Tony La Loudmouth

By: Harvey

Tony La Russa is an absoultey fantastic manager. Outside of Bobby Cox, there may not be a better one out there.

That doesn't mean the St. Louis Cardinals' manager doesn't have some serious personality flaws, however.

Socially, TLR is kind of a bonehead. I'm not going to get into how he got a little too drinky that one time in spring training, but just listening to his quotes in the media leads me to believe the old fella could use a semester in charm school.

The latest example has reared its ugly head over the weekend as the Cardinals have hosted the Chicago Cubs. While this combo always inspires national writers to dredge up some non-story to spice up what really is actually a pretty luke-warm rivalry on the actual field of play, it has been particularly annoying as Jimmy "Hot Dog" Edmonds has made his return to Busch Stadium to play in front of the "Greatest Fans in Baseball (TM)" (snicker) in a ghastly Cubs uniform.

Edmonds has been imploring Chicago sportswriters and other personalities for weeks to please quit talking about how he used to be a Cardinal. He says it shouldn't matter now, because he's a Cub. Wow. Amazingly deep, isn't it? Edmonds also says he is happy to be a Cub now. Why wouldn't he be? The Cubs are good, and he is contributing in a way most fans probably didn't expect him to.

Now, while I poke fun at this...I also agree wholeheartedly with Edmonds. His job as a ballplayer is to be a part of the team that is signing his paychecks. That team is no longer the Cardinals.

Apparently, somebody forget to send that memo to La Russa.

“I think we ought to follow his lead,” La Russa said. “His quote was roughly, within a couple of words, ‘I’ve had enough of people asking me about the Cardinals. I’m a Cub now.’ So I would treat him like he never played here. I would wait until the end of his career and I would remember he was a Cardinal. I would ignore the fact that he was ever here because that’s what he wants. I would honor his request. Forget the Cardinal days until his career his over.”

The problem isn't so much what Tony said, but it is more about the way he said it. Tony said these things because he was mad at Edmonds for wanting to put his Cardinals days behind him, at least for as long as he's still playing in the league.

The nerve of this Edmonds character, huh? How could he?

Honestly, Tony. Maybe you should've just danced around this line of questioning like you do every single stinking time a reporter ever asks you any sort of question about what happened during an actual game. Your press conferences are beyond lame...you might as well say "no comment" to every question instead of taking the time to even bother with the lousy canned answers you constantly spew.

The one time you should just keep your mouth shut, and suddenly it's like somebody pulled your chain and the damn thing got stuck. You just kept on going "blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah".

I mean, come on. You've got me sticking up for Pretty Boy Jim Edmonds. Something definitely isn't right with that picture.