It’s been quite a year for headlines I never thought I’d write, but this one is right up there.
As you know, the White Sox are conducting a managerial search with one of the most attractive jobs on the market, and public discourse has been entirely focused on former long-time manager Tony La Russa for some reason. Now 76, La Russa hasn’t managed in a decade, but he has stayed in the game in various front offices, and obviously he was very good at the job back in the day.
Still, it’s just odd to me that it’s the direction the White Sox would go. In fact, all along, I’ve figured the process was mostly a favor to La Russa, who is close with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
But now we’ve got someone suggesting it’s happening. Maybe. Or maybe he’s screwing around. Or maybe he’s talking about someone else. Whatever the case, it’s just funny and wild:
https://twitter.com/LanceBriggs/status/1321484617673699328
La Russa has interviewed for the job, and, of course, started his managerial career with the White Sox many moons ago.
Briggs, for those of you who aren’t Bears fans, was a 12-year veteran with the Bears who has since joined NBC Sports Chicago as an analyst. To be sure, he’s an analyst for FOOTBALL programming, but it’s hard to ignore that he’s working at the White Sox RSN (which is partly owned by none other than Jerry Reinsdorf), and he very easily could be hearing things. Heck, the threshold for him to share stuff he’s hearing – since it’s not his beat, so to speak – might be lower.
I guess that cuts both ways: you have to take it with a grain of salt, but you also might be getting some real inside dish.