It’s just been a privilege to watch his kind of excellence

“What a performance we're watching. It's just been a privilege to watch his kind of excellence.” - Tony LaRussa

I’ve got to be honest and tell you that I don’t know what performance LaRussa is referring to here but I think the quote is very appropriate considering the excellence of the career that LaRussa just announced has ended.

As a kid I remember all the all-stars that I would watch and trade cards with my buddies but of all the names I can remember from my childhood there was only one manager that I knew by name and that was Tony LaRussa.  Even as a kid of 9 or 10 years old I knew that he was a baseball genius and one of if not the best manager in baseball.

Growing up and getting more and more involved in the game at higher levels I’ve come to realize that his ability to manage a baseball team was far greater then I could fathom.

And now he’s going out on top of his game.

Sure, he could come back for 1 more season and easily move up to #2 in all-time wins, but he’s OK with calling it quits after willing the World Series (and he said he was done win or lose in the Fall Classic).

Looking back on LaRussa’s career you barely remember his playing days bouncing around the minors and a brief stint in the bigs  with a sub .200 major league batting average.  But there is no denying his impact on the way the game is played today with his situational relief pitching bringing in guys just to get one guy out.  Sure it slowed down the game, but baseball is a timeless game, right?  LaRussa turned managing the game into a chess like art form.

Of course we can’t all coach & manage like LaRussa did, but we can all follow his lead in being consistent with the things that we know work and being proactive in changing the things that don’t.

Keep up the great work in coaching your guys and make sure you are always looking to improve both for yourself and your ballplayers!

Here’s a video that you might get a kick out of:

Technorati Tags: baseball team, baseball training, baseball workouts, batting average, bigs, caption, career, manager, timeless game, tony larussa, training for baseball, width, work, workouts for baseball

Tags: baseball team, baseball training, baseball workouts, batting average, bigs, caption, career, manager, timeless game, tony larussa, training for baseball, width, work, workouts for baseball