Is Tony La Russa losing his grip on the Cardinal clubhouse?

We have all witnessed the black eyed glare, heard the acid tongue responses, and tolerated the arrogant attitude that has become the trademark of Tony La Russas post game press conferences. But with his team in contention year in and year out, his “Brat Act” has been accepted by fans, management, the media and his team. He has even been successful at “bullying” the front office into making personnel moves that support his short term agenda at the expense of the organizations long term development. La Russa, who has been managing in the majors since 1979, has never been accused of losing control of a team before, but in light of recent developments and with two thirds of his roster stocked with players who were not even born when La Russa started managing, is it possible that Tony La Russa is losing his influence over the Cardinal players.



There were some hints of this possibility last season; the team was in contention early despite one of the strangest situations in Cardinal history. Chris Duncan, the son of Cardinal pitching coach, and long time La Russa buddy, Dave Duncan was mired in a two and a half year long slump. The fact that Duncan had even made the roster out of spring training raised eyebrows all around Cardinal nation, when La Russa kept inserting him into the lineup night after night, the fans and the media loudly questioned the favoritism. In typical fashion La Russa snapped back, defending Duncan and his right to be in the lineup. But as RBI opportunities kept wasting away amid the rising stack of strikeouts, you could almost hear the players questioning why this guy kept getting chance after chance.



St Louis has always been considered a team friendly media town as it relates to its sports teams, one can only guess how this act would have been covered in New York or Philly. But in the middle of one of the most controversial media storms in recent Cardinal history, General Manager John Mozeliak announced that the team had traded Chris Duncan to the Boston Red Sox for the recently designated Julio Lugo. This brought on irate reaction from both La Russa and Dave Duncan, who openly questioned the organizations motives in moving his .175 hitting son for a player that had been designated for assignment(meaning the Red Sox were giving up on Lugo). La Russa and Duncan immediately went into “pout” mode; La Russa was mollified some 3 days later when the Cardinals acquired Matt Holliday, a player Tony had long campaigned for, from the Oakland Athletics. Holliday immediately sparked the team that went on to run away with the division and the saga of Chris Duncan was lost in the celebration, except for Dave Duncan. The cardinal pitching coach continued to sulk the rest of the season, even taking a leave of absence when the teams highly touted first round draft pick, pitcher Shelby Miller, was brought in for a meet and greet with the Cardinals staff.

After a quick exit from post season play, both La Russa and Duncan hinted strongly that they may not return for the 2010 season. Cards owner Bill Dewitt Jr. was able to convince La Russa to return under yet another 1 year contract, and La Russa was then able to convince Duncan to return, although Duncan still insisted on letting everyone know that he was not “personally” happy. I believe that Dave Duncan may be the most overrated person wearing a major league uniform. La Russa has canonized him in St Louis constantly pointing out reclamation projects such as Woody Williams and Jeff Weaver but ignoring the failures such as Kip Wells and Rick Ankiel. Duncan is eager to accept the credit heaped upon the Cardinal pitching staff, but let’s face it; a staff led by Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright is going to be tough regardless of who is charting the pitches. I believe that Duncan’s ego has ruined the confidence of many promising young prospects: Reyes, Perez, and Motte, to name a few. And on more than one occasion it has been suggested that the helpful Carpenter and not Duncan has been the primary reason that some pitchers have seen remarkable results after putting on the cardinal’s uniform.

La Russa likes to fancy himself as a players manager, stating that he would never show up one of his players in public. That appears to depend on who the offending player is. On several occasions we have seen La Russa berate shortstop Brendan Ryan in plain view of the stands and the television cameras. He has done the same thing with outfielder Colby Rasmus and his disdain for former Cardinal pitcher Joel Pineiro was obvious. Pineiro never got a fair shake from La Russa or Duncan after he showed his disgust on the mound with Chris Duncan making 2 errors in one inning one night in San Diego. Tony clearly has his favorites and that; I believe is where he is losing his credibility in the clubhouse. Albert Pujols is considered by many, including me to be the best hitter in major league baseball, and he is clearly La Russas favorite son. Pujols lack of respect for the directions of third base coach Jose Oquendo while running the bases is legendary. When asked about Albert’s base running blunders, La Russa responds with something about Albert being a great hustler. Apparently being a great hustler does not require running out ground outs or pop outs, as Pujols is routinely seen dogging plays that would get most any other player benched. Recently Pujols was on second base with Matt Holiday batting, when Holliday failed to run towards first base after a dropped third strike, Pujols howled and gestured wildly at Holliday, in effect showing him up on the field. The play was an obvious mistake by Holliday, but Pujols behavior was no different than that of Pineiro a couple of years earlier.

La Russa has also has a public feud with former all-star third baseman Scott Rolen. This has been reported by the press as dust up over Rolen being less than honest about an injury to prevent being removed from the lineup. It didn’t seem right to me that La Russa would make it so personal and public, even embarrassing Rolen at a speaking engagement after the 2006 World Series. I believe that the real problem goes back to a time earlier that same season when Rolen called out Pujols for standing at the plate and staring down homeruns, before going into his slow trot around the bases. Rolen as he proved this past weekend is an old school professional who puts his head down and sprints around the bases after hitting a home run. La Russa never forgave Rolen for calling Pujols out and used the injury situation to let Rolen know who the boss is. Rolen, after asking for and being traded has maintained the high road and even attempted to “bury the hatchet” with La Russa last season on his return to St Louis with the Reds.



I believe that La Russa may have done himself in with his latest stunt this off season, when he named Mark McGwire hitting coach. While I don’t believe that the hitting coach at the major league level plays a significant role, it was La Russa and his ego that had to thumb his nose at the media and public with this move. After weathering the media storm in spring training about his past steroids usage, La Russa has repeatedly defended McGwire’s qualifications as a hitting coach, when in fact the only requirement is to be a friend of Tony. I don’t expect Albert Pujols or Matt Holiday to listen to McGwire and they aren’t going to. But La Russa has gone on record as claiming that Mark will do great things for Brendan Ryan and Skip Schumacher. The problem is that they have been two of the three biggest disappointments in this first month and a half of the season. If they don’t start hitting, the media will start to question McGwire’s value to the team and the ground work will be laid for another Tony vs. the media feud.

The younger Cardinal players who have come through the minor leagues at a time when they are having the demons of steroid usage drilled into their heads have to be wondering why is our hitting coach the poster boy for the steroids era? As they continue to watch the managers favorites play and conduct their selves by a different set of rules, will they continue to blindly follow this manager in his fourth decade of managing. The cardinal’s roster is the most talented in the central division, if they do not respond and win this division, then the question will have been answered: Tony La Russa has lost his fastball as a manger of today’s players.