Bumping this thread since it's as relevant as ever. For LaRussa no comment about the "character" of the White Sox after Altuve was hit? LaRussa's been around for a long long time and seen a lot in baseball. Just sad and a mark of frustration to start talking about "dishonesty" in this series. https://sports.yahoo.com/tony-la-russa-astros-character-shortage-white-sox-alds-014336495.html Tony La Russa says Astros have a 'character shortage' after they eliminate his White Sox The Chicago White Sox are officially out of the MLB playoffs and their manager Tony La Russa has some thoughts on the team that eliminated them. Following Chicago's 10-1 loss to the Houston Astros in a series-clinching Game 4, La Russa laid into the Astros for hitting White Sox star Jose Abreu with a pitch. La Russa claimed the hit-by-pitch was intentional and said the team should admit it. "That stuff there in the eighth inning, it just leaves a bitter taste in your mouth and in my gut. There was a character shortage there that they should answer for. Stupid, too," La Russa said. "I'll be interested to see if they admit it. If they don't admit, then they're really dishonest." Abreu's plunking came in the eighth inning against Astros reliever Kendall Graveman, with a full count and two outs. Here's the pitch and La Russa's angry reaction: It's hard to see what La Russa saw that made him so sure the Astros intentionally hit Abreu. Graveman's command had been erratic the whole plate appearance, and intentional plunkings rarely occur with a full count (was the pitcher against hitting the batter until he had thrown five soon-to-be-useless pitches?). Astros manager Dusty Baker was skeptical of his counterpart's accusation, for multiple reasons. Saying there is no bad blood between the Astros and White Sox may not be too accurate, though, as Baker's team definitely had a bone to pick with White Sox reliever Ryan Tepera after the game. Tepera had revived talk of the Astros' sign-stealing scandal when he implied the team may be cheating again at Minute Maid Park after Game 3, pointing to the difference in the quality of at-bats between its home and away games in the series. Unlike Game 3, the Astros had little trouble generating offense in Game 4, and shortstop Carlos Correa delivered a rebuttal in a postgame interview with Fox Sports: "Disrespectful words with no facts," Correa said. "We have nothing to say. We scored six runs at home, then we scored, what, like nine? Then we scored six again here, they just happened to score 12. And then you look at our OPS on the road, was the best in all the big leagues through a 162-game season which we played 81 on the road. Their OPS was a lot higher at home than it was on the road. "He needs to know the facts." Correa's rebuttal treads on territory familiar to anyone who has seen the Astros push back on their label as cheaters. It's an established fact that the team cheated in the 2017 regular season, 2017 postseason and 2018 regular season. The players admitted doing it to MLB investigators and have been dealing with the public repercussions ever since, just not any MLB-sanctioned punishments. The Astros struggled to replicate their recent hitting success in last year's shortened season, their first since their cheating was reported, but still struck out less than any team in baseball. Their hitting came back in a big way this year, however, with an MLB-best 863 runs on their way to a 95-67 record.
If you look at the six reddit page, even their fans think La Russa is a clown with the accusation. He is just trying to save his job.
Lol....we scored 6 runs. How is that having trouble generating offense?! They just happened to go crazy with the bats and double us on offense that night.... Damn I love Correa, and I'm going to miss this guy if we don't get a contract signed.... Wait.....when did it become fact that we cheated in the 2017 post season (too loud for trashcans) and 2018 regular season? What a terribly written "article". La Russa looks like a clown here. It was a clown show, him delaying the game as long as he did protesting to the umps about a HBP.
I'm getting older so my memory is foggy but wasn't LaRussa the manager when his 1st baseman was injecting all kinds of crap into his ass?
Are we the villain? Think yes, it's an easy quip, however, win another WS and I think that dissipates quickly. There is a chance to re-brand in much the same way the Patriots did. But we have got to win it. The best way to do it would be to beat the Dodgers, but perhaps the worst way to do it would be to lose to the Dodgers. So the stakes would be high in that matchup.
Somewhere in all the discussions and posts about cheating in baseball, someone dug up a story on LaRussa being the OG of cameras around the park - playback near the dugout etc etc. I wish I could find it - I certainly read it - but this was specifically the 80s
It's weird to me because the report says they abandoned the system in 2018 because most of the players felt it was ineffective. Gattis even joked about it on Twitter.
Yes, absolutely. By the way, he also beats his wife on the reg. If he doesn't admit it then he's REALLY dishonest.
Tony LaRussa is a nearly 80 year old broken man that is a drunk and out of touch with the modern world. After the comments from his relief pitcher about "cheating" and hitting Altuve.... I can see why Tony is suspicious...... but there is no way that the Astros risk Graveman being suspended. If the Astros wanted to hit Abreu on purpose, they could have had one of their numerous crappy relievers come in plunk him..... especially with the Astros already being concerned about McCullers. As for those saying LaRussa is saying this to save his job, he doesn't need to save his job.... his best friend is the owner of the White Sox, and they have been very close for like 35+ years. The White Sox owner has said numerous times the biggest mistake in all of the years he has owned a baseball team was firing Tony LaRussa.... he isn't going to let LaRussa be fired again.... plus the White Sox had a very successful season. LaRussa thinks that Abreu was hit on purpose because of the circumstances and because the pitcher kept looking into the dugout. If it was a shitty reliever that hit Abreu, I would even believe it was possible.
There is no escape from the Astros Like it or not, their revenge tour rolls on — Red Sox beware Excerpt: Something just happens to the Astros when the calendar turns to October. They put up 31 runs over four games against the White Sox, a team that finished with the fifth-best ERA in MLB over the season. Houston had four players finish the series with an OPS over 1.000. They struck out 16 times in Game 3, a game they lost, but still put up six runs, and only K’d 25 times in the other three games. Maybe that’s the most amazing thing about the Astros, is that they seem to be the one team that can hit for power without sacrificing contact. It’s the same story every year though. Last year, in the Division Series, they had a team OPS of .982 and hit 12 homers against the A’s. 2018 they had an OPS of .892 for the postseason. Say what you want about 2017, and it’s all available to you, but this keeps happening. This went from a highly-anticipated matchup between two of baseball’s best and most exciting teams to an absolute ass-waxing. And considering that the Red Sox still have a pitching staff that they’re holding together with duct tape and prayer, this express probably isn’t going to stop over the next four-to-seven games. https://deadspin.com/there-is-no-escape-from-the-astros-1847853521
Admit It, the Astros Are Awesome: Unchecked Yes, they cheated and we won’t forget it, but it’s pretty apparent at this point (unless they are somehow still pulling off a sign stealing scheme) that they aren’t a product of the cheating, and are a heck of a baseball team. Because the Astros are clearly awesome and it’s time we all admit it. https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/10/13/h...hicago-white-sox-alcs-not-about-sign-stealing
I'm surprise LaRussa didn't just say that the game was rigged and the White Sox actually won the series.