One day before he was surprisingly announced last month as the new manager of the Chicago White Sox, Tony La Russa was charged with DUI in Arizona, per court records.
The 76-year-old member of the Hall of Fame, who was previously arrested for drunken driving in 2007, was charged with two offenses Oct. 28. Per Maricopa County Justice Courts, La Russa’s alleged violations included driving under the influence and having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more.
The charges stem from an incident Feb. 24. According to charging documents obtained by ESPN, La Russa is alleged to have run his car into a curb alongside a Phoenix-area road shortly before midnight. A peace officer discovered the three-time World Series winner standing outside the vehicle and reportedly emitting a “light odor of alcoholic beverage.” La Russa was given a field sobriety test and, per ESPN, was described as “argumentative” while being taken into custody.
According to the arrest report, La Russa asked the officer, “Do you see my ring?” Asked by the officer what he was talking about, La Russa replied, “I’m a Hall of Famer baseball person.” Then, while being placed into the back seat of the police car, La Russa said: “I’m legit. I’m a Hall of Famer, brother. You’re trying to embarrass me.”
The court filing reportedly stated La Russa refused to submit to tests of his alcohol level, prompting the officer to obtain a search warrant for two vials of blood. A Maricopa County official told ESPN the delay in charging La Russa occurred because the incident was initially filed in an incorrect jurisdiction.
A spokesman for the White Sox confirmed to USA Today that the team was aware of the incident but said he could not comment further because it was an “active case.” A person described as a high-ranking White Sox official told USA Today that La Russa was not likely to face discipline from the club.
Before La Russa won one World Series title with the Oakland Athletics and two with the St. Louis Cardinals, his first big league managing job was with the White Sox from 1979 to 1986. Jerry Reinsdorf, the longtime owner of the White Sox, has been said to have regretted letting go of La Russa, who went on to win 2,728 games, third most in MLB history.
“As everyone in baseball is well aware, I have always respected Tony and am proud to have maintained a great friendship with him over the decades in the game,” Reinsdorf said in a statement issued to mark the manager’s return to the organization. “But his hiring is not based on friendship or on what happened years ago, but on the fact that we have the opportunity to have one of the greatest managers in the game’s history in our dugout at a time when we believe our team is poised for great accomplishments.”
La Russa last managed in 2011, and he retired after leading St. Louis that year to a championship. He walked away at the time with four manager of the year awards and went on to hold other positions in baseball, including as a consultant to the Los Angeles Angels at the time of his February episode.
In March 2007, while at spring training with the Cardinals, La Russa was arrested for DUI in Jupiter, Fla. He reportedly tested at a blood alcohol level of 0.093, above the legal threshold. “I accept full responsibility for my conduct, and assure everyone that I have learned a very valuable lesson and that this will never occur again,” La Russa said in a statement released by his attorney, David Roth. La Russa did not appear in court to plead guilty.
METS: Ray Daviault, a pitcher who played his only season in the major leagues as a member of the 1962 expansion New York Mets, has died. He was 86.
Daviault died Friday in a pool accident at his home, son Francois said. The Quebec native lived in Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci, a small municipality about 70 miles north of Montreal.
Daviault, a right-hander, was 1-5 with a 6.22 ERA in 36 games for the Mets, including three starts. He pitched two hitless innings in the Mets’ first home game, a 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh at the Polo Grounds.
The original Mets lost a lot that year under manager Casey Stengel – at 40-120, they posted the poorest record in modern history.
“He would joke that he was part of the worst team that ever existed,” his son said.
Stengel was past 70 and often mixed up names, Francois recalled his father telling him.
“Dad said Casey would call down to the bullpen to say get Harris warmed up. The relievers would have to figure out who wanted to be Harris that day because they didn’t have anybody with that name,” he said.
Daviault got a no-decision in his best game in the big leagues. In late June, he was summoned to relieve in the first inning with the Mets already trailing 4-0 at Dodger Stadium.
Daviault got Sandy Koufax on a popup to escape further trouble and pitched the rest of the way, allowing just one run – on a homer by Frank Howard – in 7 1/3 innings while striking out seven.
Too bad for Daviault and the Mets, they didn’t rally that day. Koufax pitched the first of his four career no-hitters in a 5-0 win.
“My dad used to say he got to see so many great players that year, guys like Koufax and Willie Mays and Willie McCovey and Bob Gibson and Roberto Clemente and more,” his son said.
Born in Montreal, Daviault spoke only French when he started out in the minors with the Dodgers in the early 1950s. He played in Triple-A for San Francisco in 1961 and then was taken 18th by the Mets in the expansion draft.
Daviault spent one year in the minors after playing for the Mets before retiring because of an elbow injury.
In later years, Daviault sometimes pitched batting practice for the newly created Montreal Expos at Jarry Park. He also coached youth baseball teams in Quebec.
• New owner Steven Cohen promises splashes of cash Mets fans expect from his billions – within reason.
“If I don’t win a World Series in the next three to five years, ” he said Tuesday, “I would consider that slightly disappointing.”
Four days after buying the Mets from the Wilpon and Katz families in a deal that valued the team at a baseball record $2.42 billion, Cohen unveiled his philosophy to turn around perennial underachievers he promised will act “like a major market team.”
“Are we going to act like drunken sailors in the marketplace? No,” he said. “I want to be thoughtful. You can spend a lot of money today and then tie up your team in bad contracts for the next five years.”
Cohen, CEO of Point72 Asset Management in Stamford, Connecticut, bought an 8% limited partnership stake in 2012 for $40 million and increased that last week to 95%, with the Wilpon and Katz families retaining 5%. His first decision was to bring back Sandy Alderson as team president.
Cohen plans to defer to Alderson and his baseball operations staff.
Alderson said Luis Rojas probably will return for a second season as manager.
“I played Little League once. That’s about it,” the 64-year-old Cohen said. “So I’m going to let the professionals, Sandy and the people we bring in, let them run baseball.”
Cohen’s personality was as striking as a 100 mph fastball.
“I’m a stickler for detail. I’m a stickler for a strong process. I don’t suffer people who give me responses that are mediocre. I see through that fairly quickly. I’m not a micromanager. I hold my people accountable, but I give them a lot of rope to run,” he said. “I’m not going to sit there and second-guess every decision. It’s not my style.”
Alderson met Cohen last December through Andrew B. Cohen, who is not related to the new Mets owner but manages Cohen Private Ventures on Steven Cohen’s behalf.
Alderson fired GM Brodie Van Wagenen and his top aides Friday to give the new baseball operations staff a clean slate.
The Mets went 26-34 in their first year under Rojas during the pandemic-shortened season.
“What I told Luis was that it’s very likely he will be managing the Mets,” Alderson said. “But I left the door slightly ajar out of respect for the process we’re going through now to find a president of baseball operations.”
Alderson was the Mets general manager from 2010-18. Now 72, he obliquely criticized the way the team had been run.
“The Mets are sort of a storied franchise, if you will,” he said. “Some of the stories have been good. Some have been bad. And if we want to be an iconic franchise, which I think we are capable of doing, we have to write more good stories than bad and occasionally we have to write a really epic story.”
Alderson recalled when he first joined the team, he saw an ad campaign in bus shelters “around the sort of ineptitude of the New York Mets.” Alderson wrote a memo to Cohen several months ago laying out a vision and emphasized the need to transform interactions with the industry and the public.
“You don’t change the perception without changing the reality,” Alderson said. “I think Steve is going to go a long way toward changing that narrative.”
The Mets have made the playoffs just twice in the last 14 seasons. They lost the 2014 World Series to Kansas City and dropped the NL wild-card game the next year.
Scott Boras, baseball’s top agent, claimed in 2011 the Mets were a team that had shifted from eating steaks to shopping for fruits and nuts, moved on to the freezer section in 2012 and in 2015 were utilizing a microwave rather than fancy cooking.
“We’re going to make sure we got enough meat and potatoes, but we’re going to be shopping in the gourmet section, as well,” Alderson said, adding with a laugh: “I got to find out where it is.”
As an example, Alderson said Mets might have claimed reliever Brad Hand and his $10 million option for 2021 off waivers had the sale been approved weeks earlier.
New York won World Series titles in 1969 under original owner Joan Payson and in 1986, about two weeks before Fred Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday bought the team for $80.75 million after Bertelsmann AG had acquired Mets owner Doubleday & Co. Fred Wilpon and his Sterling Equities partners headed by brother-in-law Saul Katz completed his buyout of Nelson Doubleday in August 2002.
Cohen had tried to buy the Dodgers and then waited until the Mets became available.
Cohen cited as top memories Cleon Jones catching the final out of the 1969 World Series, Tom Seaver coming within two outs of a perfect game only for the Cubs’ Jimmy Qualls to break it up, Mookie Wilson’s grounder through Bill Buckner’s legs that won Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
Cohen’s wife, Alexandra, will run the Mets’ foundation. His father-in-law, Ralph, attends almost every home game.
“I went to my first Mets game with my dad at the old Polo Grounds. Years later, my friends and I used to sit in the upper deck at Shea Stadium,” Cohen said.
The Mets have been outspent by the crosstown rival Yankees most years. Cohen wouldn’t assess how the Wilpons ran the team.
“I’m not competing against the Yankees,” he said. “We’re going to create our own excitement.”
He intends to boost spending on analytics.
“I can make millions of people happy and what an incredible opportunity that is,” he said. “I’m not trying to make money here. I have my business at Point72 and I make money over there. So here it’s really about building something great, building something for the fans, winning.”
Cohen already has engaged fans on Twitter. He hopes to reinstate Old Timers’ Day, dropped after 1994.
“I’m a low-key guy and I relate to them. I know how I feel,” he said. “I rather have emotional fans that are passionate than fans that don’t care.”
• Syracuse, Binghamton, Brooklyn and St. Lucie will be the New York Mets’ four minor league affiliates next year, leaving Columbia, South Carolina and Kingsport, Tennessee, to be dropped.
Returning Mets president Sandy Alderson made the announcement Tuesday during a news conference to introduce Steven Cohen, who bought the Mets last week from the Wilpon and Katz families for $2.42 billion.
The Syracuse Mets are in the Triple-A International League and St. Lucie has been in the Florida State League, which had been Class A Advanced. It appears St. Lucie will be low Class A next year.
Alderson did not give the level for Binghamton and Brooklyn.
The Binghamton Rumble Ponies have been in the Double-A Eastern League and the Brooklyn Cyclones in the Class A short season New York-Penn League, which Major League Baseball has targeted for possible elimination as part of the drop of guaranteed minor league affiliations from 160 to 120 next year.
Alderson said Brooklyn will be a full-season team. That could mean it would be part of a reformatted high Class A.
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