SI.com: Dark Times for a Baseball Man

From the moment Bill Veeck tapped him as Chicago’s skipper at 34 in ‘79, La Russa was viewed by some as an impostor. His big league playing career? A .199 batting average in 132 games in six seasons spanning 10 years. His managing résumé? Running a Double A team for part of one season and a Triple A team for part of the next. “Too cheap to hire a real manager!” White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray said constantly of Veeck’s hire, and at his worst moments La Russa suspected he was right.
...
It was La Russa who came to [Jose] Canseco’s defense after The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell first accused him of steroid use, in 1988. Later, when he heard that Canseco had bragged about using steroids, La Russa never told his boss, Oakland president Sandy Alderson, about it or about his suspicion that other A’s—“less than a handful”—had gotten too big, too fast.

“I’m not sure Tony would ever admit that you can be too protective of players,” Alderson says. “He perhaps sees his job description in some way requiring that from him as a manager.”
...
Stalwarts like Rolen, shortstop David Eckstein, centerfielder Jim Edmonds have spent the spring looking older, slower. At week’s end the Cards were 20-27, 6 1/2 games back.

“La Russa has a challenge now that is really unique to his career,” says longtime baseball analyst Bill James, an adviser with the Boston Red Sox. “Since Chicago he’s been working with pretty good talent, but it’s been a long time since he’s had to deal with a challenge like this. It’s really an interesting place to try to get a handle on what Tony’s skills are now.”

Lengthy piece (11 pages) on La Russa…