At a charity golf event, this past weekend, White Sox legends Ron Kittle and Hawk Harrelson made comments defending the current Sox manager Tony La Russa.
These comments come at a time when the Sox have lost 9 of their last 11 games, and their playoff hopes seem to be fading away. Sox fans have been critical of La Russa ever since the Sox hired him, but the team’s current struggles have only made things worse.
Kittle played for La Russa on the famous 1983 White Sox team and won the American League Rookie of the Year award that season as well. According to a report from WGN News, this is what Kittle had to say about his former manager.
“I’m a Tony La Russa fan from way back. I’ve known him since 1979. There is no better manager in baseball than Tony,”
“Unfortunately, a lot of the players – they’re more interested in social media than they are sitting out there hustling and busting their butt to win or lose the ballgame. You lose a game busting your butt, you tip your hat to the guy. If you do it lackadaisically or lazy, I don’t want to put up with that stuff.”
“They wanted to fire him last year. They wanted to fire him this year. They said he’s too old. The man is as smart as anybody is in baseball,” said Kittle. “You don’t win two thousand, 26-hundred games, go in the Hall of Fame being a dummy. It’s tough for him because I really think he should explode every once in a while, but somebody will go tell their dad or their mom or their agent and everything will just be upset.”
Hall of fame announcer Hawk Harrelson also shared a similar sentiment, saying the lack of offense is something La Russa cannot do anything about:
“The funny thing is we’re not out of yet as bad as we’ve been. We sucked. As bad as we’ve been, we’re still not out of it. If we can get some guys who can swing the bat and drive in some runs – it’s hard to win a Major League game if you don’t score runs.”
“People are getting on Tony’s [expletive] and the thing about it is, he can only play with what he’s got. If you keep getting these guys going on the DL, you don’t have anything.”
Although these two are well respected amongst Sox fans, these comments do not sit well with much of the fanbase.
@WGNNews If U don’t think that Tony is not part of the blame than Kittle & Hawk must of not been watching the Sox all year. Loyalty is one of the problems that put the Sox in this position. Tuck the boys into bed kiss them on the head & tell them tomorrow will be a better day. Wrong!
Early reports have indicated that Tony La Russa will be back to manage the Sox in 2023, so fans will just have to hope he can turn things around by next year.
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