About Tony La Russa
Anthony La Russa Jr. (; born October 4, 1944) is an American former professional baseball infielder and manager. His Major League Baseball (MLB) career has spanned from 1963 to 2022, in several roles. He is the former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago White Sox. In 35 seasons as a manager, La Russa guided his teams to three World Series titles, six league championships, and 13 division titles. His managerial total of 2,884 MLB wins is second only to Connie Mack's. As a player, La Russa made his major league debut in 1963 and spent parts of five major league seasons with the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves, and Chicago Cubs. After a shoulder injury during the 1964–65 off-season, he returned to college and received a degree from the University of South Florida before playing much of the remainder of his career in the minor leagues until retiring in 1977. He then earned a Juris Doctor degree from Florida State University. Named manager of the White Sox in the middle of the 1979 season, La Russa guided the team to an American League West division title four seasons later. In the middle of the 1986 season, he was fired by the White Sox and hired less than three weeks later by the Athletics. La Russa led the A's to three consecutive American League championships from 1988 to 1990 and the 1989 World Series title. He left Oakland after the 1995 season to manage the Cardinals, whom he led to three National League championships and the 2006 and 2011 World Series titles. La Russa retired after winning the 2011 title and 34 seasons as a major league manager. Three months later, he accepted a position helping fellow former manager Joe Torre, the executive vice president for MLB operations. In 2014, he became the chief baseball officer for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In November 2019, he joined the Los Angeles Angels as a senior advisor of baseball operations. In the 2021 offseason, he was named the manager of the White Sox; he retired in 2022 due to health concerns. In 2013, La Russa was unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame by the 16-member Veterans Committee. The induction ceremony was held at Cooperstown, New York, on July 27, 2014. On August 16, 2014, he was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. The White Sox fired Kessinger with a 46–60 record two-thirds of the way through the 1979 season and replaced him with La Russa. It was as a player with the A's that La Russa first met catcher Dave Duncan, who would join his coaching staff in Chicago in 1983. The White Sox gave La Russa his first managerial opportunity in 1978 by naming him skipper of their Double-A affiliate, the Knoxville Sox of the Southern League. LaRussa, at 34, was the youngest manager in the major leagues.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.