Photography by Preston Mack/Major League Baseball
In 33 years as a Major League manager, he won 2,728 games, the third most ever. He was associated with (though never implicated in) baseball’s steroid scandal. He won four Manager of the Year awards. He feuded with players and writers and sued Twitter. He rescued pets. Most of all, Tony La Russa will be remembered for returning the Cardinals to glory, winning the World Series in 2006 and again in 2011, his final season. On July 27, he’ll be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Even in retirement, La Russa remains controversial: He disappointed local fans by deciding not to wear a Cardinals cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, though we doubt many devotees will hold it against him.
