La Russa Tony - One last strike : fifty years in baseball, ten and a half games back, and one final championship season

TONY LA RUSSA managed the St. Louis Cardinals from 1996 to 2011, as well as the Oakland As and the Chicago White Sox. He has three World Series wins, six league championships, and five Manager of the Year awards, and is ranked third in all-time major league wins. He and his wife, Elaine, founded the Tony La Russa Animal Rescue Foundation in Walnut Creek, California. They have two daughters, Bianca and Devon.

RICK HUMMEL has covered baseball for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for forty years. A former president of the Baseball Writers Association of America, he has received numerous awards for his writing and has been honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

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L IKE A BASEBALL ORGANIZATION, WORKING ON A BOOK IS A TEAM effort and I have a lot of players, coaches, and managers to thank.

First of all, to my cowriter, Rick Hummel, who is already enshrined in the writers wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame and has been covering the Cardinals for so long, his tenure makes me look like a rookie. Thank you, Rick, for all your hours of hard work even while covering this seasons games.

While Rick was my starting pitcher, due to deadline pressure to get this book to the fans on a tight schedule, we also brought in our closer from the bullpen. Gary Brozek was the talented writer who worked with me to close out the win and I cant thank him enough for the crucial role he played. Garys tireless efforts, his skill with words, his own extensive understanding of baseball, and his indefatigable enthusiasm despite an incredibly tight deadline helped to make this book what it is. Rick, I enjoyed our time in St. Louis, and, Gary, I will always remember our hours working on chapter after chapter in the Colorado mountains. My travel schedule working on this book has rivaled what it was while I was managing the Cards in the postseason. Actually, its been even tougher.

None of this could have been accomplished without the fine skills of my team at William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. Thanks to the captain of my book team, Lisa Sharkey, who signed me up, and to executive editor Matt Harper, who has worked around the clock to get the manuscript in shape. Much appreciation also goes to editorial assistance from Sara Partridge, publicist Danielle Bartlett, art director Richard Aquan, marketing team Tavia Kowalchuk and Megan Traynor, and the incredible sales force led by Josh Marwell, Brian Grogan, and Doug Jones. My gratitude also goes to HarperCollins president Michael Morrison, CEO Brian Murray, William Morrow publisher Liate Stehlik, and associate publisher Lynn Grady for your enthusiasm and support of this project.

On the e-book side, thanks to Ana Maria Allessi, Marisa Benedetto, and Scooter (Jeffrey Kaplan) for the hard work editing the video for the enhanced e-book, which contains some very special moments. Some of my close friends contributed to those videos, and I want to give a special nod of appreciation to Joe Torre, Tom Seaver, Brian Jordan, and Dennis Eckersley for agreeing to be interviewed for it.

My blurb brothers get a special high-five. John Grisham, thanks for finding the time in between writing your own blockbuster best sellers to write the foreword. Special shout-outs also go to Lee Child, Howard Schultz, Bob Costas, and Joe Torre for your words of praise on the jacket to help alert readers to this book.

Thanks also to the Cardinals and MLB for allowing our cameras into Busch Stadium in an effort to let fans see the incredible behind-the-scenes tour of the most beautiful ballpark in America.

At IMG, thanks to Sandy Montag and his team, including Jill Driban and Max Teller, for all your help in managing my personal postseason play.

Last, this book is as much about leadership as it is about baseball, and no book on these two subjects would be complete without mentioning the name of a man Ive been privileged to work with for much of my managing careerBud Selig. Whats been accomplished in Major League Baseball during Buds tenurethe way he has encouraged the growth of MLB and his contributions to the gamehas been invaluable.

A NYONE WHO KNOWS ME WOULD LAUGH AT THE SUGGESTION THAT I was one of the first computer managers. I was mistakenly identified as one because in the early days of computer usage in baseball, I happened to be managing for the As and the White Sox, two teams at the forefront of that movement. To this day, Ive never carried a laptop or traveled with one.

What follows are examples of the tried-and-true, hands-on, paper-and-pencil notes that Dave Duncan and I used to keep track of player performances, tendencies, and game notessome done after the fact, others kept during the actual playing of the game. I hope the fans find our scribbling of interest.

My World Series Game 6 lineup card with notes on our offense.

The back of the Rangers lineup card, where I wrote down reminders about how we should compete: Keep on Believing!, Be Good Enough!!, Self-affirmation, and Be Tough Enough!!!

A matchup card showing our relievers versus the Rangers hitters.

A portion of Duncs chart tracking Chipper Joness at-bats. Dunc distills this and other information into a strategy to get hitters out.

F OR A PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL MANAGER, THE ONLY THING WORSE than driving home 2,000 miles in October with your season over is having a 2,000-mile drive home when your season ended like ours did in 2010a legitimate contender falling short. Its not the distance; its the disappointment.

As it turned out, the distance was a plus; it gave me an opportunity to sort out 2010 and examine my uncertainties about 2011. On September 28, 2010, wed been officially eliminated from a playoff berth. The excitement of counting down your magic number as the front-runner is replaced by the despair of seeing your tragic number being reduced to zero and elimination. The word eliminated is very appropriateit feels like the whole season has been flushed down the toilet.

This was not my first postseason trek. My wife, Elaine, and I along with my daughters, Bianca and Devon, live in California. Following the 1996 season, my first in St. Louis, Id made the same drivethree and half or four daysback home. In 1996, I was excited yet exhausted. That year had been the most difficult Id ever had as a manager. We hadnt made it to the World Series, but wed won the National League Central, swept the San Diego Padres in the Division Series, and gone to the National League Championship Series, where the Braves beat us. The loss to the Braves just shy of the World Series stung, yet there was plenty to be satisfied with, especially given where wed been at the start of the year. Wed begun the season as twenty-five players and eight staff members wearing the same uniform, but we werent really a team. After some very difficult challenges, some our staff had never before dealt with, wed become a single unit. If we hadnt, we wouldnt have advanced as far as we did.