Immediately, if not Sooner

Fire Tony La Russa now, today, this instant, before he opens his mouth one more time to further tarnish whatever HOF legacy he may think he has. Did I mention the White Sox should do it now? Monday night, Sox DH Yermin Mercedes hit a monster homerun off position player Willians Astudillo, who was doing mop-up duty in a 16-4 Twins’ loss. Yesterday, La Russa called Mercedes “clueless” for missing a 3-0 take sign and went on to say “there’ll be a consequence he has to endure here within our family.” Yes, we are fam-i-lee. La Russa told reporters Mercedes has to see the take sign because that’s “just sportsmanship and respect for the game and respect for your opponent.” The irony here is profound to the point of hilarious. La Russa was exposed to the baseball world recently for being ignorant of the actual rules of the game concerning extra innings, and he has the gall to talk about respecting said game. This is where I might suggest practicing what you preach. Only it’s too late. You throw your player under the bus, you lose any right to talk or hold your job, for that matter. In the seventh inning of last night’s game, Twins’ reliever Tyler Duffey threw at Mercedes and was immediately ejected. Did La Russa rush out of the dugout to protect his player or go after Duffey? No, instead he offered, “I don’t have a problem with how the Twins handled that.” La Russa said with a straight face that the pitch might have gotten away from Duffey. From what I can tell, just about every MLB ballplayer not wearing a Twins’ uniform is in Mercedes’ corner. Clueless? Oh, yeah. Tony La Russa is damn’ clueless and should be out of a job, immediately, if not sooner.