Tony Larussa; the man who keeps "crying" a part of baseball

What is it about Tony Larussa that makes him such a complaining cry baby? Could it be the lawyer in him, the fact that he ushered in the Steroid era, has managing the second most games in baseball history finally caught up to him, is he frustrated that Pujols is out the door after this year and on the verge of mailing it in this year, disappointed that Colby Rasmus is no longer there to kick around when he gets bored, mad at GM John Mozeliak whose big deadline deals were for Edwin "can't miss a bat" Jackson and Rafael "no birth certificate" Furcal, or maybe he typed his name in Google and the auto fill immediately came up "Tony Larussa's daughter", who is a Raiderette? Whatever it was it boiled over on Tuesday when his Cardinals visited the NL Central leading Brewers in Milwaukee and we all witnessed the annual Larussa in season tantrum.

Tony came to the ballpark Tuesday in a foul mood after his Cards were beaten by the Brewers 6-2 the night before and immediately filed a protest to the MLB offices accusing the Brewers of flashing a light on the LCD board only when the Cards were batting, because come on that has to be the reason Ryan Theriot and Skip Schumaker only have 3 combined HR's and why both are hitting below .275. MLB reviewed the footage before Tuesday's game and with evidence that the flashing light occurred for both teams, dismissed the protest promptly. While I am sure the lawyer in Tony began to immediately work on his appeal Tuesday night's game went on as scheduled.

The game was high scoring back and forth affair until Albert Pujols was hit with a pitch in the 7^th inning. League wide strategy has been to pitch Pujols inside this year and it has been effective as Pujols is hitting a career low .275 (24 HR's, 65 RBI's, .342 OBP, .513 SLG, .855 OPS) in his last year before free agency. Any little leaguer knew that the Brewers weren't intentionally trying to hit Pujols and even Tony admitted after the game he knew it was an accident, but Larussa did go on to say that he is fed up with people pitching inside to Pujols. I guess in Tony's mind pitching inside is a no-no, but when his mid to late 1980's Oakland A's players (most notably McGwire and Canseco) were shooting up steroids in the clubhouse everything was OK. Larussa and his Cards didn't wait long, in the next inning Cards pitcher Jason Motte threw two pitches over, the best player in the NL Central, Ryan Braun's (.324 BA, 21 HR, 73 RBI, .395 OBP, .582 SLG, .977 OPS) head and then hit him square in the back on the next pitch. Larussa was quoted after the game as saying "Yes, we hit Braun intentionally and to send a message". The Brewers fans were understandably upset and some close to the dugout even started yelling at Larussa, after the game Larussa labeled the Brewers fans "idiots" and said some fans made reference to his daughter and to his recent Shingles ailment. This can hardly be the first time the long time manager has been heckled and the fans were forced to leave by Brewers security (I have seen worse heckling in a middle school girls' basketball game). While we are on the subject of "idiot" fans, in Larussa's first spring training game after his DUI (asleep in his car at a stop sign with BAC of .093) the Cardinals fans gave him a standing ovation, stay classy Cards fans!

After the game and primarily due to Larrussa's comments about "idiot" Brewers fans and intentionally hitting Braun, the headline was the bad blood between the Cards and Brewers, but in reality the bad blood is all due to Larussa, just like every instance of bad blood between his teams recently. A few years ago Larussa refused to play Jason Bay in the All Star game, the Pirates only All-Star, due to a beef with the Pirates that season and last year his Cardinals feuded with the Reds over pitching inside. The constant in all of these instances of bad blood is the Cardinals and most notably Tony Larussa, like a child who can't get along with any of his classmates and refuses to reconize that he is the constant in every incident.

Like I said, Larussa has managed the second most games in MLB history and he likes to think he is "old school", but how many "old school" managers would take to the press to go after an opponent's fans and tell the world he hit Braun intentionally? With Pujols halfway out the door and his grip on the division slipping away for good after this season we can only hope Tony follows him and takes his crying with him.