Tony La Russa: Man on a Mission - Hardcover

Rains, Rob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1600781691 ISBN 13: 9781600781698

Publisher: Triumph Books, 2009

Synopsis

Players and fans love him or hate him, so it's surprising that people know very little about St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa's life; this biography goes behind the scenes of one of the most iconic figures in baseball today to show the influences behind his intensity and uncompromising focus, why winning every game possible is important to him, and why he often puts the game ahead of his private and personal life. Including interviews with past and current players, managers, executives, and even La Russa himself and intensive research from newspapers, magazines, and other archive material, the book reconstructs La Russa's life from his days as a young boy growing up in Tampa, where he spoke Spanish before he learned English, to his standing as the third-winningest manager in baseball history.

About this title

About the Author

Rob Rains is a freelance writer, an adjunct professor in the school of communications at Webster University, and a former writer for United Press International, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and USA Today Baseball Weekly. He is the author or coauthor of 25 books and is a lifetime member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Baseball Writers Association of America. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Joe Buck is a play-by-play sportscaster for Fox who has won numerous Sports Emmy Awards.

From the Inside Flap

On August 3, 1979, Tony La Russa stepped into the dugout as the new manager of Bill Veeck's Chicago White Sox. He was 34 years old, unproven, and, to some critics, only there because he would work for cheap.

Thirty years later, La Russa is still a major-league manager, beginning his 14th season with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2009. He has won more games than any manager in history except Connie Mack and John McGraw. In 2006 he became just the second manager to win a World Series in both the American and National Leagues.

Despite that success and longevity, La Russa has not quieted all of his critics. There is a reason frequent polls of major-league players rank him first as both the manager they would most like to play for and the manager they would least like to play for.

In Tony La Russa: Man on a Mission, fans and detractors alike will come to learn more about La Russa's life, from his days growing up in Tampa, to his bonus-baby status as an 18-year-old shortstop with the Kansas City Athletics, to his turbulent beginning as a major-league manager with the White Sox, and on to his successful years with the Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals.

In interviews with more than 50 relatives, childhood friends, former players, coaches, fellow managers, and baseball executives veteran sportswriter Rob Rains paints a portrait of La Russa that reveals why he truly is a man on a mission.

Edition details

• Publisher: Triumph Books
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1600781691
• ISBN 13: 9781600781698
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320