Cards' La Russa Hard to Like

UPDATE: The Brewers swept the Cardinals this weekend and I was right: it is oh so sweet to beat Tony La Russa's team.

Tony La Russa will be managing in his 5,000th game tonight when the St. Louis Cardinals visit Milwaukee in a key early series with the Brewers. Only Connie Mack, who sat on he bench in his suit for 7,755 games, managed more.

That La Russa has made out the lineup card so many times over more than three decades is a testament to his ability. He took the Chicago White Sox to a division title, the Oakland A's to three pennants and a World Series title, and the Redbirds to two pennants and a title.

None of the teams he has managed have been accused of overspending. La Russa has chosen his coaches well, especially Dave Duncan, who seems to have a magic potion that turns suspect pitchers into stars.

And yet La Russa is difficult to like. Part of it, I am sure, is that he has never managed my teams. But it's more than simple partisanship.

The Twins Are Coming: What Would Sarah Palin Say?

Goose Goslin got his nickname
from his rather large nose.

Perhaps as Ben Revere dashed home with the winning run for the Minnesota Twins this afternoon, he yelled out a warning to the Cleveland Indians. OK, probably not. That's just the way I imagine Sarah Palin would report it.

In reality, Revere, on a mission to score, issued no warning to the enemy. But seeing a player with such a distinguished last name triggered memories of baseball name games of my youth.

Harry Caray was famous for fooling with players' names, often pronouncing them backward, for no apparent reason. Bill Melton of the Chicago White Sox thus became Llib Motlem.

Other name games took a little more thought. For instance, creating a list of players whose names fit their positions. How could Rollie Fingers, Bill Hands or Three-Finger Brown been anything other than pitchers?

Another list would include players whose names had a common theme, animals perhaps. For that list you might find Kevin Bass, Steve Trout, Dizzy Trout, Rabbit Maranvile, Rob Deer, Moose Skowron, Catfish Hunter, Jimmie Foxx, Nellie Fox, Tim Salmon, Ducky Medwick and the two Gooses (Geese?), Goslin and Gossage.

Then there are the players who perhaps collected nicknames based on their eccentricities. Dizzy Dean, Goofy (Lefty) Gomez, and Daffy Dean (although his nickname seem to have been hung on him to match his brother's sobriquet).

Maybe because baseball offers more time for reflection (between innings and, nowadays, between pitches as batters fiddle with their batting gloves), but no other sports seems to generate so much chatter like this. Or maybe it's all the beer that fans (and Harry Caray) consume that leads to all this nonsense.

Managers Ready to Rumble

Lou Piniella on a rampage.

I thought it was only fair to follow up yesterday's post about Joe West, baseball's worst umpire, with a look at some of the managers who have caused the men in blue to reach for the Rolaids.

In recent seasons, Bobby Cox, who retired after last season as manager of the Atlanta Braves, was king of the tirades. In fact, he's the career leader in ejections. For my money, Ozzie Guillen is the king now. He's bombastic on the field and seems to have no filter between his brain and mouth off the field. Lou Piniella's tirades were scary, if only because you feared for his health as the veins popped out of his head.

There have been a lot of managers who enjoyed kicking dirt, throwing bases and caps and generally making a spectacle of themselves. Leo Durocher is the first I remember who was celebrated (or castigated) for his fiery temper. Leo the Lip had a somewhat checkered career that included stops as a shortstop with teams including the St. Louis Cardinals' colorful Gashouse Gang and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

As a manager he was set to lead the Dodgers during Jackie Robinson's inaugural season. But the commissioner suspended him for "the accumulation of unpleasant incident" deemed "detrimental to baseball" just before the regular season started. Some see the suspension as the result of a feud Durocher had with Larry MacPhail, a New York Yankees' executive. Either way Durocher will be remembered for his temper and "nice guys finish last" mentality.

In the 1960s and 1970s, managerial tirades brought to mind two men: Billy Martin and Earl Weaver. Both were winning managers and both were famous for arguing their cases vociferously. Weaver is a YouTube hit. Martin was bombastic back in his days managing the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers. He could be caustic off the field. When he was fired and rehired by George Steinbrenner during their long-running soap opera, it was like watching a train wreck. You wanted to look away but just had to keep watching.