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Sports

Column: Tony La Russa vs. Dusty Baker is a rivalry that never grows old as the managers square off again

Baseball’s best rivalry grabs the national spotlight Sunday night when the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros meet in the finale of a three-game series at Minute Maid Park.Tony La Russa vs. Dusty Baker remains the gold standard of managerial rivalries, a throwback to the days of Billy Martin-Whitey Herzog or Tommy Lasorda-Sparky Anderson, when the battle of wits in the dugouts was as intriguing as the pitching matchups.AdvertisementThe narrative La Russa and Baker don’t like each other has softened since La Russa’s return to the Sox dugout last year. The 2021 postseason matchup gave both managers an opportunity to speak kindly of each other, and they outdid themselves in praising their old foes the first three games of the series.Then Astros reliever Kendall Graveman plunked José Abreu in Game 4, and after the series-ending loss an angry La Russa questioned the Astros’ character.Advertisement“That’s just a character shortage there they should answer for,” he said. “If they don’t admit it, they’re very dishonest.”Baker responded there was no ill intent on Graveman’s part.“I beg to differ with Tony,” Baker said.Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker Jr., left, and Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa greet each other before Game 3 of a baseball American League Division Series, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)The Sox signed Graveman in the offseason, and the two rivals are back to being BFFs, at least for now.As everyone knows, Baker has “begged to differ” with La Russa a time or two in the past. But at least there have been no expletives shouted at each other from opposing dugouts in the latest iteration of the feud. Who says you can’t mellow with age?Baker, 72, became the 12th manager to join the 2,000-win club last month, and the 77-year-old La Russa ascended to second on the all-time win list last season. So the “Sunday Night Baseball” telecast no doubt will focus on the numbers that certify both as Hall of Fame managers. La Russa, obviously, already is in, while Baker should be a shoe-in as the first Black manager to reach 2,000 wins.But it’s not the number of wins that define these two. It’s their ability to survive in an era in which managing a baseball game might be the least of their responsibilities.It’s hard to pinpoint the most difficult part of a manager’s job in 2022.AdvertisementDealing with reporters who ask too many negative questions before and after games? With highly educated executives who throw analytical reports on their desks as though they’re equals? With general managers who insist on pregaming pitching moves hours before the first pitch is delivered? With fans who complain on Twitter and talk radio that the managers are out-of-touch? More than anyone else in the baseball hierarchy, they’re getting it from all sides. No one boos the GMs or presidents because they’re heard but rarely seen.Managing is a job for a young person, someone with energy, enthusiasm and the ability to work in tandem with bosses they may not agree with on how to beat an opponent. La Russa and Baker have adapted to the new norm in different ways. They still make their own decisions, wear their mistakes, ignore the outside noise and project an image of authority. They’re comfortable in their own skin, having already accomplished more than their peers.But Baker looks relaxed and happy in the Astros dugout, chewing on his ubiquitous toothpick and aging gracefully in what could be the final season of his career. La Russa often looks spent after White Sox losses. He has been more confrontational in postgame news conferences, questioning reporters for asking innocuous questions about his decision-making, and pretending to be surprised anyone could disagree with his decision to intentionally walk Trea Turner on a 1-2 count, a move panned by virtually everyone.The guy screaming “He has two strikes, Tony!” after Tony La Russa intentionally walked Trea Turner on a 1-2 count to pitch to Max Muncy who proceeded to hit a three-run homer is peak chef’s kiss. (via @NBCSWhiteSox)pic.twitter.com/C9yaR0ZdBU— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 9, 2022

“Fire Tony” chants erupted at White Sox Park one game during the last homestand. The 10-run inning off Sox pitchers during Friday’s 13-3 loss at Minute Maid Park didn’t exactly appease the anti-La Russa faction. Delegating bench coach Miguel Cairo to conduct the in-game interview with Apple TV announcers suggested La Russa felt he was too important to be bothered. Baker did his in-game interview.When the 2022 schedule was unveiled, this weekend was marked as the biggest series of the first half. The Sox could prove their worth against the team that ousted them in the postseason.AdvertisementFriday was a complete flop, spoiling the momentum from the sweep of the lowly Detroit Tigers. La Russa, it has been said, hates to lose. And whether he admits it or not, he probably hates losing to Baker more than most managers. Their battles have been legendary, often surrounding someone being hit by a pitch or some other perceived slight. It was at its most heated in 2003 and ‘04 when Baker arrived in Chicago and La Russa had yet to win his first of two titles in St. Louis.“The Cardinals back then, with Tony, they never did much wrong, (but felt) most people were doing wrong to them,” Baker recalled in a Tribune interview years later. “Know what I mean?”Baker changed the culture of losing and briefly was beloved on the North Side for sticking it to La Russa and the hated Cardinals. Then he made the unfortunate prediction in 2003 that if the Cardinals manager “thinks (the fight) has been on so far, he has a whole decade of us coming.”It turned out to be one year.“Boy was I wrong,” he said with a laugh years later. “I said that?”Baker’s point was the tide had turned, and the Cubs no longer were a laughingstock.Advertisement“The Cardinals didn’t like you beating them,” he said. “They weren’t used to the Cubs beating them. Most of the time they were used to having their way with the Cubs.”St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker meet with umpires prior to the start of a game at Wrigley Field on May 9, 2003. (BONNIE TRAFELET / CHICAGO TRIBUNE)Now the shoe is on the other foot. The Sox are the ones trying to challenge Baker’s Astros in the American League, but Houston is having their way with them in the first year-and-a-half of the La Russa reboot. Injuries have depleted the Sox, but La Russa left spring training talking up the team’s depth, so injuries should not be a viable excuse for their sub-.500 record.This could be the last season to watch La Russa and Baker go head to head, so savor every moment.Baker signed a one-year extension with the Astros after taking his team to the World Series in 2021 and losing to the Atlanta Braves. He’ll be a free agent again, and has given no indication he’s ready to retire. La Russa’s deal wasn’t announced in 2020, but sources told MLB Network contributor and New York Post columnist Jon Heyman that La Russa was signed through 2023 at $3.75 million per year.Entering Saturday afternoon’s game, both had an all-time winning percentage of .536, with La Russa ahead by a mere .0007 of a percentage point.Not that either one is counting, of course.

Sports

Naomi Osaka pulls out of Wimbledon for the 2nd straight year, citing a lingering Achilles problem

Naomi Osaka pulled out of Wimbledon on Saturday, citing a lingering problem with her left Achilles tendon and marking the second consecutive year she’s decided to sit out the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.The four-time major champion and former No. 1-ranked player posted a photo of herself on a grass court and wrote on Twitter: “my Achilles still isn’t right so I’ll see you next time.”AdvertisementOsaka has not played an official match since losing in the first round of the French Open to Amanda Anisimova 7-5, 6-4 on May 24. During that match, for which she said she took a painkiller, Osaka tried to stretch her tendon by tugging on the toe of her shoe at changeovers and squatting to flex her lower leg between points.After that defeat, Osaka said she was leaning toward missing Wimbledon because the professional tennis tours aren’t ranking points awarded — a response to the All England Club’s decision to bar all players from Russia and Belarus over the war in Ukraine.Advertisement“I’m not sure why, but I feel like if I play Wimbledon without points, it’s more like an exhibition. I know this isn’t true, right? But my brain just like feels that way. Whenever I think something is like an exhibition, I just can’t go at it 100%,” Osaka said then. “I didn’t even make my decision yet, but I’m leaning more towards not playing, given the current circumstances.”Eugenie Bouchard, who was the runner-up at the All England Club in 2014, announced Friday on social media that she would not play at Wimbledon because there are no ranking points available. Bouchard is working her way back from surgery on her right shoulder.Osaka did not play at Wimbledon a year ago as part of a mental health break she took after pulling out of the French Open before her second-round match.She has not won a match at the All England Club since getting to the third round in 2018. Osaka lost in the first round of Wimbledon in 2019, and the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.All four of Osaka’s Grand Slam titles came on hard courts: at the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020 and at the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021.The 24-year-old Osaka has played only 17 matches this season and her ranking fell to No. 43 this week.

Local

Schererville man acquitted in Gary murder

A Schererville man was acquitted Thursday in a Gary man’s murder, according to a prosecutor’s spokeswoman.Anthony Horde III, 28, of Schererville, was charged March 12, 2021,…

Sports

Column: 2022 Chicago Cubs share dubious history with the 1879 team — but there could be a sign of hope

When a colleague pulled out his iPhone in the Chicago Cubs clubhouse Thursday afternoon to show a factoid he received from the team’s historian, my head began to spin.After the four-game sweep by the San Diego Padres, the Cubs had been outscored by 20 or more runs in back-to-back series for only the second time in franchise history. The other time it happened was in September 1879, when the Cubs were outscored by the Providence Grays by 20 runs (29-9) and the Boston Braves by 23 (31-8).AdvertisementOf all the bad teams in Cubs history, we finally have a matching set, separated by only 143 years.I wondered how the 1879 Cubs handled their beatings. Did they have stand-up players like closer David Robertson or catcher Willson Contreras who stepped up Thursday and faced media members after the embarrassing losing streak reached 10 games? Was the manager on the hot seat afterward? Did Cubs fans of 1879 ignore the drubbings on the field and focus on building the longest beer cup snake known to modern man at Lake Front Park?AdvertisementThanks to modern technology — a subscription to the Chicago Tribune — I was able to find some answers.The Tribune, which turned 175 on June 10, did not employ a baseball beat writer back in 1879, when the Cubs were known as the White Stockings, Rutherford B. Hayes was president and the telephone had just been invented three years earlier.The 1879 team was managed by Cap Anson, a first baseman who led the White Stockings to the National League pennant in 1876, the first year of the new league. Anson later was called “baseball’s first superstar” by the Society for American Baseball Research, which wrote: “So good was Anson’s bat control that he struck out only once during the 1878 season and twice in 1879.” Cubs slugger Patrick Wisdom, who can strike out three times in one afternoon, is no Cap Anson.Adrian “Cap” Anson, right, was manager of the Chicago White Stockings, the predecessors of the Cubs, from 1877 to 1897. There was no account of the 17-8 loss in Boston on Sept. 10, 1879, the first time in Cubs history the team had lost consecutive series by 20 or more runs. The big sporting news in the Tribune’s Sept. 11 edition was that Syracuse, one of the eight NL clubs, had disbanded, canceling the three games scheduled in New York that weekend with the White Stockings. (The 2022 Cubs would have no such luck. The Atlanta Braves not only refused to disband, they arrived in town Friday riding a 14-game win streak.)As it turned out, Anson’s 1879 team had more dissension than manager David Ross’s 2022 version, which has been controversy-free so far. Under the news of Syracuse folding was an item on the release of right fielder George Shaffer, who apparently was a talkative fellow nicknamed “Orator.”“A good many people in Chicago during the present season have objected to George Shaffer… on the ground that he was too much of a ‘chinner,’” the paper reported. “The Tribune has on several occasions alluded to the peculiarity of this young man, but out of consideration for him did not state, as it might have done, in addition to being noisy and troublesome on the field, Shaffer was the far worst kind of disorganizer. Even going so far not so long ago to charge another member of the nine to selling games, thus starting a rumor, that spread all over the country, that there was crookedness in the White Stockings camp.”This was before baseball rumors spread on Twitter or TikTok, because, you know, the phone had just been invented. That meant Orator Shaffer’s rumor the White Stockings had been selling (throwing) games was spread by a combination of word of mouth, the telegraph and newspapers.Anyways, Shaffer — whose baseball encyclopedia listing is spelled “Shafer” — had been in a “rough and tumble fight” outside a Boston hotel with teammate Ed Williamson, according to the Tribune. Shaffer was “badly worst and somewhat used up by the encounter,” the report said, and demanded his immediate release.AdvertisementThis was the kind of dust-up White Sox general manager Rick Hahn would refer to as a “nothing burger,” but the Tribune reported the White Stockings refused to release Shaffer until it could telegraph the team president in Chicago. White Stockings president William Hulbert eventually sent a telegraph back to Boston stating it was imperative to release Shaffer, who no longer would orate in Chicago.Chicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.The Tribune item ended with the unnamed author taking one last shot at Shaffer, concluding Hulbert’s actions would be endorsed “by the Chicago public to a man.” Even 143 years ago Tribune sports writers were trying to dump unpopular players. Imagine that.That was the end of the saga, and the Tribune virtually ignored the White Stockings the next couple weeks. But the paper provided a brief summary of the team’s up-and-down season in a Sept. 28 article headlined: “Providence Wins the Pennant.” The story mentions the White Stockings’ 14-1 start in May, and the slew of injuries that followed: “The Chicago boom continued with great force until the 1st of July, and then began the chapter of accidents and misfortunes that landed the team in third place.”The Trib report was particularly harsh on White Stockings pitcher Terry Larkin, one of the team’s two starters, who went 31-23 with a 2.44 ERA in 58 starts, with 57 complete games:“For the loss of power, Larkin was alone to blame. He is simply an addition to the long list of ball-players who have ruined themselves by dissipation. They deserve no pity and seldom see any.”The story included the long list of injuries that doomed the 1879 White Stockings, who went 4-12 in September to finish fourth with a 46-33 record.AdvertisementIf you believe the adage “what goes around, comes around,” there could be hope for Ross’ 2022 Cubs. Despite enduring back-to-back series beatings that no team in franchise history would match until now, the 1879 White Stockings would go on to capture three straight NL pennants from 1880-82, a couple decades before the first World Series.And just like in 1879, you can read about it here.

Sports

Column: Chicago Bears gave Braxton Jones a look at left tackle — and the rookie is ready to battle for a job in camp

Coach Matt Eberflus was quick to point out the Chicago Bears spent the spring mixing and matching players at a variety of positions when asked about Braxton Jones appearing with the starters at left tackle earlier this month.Indeed, the Bears were shuffling the lineup at a couple of spots, but Eberflus and the Bears surely understand why particular attention is paid to the offensive line, the area general manager Ryan Poles talked about improving when he was hired.AdvertisementIf you’re handicapping the field at left tackle before the team opens training camp July 26, the day veterans will report to Halas Hall, Larry Borom and Jones are the leading candidates. Borom, a fifth-round pick last year, spent the offseason program at both tackle positions, and Jones has emerged as an option.“I’ll be honest with you, I was definitely a little bit surprised,” Jones said of his reaction when he was told to run with the starters. “That surprise went away quick. It was thrown on me and it’s time to go. It has been something that’s really good for me to get that speed, the speed of going against guys like Roquan Smith. That’s crazy, you know. It has been valuable for sure.”Advertisement[ Bears coach Matt Eberflus doubles down on his demand to players: ‘Get your track shoes ready’ ]Whether Jones gets a shot at the left tackle job when training camp opens remains to be seen. Real evaluation of play in the trenches begins when the pads go on, but the Bears had to have seen something in Jones to give him a look.Eberflus, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and offensive line coach Chris Morgan will have plenty to sort through. They were rotating Sam Mustipher and Dakota Dozier at right guard, but Dozier was carted off Tuesday with what a source said is a left knee injury. Borom and Teven Jenkins, a second-round pick a year ago, played with the starters at right tackle. Ultimately the organization needs to identify its five best linemen and figure out how they fit.It’s possible the Bears are intrigued by one of the lineups they’ve used so far. Or there could be an entirely new lineup they want to explore in training camp, but Jones is eager to show up next month and battle.Chicago Bears tackle Braxton Jones stretches at rookie minicamp, May 6, 2022, at Halas Hall in Lake Forest. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)“I assume it’s going to be a lot different,” he said. “Even though we’re getting a good look right now in terms of speed with linebackers, you’re not necessarily getting a bull rush. You’re not getting somebody right down your face. It’ll change big time, and from now until July 22nd when I come back is going to be huge for me. I’ve got to gain ground on guys. I’ve got to get stronger.“Fifth-round guy, but it doesn’t matter. I have an opportunity here, and it’s a great opportunity to gain ground on some guys. I’ve got to get stronger, quicker, all that stuff, sharper in the playbook. It’s really important for me when I go home to have a plan, and I do have a plan, making sure I’m following that plan.”Jones, 6-foot-5, 310 pounds, popped on the radar of the Senior Bowl staff in spring 2021. Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said three members of his staff went to evaluate Jones during his senior season at Southern Utah to confirm what they had seen on film. Some believe Jones’ junior tape was better than last season, which could be why he remained on the board into Day 3.“The talent is all there,” Nagy said. “He’s a really twitched up athlete. The pass-set stuff, the redirect, he looked like an NFL left tackle on his junior tape. We were really high on him.“The biggest thing is just lower-body development. He needs to get stronger in his lower half, which will come over time. If that is the one thing you need to improve, NFL teams feel good about that. It’s hard to make a guy longer or twitchier. You can always put some bulk or strength on them.”Advertisement[ Column: Chicago Bears offensive line still has big questions — and moving parts — as shown by Teven Jenkins and Braxton Jones ]Jones said Morgan has been stressing the need for him to be more effective and consistent with his hands to take advantage of his 35⅜-inch arms.“The biggest thing (in) my transition from college to the NFL or college to the Senior Bowl to the NFL and just in these OTAs is throwing my hands,” Jones said. “In college, I was really reserved with my hands and I didn’t use my long arms to my advantage. They’re a big thing for me and they’re going to help me be really good in this league. They’ve gotten better.”Nagy admitted it is unusual for Day 3 rookie offensive linemen to work their way into a starting role, especially at left tackle, and there’s a lot of ground to cover between now and Week 1 for Jones to earn a job.“I am not totally surprised because he has that kind of talent,” said Nagy, who noted Jones excelled in one-on-one pass rush drills during the Senior Bowl week. “He definitely has left tackle starter talent. Did I think he would get there Year 1? Probably not.“It’s hard with the big guys when you’re not in pads. That forum sets up really well for Braxton because he is such a good foot athlete and he can get out there and dance with you in pass protection. You’ve got to put the pads on in August and see how that all shakes out.”Whether Jones can put himself in position to play in Year 1 remains to be seen, but the Bears have a prospect worth investing time in. And if they can address the left tackle question with a Day 3 pick, whether it’s in 2022 or 2023, Poles would be off to a good start on the offensive line.Advertisement“Everybody is competing,” Jones said. “Rotating or whatever you want to call it, it’s all competition. I’m competing for a job, maybe a guy who is behind me is competing for a job, and maybe the right tackle on the other side is competing for my job. You never know.”