video games - Tony La Russa Baseball - Sabermetrics - John Thorn - Pete Palmer

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