Tony La Russa's Losing It

In a recent story for Sports Illustrated Tony La Russa said that he didn't feel embattled a couple of months into a very trying season. The normal travails of defending a championship have been a walk in the park compared to two drunk driving incidents, one that embarassed La Russa and one that cost pitcher Josh Hancock his life. La Russa says he doesn't feel embattled but he didn't come off that way when he chastised reporters for doing their jobs in the wake of Hancock's death and he didn't come off that way in S.L. Price's article which read like foreshadowing of La Russa's departure at the end of the season.

His comments in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch make it seem like he may not even make it that long. La Russa is calling for the suspension of Cincinnati pitcher Aaron Harang after one of his pitches nailed Cardinal catcher Gary Bennett in the back of the head. The strange thing about his call for a suspension is that La Russa himself agrees that Harang had no ill intent when he loosed the pitch.

La Russa said pitchers should receive an automatic two-week suspension for a first instance of hitting a batter above the shoulders and "more for the second."

"It's accidental because he didn't mean to hit him in the head. But he meant to throw the ball up and in," La Russa said. "If you're a big-league pitcher, you should be able to throw the ball below the shoulder. If you can't, then there should be big consequences. That goes for our guy, too. If our guy does it, I yell, 'Get it down, or you're out of there.'"

It's gotta be scary to see one of your guys in a heap after taking a pitch to the head. Maybe it's even scarier a few weeks after having to call the father of one of your players to say that his son is dead. That doesn't mean that it's not part of the game though. Pitching up and in is no more a violation than pitching low and away. By La Russa's reckoning just throwing a pitch in that area, whether or not it hits the batter, should result in a suspension. That's patently ridiculous and another sign that Tony's hanging on a little bit too tight these days. It might be time for him to go spend some time with the dogs before resuming his managerial career.