Op-Ed: Sorry, Tony, you’re out of line

By: Joseph E. Aughtman

Tony LaRussa is as “old school” as they come, and his resume proves it. As a , he is a three-time champion, four-time manager of the year and a member of the 2014 Hall of Fame class. The accolades speak for themselves, but when it comes to the Yermin Mercedes situation, he has shown that he has lost touch with the way the game is played now.

LaRussa voiced his displeasure with his after swinging on a 3-0 pitch off of Twins infielder in the ninth of a 15-4 game on Monday night. "I was because that's not a time to swing 3-0,” the White

Sox manager said after the 16-4 drubbing. “He missed a 3-0 take sign. With that kind of lead, that's just sportsmanship and respect for your opponent." After hearing that quote,

Mercedes responded in his own, unconventional way. “I’m always doing Yermin,” the

White Sox slugger said. The 76-year-old manager not only doubled down on his statement, but also added that he was furious with Mercedes for ignoring his take sign on 3-0.

There’s nothing wrong with LaRussa wanting to claim sportsmanship and respect, I actually agree with that as well as him being upset with Mercedes for not listening to his manager when he gives the take sign. By doing that, he was being an insubordinate, and if he was benched for, I would not have any issue with that. What I do not agree with is LaRussa thinking that this situation is disrespectful to your opponent. I’ve heard claims that Mercedes was making a mockery of the game for the swing, but where are those claims when Astudillo comes into pitch? The game was made into a mockery when Twins manager, put his infielder in the game to pitch. This is not a

Shohei Ohtani situation. Once Baldelli puts a non- into pitch, the game has turned into mop-up duty. Astudillo has earned a lot of respect for taking the ball to the arms in his team’s . With that said, it is supposed to be a fun situation when a non-traditional pitcher is out on the mound. Sometimes they get pummeled, and others they make the highlights for striking out a batter, like in the case of Anthony

Rizzo striking out in last month. It’s supposed to be a fun time, but LaRussa decided to play the “get off of my lawn” card. This is a total contradiction of

Major League Baseball’s “let the kids play” slogan of a couple of seasons ago. MLB needs to figure out if they want to actually practice what they preach, or keep going with the antiquated “unwritten rules”.

If you want to get pissed off over a player swinging 3-0 in a against a traditional pitcher, there’s no problem with that, because in most cases the on the mound in that situation are the long man or someone who goes back-and-forth between the big leagues and AAA. These guys have their livelihood on the line in those situations, similar to the thoughts of when the Astros stole signs to a championship.

With the way the game is changing, LaRussa and the rest of the throwbacks need to adapt, or the game will continue its sharp decline. The drama does not end there. The next night, Twins reliever intentionally threw behind Mercedes in the 7th inning of the Twins victory.

Both Duffey and Baldelli were ejected for the incident. suspended both Duffey (3 games) and Baldelli (1 game) for their roles in the incident.

Duffey had his suspension reduced to two games after an appeal. After the game,

LaRussa seemed to be unphased by seeing his DH being thrown at. "I didn't have a problem with how the Twins handled that."

This is another issue I have with the whole situation, a manager not having his player’s back. Being a hall of fame manager, LaRussa doesn’t have to kiss anyone’s ass, especially a neophyte manager in Baldelli. I don’t care what Tony believes, a manager has to have his player’s back or he loses credibility with his players. What if

Joe Torre did not have ’s back when Armando Benitez drilled him between the numbers? Torre would have been sent out of in a heartbeat.

Even with some of the quotes that have come out in recent days, it seems like the players still believe in him as their manager. Star shortstop considers him as “the best thing that has ever happened to the White Sox.”

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