Word: larussa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Speaking of starters, Darryl Kile starting three of the seven games (seven games...sigh) was a mistake. Cardinal Manager Tony LaRussa's gamble was like nearly any bet made in Vegas: a losing one. Of course, the odds always look good when you're approaching the table...
First baseman Mark McGwire, with arms bigger than mountains, was 0-for-2 in the series. When LaRussa sent him to bat in Game Two, first base was open and the Mets had sense enough to walk the biggest slugger in baseball since at least Willie McGee...
...perhaps the biggest problem the Cardinals had was the constant re-shuffling of its lineup and pitching rotation. Trying to combat the Mets' southpaw squadron, LaRussa tried to spread out his right-handed batters. With McGwire relegated to pinch-hitting, the most powerful right handed batter was third baseman Fernando Tatis, who hadn't been playing consistently since the dog days of summer. Granted, Tatis did his best, but his glove was too costly...
...McGwire at-bat would be accompanied by the gaudy detonation of thousands of flash cameras. "It was blinding," says McKay. "I asked him if it bothered him, and he said, 'I don't see them.'" He didn't see what was on the periphery of his concentration because, says LaRussa, "he knew where he was going." This made it easy for the manager, whose only contribution to McGwire's record, he confesses was "making sure he knew what time the game started...
...wool pants, his game scowl gone, he doesn't look like that robot. He looks almost unintimidating, like the metarational man he's become. "The one thing I've learned is the mind controls everything," he says. "Your mind can throw the attention off to the side." Tony LaRussa, his manager at both the A's and the Cardinals, says McGwire has a unique ability to "control his emotions, to stifle them." His best friend on the team, catcher Tom Lampkin, says McGwire "has such control on the mental side. He doesn't let things stew inside him. He puts...