La Russa plays second fiddle to Cox
11/09/2005
ST. LOUIS -- If it's true that the only thing harder than getting to the top is staying there, then the Baseball Writers Association of America identified the right two men in National League Manager of the Year balloting. Unfortunately for Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and the Braves have stayed at the top for even longer than La Russa and the Cardinals.
For the second year in a row, La Russa finished as the runner-up to Cox in Manager of the Year balloting. The St. Louis skipper received two first-place votes out of the 32 ballots cast. He was the second man named on 13 ballots, third on three, and left off 14 ballots. Cox received 28 first-place votes and outdistanced La Russa by a 152-52 margin in the 5-3-1 points system.
La Russa, a four-time winner of the award, may never have done a better job with a regular-season team than he did with the Cardinals in 2005. For a significant portion of the second half of the season, he and his coaching staff made do without four of their eight Opening Day position player starters. Even so, the Cardinals won 100 games and ran away with the NL Central for the second year in a row.
Scott Rolen was limited to 56 games after suffering a shoulder injury in a collision at first base. Larry Walker was hampered all year by neck pain that eventually sent him into retirement. Reggie Sanders missed nearly two months due to a broken leg. Yadier Molina missed six weeks with a broken bone in his hand.
And through it all, the Cardinals kept winning. La Russa worked in role players such as Abraham Nunez, So Taguchi, John Mabry, Mike Mahoney and John Rodriguez, and even with the injuries the Cardinals finished third in the league in runs scored. They played aggressively, winning games on squeeze bunts and using the hit-and-run frequently.
La Russa and Cox are the only four-time Manager of the Year winners.
Source: http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/
ST. LOUIS -- If it's true that the only thing harder than getting to the top is staying there, then the Baseball Writers Association of America identified the right two men in National League Manager of the Year balloting. Unfortunately for Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and the Braves have stayed at the top for even longer than La Russa and the Cardinals.
For the second year in a row, La Russa finished as the runner-up to Cox in Manager of the Year balloting. The St. Louis skipper received two first-place votes out of the 32 ballots cast. He was the second man named on 13 ballots, third on three, and left off 14 ballots. Cox received 28 first-place votes and outdistanced La Russa by a 152-52 margin in the 5-3-1 points system.
La Russa, a four-time winner of the award, may never have done a better job with a regular-season team than he did with the Cardinals in 2005. For a significant portion of the second half of the season, he and his coaching staff made do without four of their eight Opening Day position player starters. Even so, the Cardinals won 100 games and ran away with the NL Central for the second year in a row.
Scott Rolen was limited to 56 games after suffering a shoulder injury in a collision at first base. Larry Walker was hampered all year by neck pain that eventually sent him into retirement. Reggie Sanders missed nearly two months due to a broken leg. Yadier Molina missed six weeks with a broken bone in his hand.
And through it all, the Cardinals kept winning. La Russa worked in role players such as Abraham Nunez, So Taguchi, John Mabry, Mike Mahoney and John Rodriguez, and even with the injuries the Cardinals finished third in the league in runs scored. They played aggressively, winning games on squeeze bunts and using the hit-and-run frequently.
La Russa and Cox are the only four-time Manager of the Year winners.
Source: http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home