The only thing LaRussa may be more passionate about than crusading for Mark McGwire is rescuing stray animals. LaRussa raises money for ARF. Now he’s gotten McGwire a job as hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Which makes me wonder if LaRussa views the big slugger the same way – as a helpless creature who needs a loving home.
Even if it’s a really bad idea for his baseball team.
No, it’s not against the rules for LaRussa to hire McGwire as the Cardinals hitting coach, not like it would be for – say – the Giants to hire Pete Rose. That would be against the rules of baseball though I’m betting Rose would be a far better hitting coach, because he was a far better player.
And it’s not illegal for LaRussa to hire McGwire. As far as I know, no one has criminalized stupidity in the past 24 hours.
But this is stupid. Because it will create a circus for the Cardinals. Every town McGwire goes to, someone will want to talk about steorids. Someone will be there to talk about the past. It’s not going to be a spring training-and-done story, no matter how much LaRussa plans for it to be that way.
A batting coach is supposed to just blend in with the landscape (and also to have learned his art without involving needles). But McGwire isn’t going to be blending in. No way.
He’s being rewarded with a plum baseball job after hiding from his sport and failing to tell the truth in front of the United States Congress. But he has advice on the low fastball?
Why is LaRussa so determined to do this? I think it’s more for selfish reasons than any altruistic need to rehabilitate McGwire. LaRussa is, first and foremost, about LaRussa. The taint on McGwire equals a taint on LaRussa and much of what he has achieved in his managing career. I’ve often said if there was an All-Steroid team (Bonds in left, ARod at short, Clemens on the mound – who else?), LaRussa would be the hands-down favorite to manage the squad.
If he can somehow just get the issue to go away – or better yet to get everyone to believe what he has insisted for years, that McGwire’s productivity was the result of work in the weight room – LaRussa will end up being the better for it.
In truth, the only way it goes away is if McGwire admits the truth, deals with the fallout for a few months then lets things fade away, normally. Having watched McGwire over the years, and knowing LaRussa’s penchant for blaming the messenger, I don’t see that happening. I could be wrong but I predict more evasiveness.
LaRussa went crazy when Jose Canseco came out with his tell-all book. He went on every radio and television station ripping Canseco a new one. Well, so did everyone else, but LaRussa’s anger seemed to have a distinctly personal edge to it.
The ridiculous thing is that he said he knew Canseco was on steroids while he was the manager of the A’s but he didn’t do anything about it, because of the system. Yet he has insisted for years that McGwire is the greatest guy on the planet. LaRussa may be a great baseball manager but in my experience, he’s an incredibly self-righteous hypocrite.
(Speaking of hypocrites, Bud Selig is thrilled to have McGwire back in baseball. He said he was a ”very, very fine man.” Just one that refused to testify in front of congress, hasn’t shed any light or truth on baseball’s black era and hid with his tail between his legs for years. Selig – the man who kept his hands in his pockets while watching Bonds – is just thrilled. It couldn’t be ….? Naawww).
Now LaRussa has coaxed Big Mac out of the corner in the back of the closet where he’s been hiding for seven years. A few treats. The catnip of a potential rejuvenation of his Hall of Fame bid.
Maybe McGwire will even get a scratching post out of the deal.
LaRussa is a hypocrite.