Chicago White Sox: Tony La Russa will be among oldest managers ever

Only Connie Mack and Jack McKeon have managed at a later age than new Chicago White Sox manager Tony LaRussa

In Tony La Russa, the Chicago White Sox have hired more than a Hall of Fame manager. They’ve also landed a father figure. Or, more accurately, a grandfather figure.

When he leads the White Sox into competition next spring, La Russa will, it is believed, become the third oldest manager in MLB history, and the second oldest hiree.

Major League teams have employed more than 250 men as managers across the game’s history. But only Connie Mack, who managed the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 through 1950 – when he was 87 – and Jack McKeon were older. Only McKeon, named manager of the Miami Marlins at age 81 in mid-season 2011 – was older at the time of his appointment.

Although, like La Russa, both had lengthy big league managing experience, neither was especially successful by the time they passed age 75. McKeon managed only for the final 90 games of the 2011 season, compiling a 40-50 record before being succeeded in 2012 by Ozzie Guillen.

Mack, who owned the Athletics in 1939 when he turned 76 – La Russa’s current age – was 715-1,041 from that time until his retirement. That’s a .407 winning percentage. His teams only once finished as high as fourth, and came home last seven times in his final 12 seasons.

MLB teams historically have been loathe to hire somebody as old as La Russa to be their manager. Casey Stengel was famously fired at the end of the 1960 season – when the Yankees lost the World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates – ostensibly for being too old. He was 70 at the time. “I’ll never make that mistake again,” Stengel quipped of the “70 is too old” charge. Two years later the cross-town Mets hired him to run their expansion franchise; he was 175-404 before retiring at the end of the 1965 season.

On the day he left the Mets, Stengel was four days beyond his 75th birthday…basically one year younger than La Russa is today.

La Russa managed his first game in August of 1979 for the White Sox. That means that as of April 2021, his 34-season  career will have spanned 42 calendar years. Only Mack, at 56 years from 1894 to 1950, will have been a manager across a longer span.

Tony La Russa will become the current game’s oldest manager, and not by a small margin. Until his hiring, that distinction was held by the Astros Dusty Baker, who will be 71 next opening day.

The average age of a major league manager as of the conclusion of the 2020 season was just under 53 years.