THE BACKSTORY
Tony LaRussa was an MLB manager for a long time. He won a lot of baseball games. But after winning a World Series in 2011 with the St. Louis Cardinals he retired. Most people thought it was for good.
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So when rumors started percolating in the fall of 2020 that the Chicago White Sox were seriously looking at LaRussa to fill their managerial vacancy I was incredibly doubtful that he would be the choice.
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So doubtful in fact that I went on the podcast that I co-host, Baseball BBQ, and unwaveringly proclaimed that there was absolutely no way that Tony LaRussa would be named the next manager of the White Sox.
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"If the White Sox hire him, I'll walk to Chicago."
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So yeah. The White Sox then inexplicably hired a 77-year-old
manager who hadn't been in the dugout for a decade, which meant, among many other things, that I was in a tough spot. Walking from my apartment in NYC to Chicago would have been a two-month ordeal. I have a life and obligations and stuff so that was out of the question.
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However I am an avid bike rider, so when LaRussa got hired, I immediately tried to negotiate my wager from a walk to a bike ride and my co-host Jordan Shusterman agreed.
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So now, almost a year later, it's actually happening. I'm biking to Chicago. I still think Tony LaRussa is the wrong man for that job, but I'll have time to grumble about that to myself while I'm pedaling across Ohio.