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.

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.

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.

"If the White Sox hire him, I'll walk to Chicago."

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.

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.

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.