Wednesday March 14th, 2012

Sam Evans: Tony La Russa and Joe Torre were two of most successful managers of all time. They combined for over five thousand managerial wins, and there is no chance either manager won’t make the Hall-of-Fame. Two years ago, Torre retired, and after the Cardinals World Series championship in 2011, La Russa called it quits as well. Join me as we look back at the careers of two of the best managers the game of baseball has ever seen.

Joe Torre  was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, NY. His older brother, Frank Torre, played in parts of seven Major League seasons for the Milwaukee Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. After being signed by the Braves, Torre first saw regular playing time in 1961 at the age of twenty. Torre was primarily a catcher, but he also played first and third base. He was a rare four-tool Major Leaguer, who excelled at all parts of the game (except for stealing bases).

During his lengthy career, Torre won one MVP award and was a nine-time All-Star. In an average season, Joe Torre would hit about twenty homers with a .300 batting average. That’s not too shabby for such an outstanding defensive player. Over the course of eighteen MLB seasons, Torre never won a World Series as a player. If you wonder why Torre would want to coach after all his years playing the game, there’s your answer.

Joe Torre got his first full-time managing job in 1977 with the Mets. This was Torre’s last season as a player, and the Mets made him a player-manager forty-five games into the 1977 season. The next year, Torre retired as a player, and become a full-time manager. Joe Torre spent the next four seasons managing the Mets, and he finished with a winning percentage well below .500.

When Joe Torre began managing the Braves in 1982, his career started down the path to success. During his three-year tenure with the Braves, Torre won an average of eight-five games a year. After the Braves, Torre spent five years managing the Cardinals, consistently keeping a .500 record despite managing a talent-deprived roster.

Then, in 1996, the infamous Torre-led Yankees dynasty began. From 1996 to 2007, the Yankees won over 1000 games. In 2000, the Yankees won 87 games, the least in one regular season during Torre’s reign. Nonetheless, the Yankees still won the World Series that year.

In Torre’s eleven season with the Yankees, he led New York to four World Series championships, and two additional American League pennants. You can say all you want about how good the Yankees’ teams were in the first place (based on talent alone), but no team can be successful without the proper coaching and management to lead the way. Torre was twice named American League Manager of the Year, and he did this while being watched over by the stern Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner.

After Torre left the Yankees, he still had three solid, but not overwhelmingly impressive years managing the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the end of Torre’s time with the Dodgers, he now has 2,326 career wins, which places him fifth among all-time managers in baseball. After Torre stepped down from the Dodgers position, he was chosen as MLB’s new Executive VP of Baseball Operations. This job lasted up until January of this year, when Torre resigned to pursue an ownership bid for the Dodgers.

I have a feeling that Torre’s not quite done being involved in baseball. It’s unlikely that he’ll return as a manager, but it is possible. Also, Torre, who is now a youthful seventy-one years of age, has expressed interested in purchasing ownership of the Dodgers. When you’ve spent more than half of your life working in one sport, I can see how it’d be hard to just leave.

Tony La Russa, on the other hand, was born in Tampa, Florida in 1944. He played six Major League seasons as a utility infielder from 1963 to 1973. La Russa was never the superstar that Joe Torre was as a player. La Russa began managing in 1977 with the Chicago White Sox. After nine mediocre seasons with the White Sox, La Russa was fired. The move has long been called the biggest regret of ChiSox ownership. For some time in recent memory, there was talk that La Russa would return to Chicago for one last season as manager. But the move never came to fruition.

Almost immediately after the White Sox fired La Russa, the Athletics brought him in. La Russa proceeded to have nine extremely successful years with the A’s. He led a steroid-enhanced Oakland roster to one World Series championship, and two other American League pennants. When La Russa left the A’s in 1996, he headed for St.Louis which is where he has been for the last fifteen seasons.

With St.Louis, La Russa wont two World Series, and one National League pennant. He did have one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all-time (Albert Pujols), but, as I said before, talent won’t succeed in the majors without the proper coaching. If 2011 was truly LaRussa’s last year of managing, he will go down as the third most winning manager of all-time.

Baseball has never seen a manager as complicated and as hard to understand as La Russa is. One day, he looks like the smartest manager in the game, and the next day you’ll be wondering how he still has a job. In particular, La Russa’s excessive use of relievers has confused baseball fans for ages. However, if you look at when La Russa started managing compared to now, more teams have caught on with La Russa’s specialized relievers philosophy. That is one of his many marks on the game.

For as much as La Russa contributes to the game of baseball, he might be even more influential off the field. La Russa runs the Tony La Russa Animal Rescue Foundation, which La Russa was inspired to create by a stray cat that wandered onto the field during an A’s game. It’s always nice to hear about a strict manager that finds time in his busy schedule to make the world a better place.

Overall, these managers, although they coach much differently, have been some of the best coaches the games has ever seen. In twenty years, we’ll look back and appreciate just how much these guys changed the game. Without La Russa and Torre, many of the newer concepts in baseball today would not exist. These soon to be Hall-of-Famers deserve to be remembered for not only the dynasties they built, but the innovations they brought to the game.

**Today’s feature was prepared by our Baseball Writer, Sam Evans.  We highly encourage you to leave your comments and feedback at the bottom of the page and share in the discussion with our readers.  You can also follow Sam on Twitter***

Please e-mail us at: mlbreports@me.com with any questions and feedback.  You can follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.  To subscribe to our website and have the Daily Reports sent directly to your inbox, click here and follow the link at the top of our homepage. 
Follow @mlbreports