LaRussa is the third winningest manager in MLB history with 2,728 wins, behind only historic managers Connie Mack and John McGraw. He is in select company, as one of only 10 managers to have over 2,000 wins in his career as a manager.
LaRussa is going out on top, having led the Cardinals to their 11th World Series championship after a very exciting and intense World Series clash with the Texas Rangers. LaRussa was the longest serving manager under one team in the MLB, just finishing his 16th season with the Cardinals.
In the 67-year-old's 33 years as a manager, he only managed under three different teams, the Cardinals, the Oakland Athletics, and the Chicago White Sox. His first World Series title came back in 1989 when he was a manager for the Athletics.
LaRussa makes this offseason even more difficult for the World Series champions to deal with, now having to find a top-tier manager to replace LaRussa, while having to deal with Albert Pujols' free agency. Pujols' free agency was a season-long topic on whether or not he'd come back and was definitely priority number one for the Cardinals heading into the offseason. But with this morning's news about LaRussa, finding a new manager is now a close second.
Either way, LaRussa was easily a top-five manager in the history of baseball and what better way to go out, than to go out on top.
*Image courtesy of Wikipedia*
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