When the news broke last November that newly hired White Sox manager Tony La Russa had been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in the Phoenix area in February 2020, the organization quickly acknowledged that it was aware of the incident before hiring La Russa on Oct. 29.

That’s true, but the pervasiveness of that knowledge within the White Sox was limited to one individual. La Russa informed chairman Jerry Reinsdorf of his DUI incident early on in the interview process, but Reinsdorf didn’t share that with anyone, Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports reported in a piece Wednesday that focused on La Russa. The day after the incident back in February, La Russa had also informed Angels owner Arte Moreno, as he was working as an adviser for the organization at the time. La Russa offered to resign, but Moreno chose to keep him on with the Angels for the 2020 season, Nightengale reported…

Throughout the process, Reinsdorf stood firm by La Russa, who also pled guilty to a DUI charge back in 2007 as well.

“I made no excuses, it was an inexcusable mistake,” La Russa told USA Today as White Sox camp gets set to open. “It has cost as much embarrassment personally as possible. Anyone to think that this wasn’t something that had a very negative impact…

Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa was charged with driving under the influence after he allegedly ran his car into a curb in February, leaving it smoking on the side of a Phoenix-area road, according to court records obtained by ESPN.

It is the second known drunken driving arrest for La Russa, who in 2007 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DUI in Jupiter, Florida.

A 76-year-old Hall of Famer long regarded as one of the canniest managers in baseball, La Russa’s hiring to lead the White Sox last week after a nine-year absence from the dugout shocked observers throughout the game.

When reached by ESPN on Monday night, La Russa said, “I have nothing to say,” and hung up the phone.

Cronyism in the game is as old as the spitball, and an inner circle of powerful men—they’re all men—has spent decades in the game fomenting it. When they want something, they tend to get it.

Jerry Reinsdorf, the Chicago White Sox’s owner for nearly 40 years, said he regretted trading Harold Baines because had he not, Baines would have reached 3,000 hits. He finished his career with 2,866, and his other numbers were well shy of Hall of Fame standards. So Reinsdorf found himself a place on a Hall committee voting on a special ballot with Baines-era players, argued vehemently on Baines’ behalf and rammed him through to Cooperstown. One of the other 11 votes came from Tony La Russa.

This is how it works. And this is how perhaps the most inexplicable news of the offseason unfolded at its outset Thursday: La Russa, now 76 years old, out of the dugout for the last nine, was named manager of the White Sox. He inherits a team brimming with young, dynamic talent—a team that, in many ways, represents a new epoch of baseball whose principles and priorities run antithetical to La Russa’s.

The Chicago White stunned the baseball industry Monday morning when they announced the firing of manager Rick Renteria.

They could shock the world with their next hire.

The White Sox plan to reach out to one of the greatest managers in baseball history, who managed his last game in 2011, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame six years ago, and who is 76 years old.

The name: Tony La Russa

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La Russa retired after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to the 2011 World Series championship. After his managerial career, he went to work as a president of baseball operations for the Arizona Diamondbacks and was a special assistant in the front office for the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels.

La Russa has declined several managerial opportunities in the past, but this job opening, well, has him quite intrigued.