Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Cardinals Manager : Tony LaRussa

Tony LaRussa has been managing the St. Louis Cardinals since 1996 making him the longest tenured manager in the majors. 


LaRussa played sporadically from 1963-1973 for the A's, Braves and Cubs. In  1968 he was teammates on the Oaland A's with Floyd Robinson who was in his final MLB season.



In 1964 Robinson played with another Sox great Minnie Minoso at the end of his career (not including "comebacks" in 1976 and 1980).



In 1958 Minnie earned his second Gold Glove, sharing the Cleveland Indian outfield with another great fielder, Jimmy Piersall. 



In 1963 Piersall donned a Washington Senators uniform (in addition to a Mets and finally an Angels uniform). His teammate Chuck Cottier would later manage the Seattle Mariners.



In 1960 Cottier was playing for the Milwaukee Braves along with pitcher Bob Buhl  who made his only All Star appearance in 1960.


Buhl pitched a total of 2 1/3 innings for the Cubs in 1966 before being part of the trade that brought Fergie Jenkins to Chicago. But those 2 1/3 inning linked him to Ron Santo.


Full Disclosure: Tony La Russa actually played with Ron Santo on the 1973 Cubs.  I didn't link him directly to Santo because there wasn't a 1973 card depicting LaRussa on the Cubs, he only made one appearance as a pinch runner, and it would've been a really short blog.  Fortunately, Paul over at Wrigley Wax made a 1973 LaRussa, so here it is:



So we can link Tony LaRussa directly to Ron Santo, or take the scenic route in 6 degrees.

3 comments:

  1. The scenic route is much more interesting, but that '73 LaRussa is awesome looking ;)

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  2. This is pretty clever. I really love that 2nd LaRussa card. It's hard to imagine him in a crew cut. You might enjoy this post, which makes fun of that very card:

    http://reallybadbaseballcards.blogspot.com/2012/11/are-you-sure-youre-famous-60s-version.html

    ReplyDelete