St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony Larussa is the second man to take teams to the World Series in four different decades. By winning the 2011 National League pennant, he joins hall of fame manager Connie Mack as the only men who have done this. Mack won nine American League pennants and five World Series with the Philadelphia Athletics between 1902 and 1931.
Like Mack, Larussa won his first pennant with the A’s as well. In 1988 he managed the Oakland A’s to the American League title. Oakland would go on to win it for the next three seasons. The 1988 team was defeated in the World Series by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 1990 team lost to the Cincinnati Reds. In between, the 1989 team defeated the San Francisco Giants in five games. This would be his most dominant stretch as manager of the A’s. Mack’s most dominant stretch came between 1910 and 1914 when he won five pennants and three World Series including back to back in 1910 and ’11.
Larussa managed the A’s until 1995 then took over the Cardinals in 1996. He immediately led them to the post season, but would suffer post season defeats in 1996, 2000 and 2002. The Cardinals would finally get to the World Series in 2004 ending his drought at 14 years. The Cardinals lost to the Boston Red Sox in four games.
After losing the 1914 World Series, Mack would have a similar drought as he did not get the A’s back to the World Series until 1929 a span of 15 years. Philadelphia would go on to win three consecutive pennants just as their offspring in Oakland would from 1972 to 1974 and 1988 to 1990. The 1929 and ’30 teams won the World Series. By winning the pennant in 1930, Mack became the first manager to compete in the World Series in four different decades.
Larussa won his second World Series with the Cardinals in 2006 as they defeated the Detroit Tigers in five games. This made him only the second manager, along with Sparky Anderson, to win a World Series in the American and National Leagues. Anderson did it with the Cincinnati Reds of the National League in 1975 and ’76 and with the Detroit Tigers of the American in 1984.
It took Connie Mack 30 years to reach the milestone of managing teams to the World Series in four different decades. Of course there was no World Series in three of those seasons, 1901, ’02 and ’04.
The 2011 Cardinals won the wild card on the last day then defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers to win the pennant.
And in his 33rd season as a manager Tony Larussa is the second man to take teams to the World Series in four different decades.