I think Tony will walk away after this year. He has spent 12 years in STL, he has won a WS and the article below indicates he is not motivated by money. He has his detractors but where will we find a better manager?

 From the Post dispatch:

La Russa, 62, is also entering the last season of a three-year contract worth about $9 million without ongoing talk of an extension.

A similar situation surrounding New York Yankees manager Joe Torre has stirred something bordering on hysteria. La Russa insisted Thursday that his case should not cause a ripple.

“I’m willing to wait and see,” said La Russa, who enters the season with two World Series titles and 2,297 career wins, including 977 with the Cardinals. “It’s not an issue to me.”

La Russa, who suggested as recently as last September that the team’s market may be tiring of him, remained vague about whether he intends to manage beyond this season either in St. Louis or elsewhere.

“I’ll keep saying it until people get it right, because it’s the truth,” La Russa said. “If the players, the fans or the organization want somebody different — whatever the contract says — the person shouldn’t hang around. Whether it’s the first, second or third of three years, I feel no different.”

La Russa traditionally has waited for his contract to expire before negotiating the next. However, entering a lame-duck season in possession of a World Series championship and the third-most managerial wins in the game’s history offers a unique set of circumstances.

“This is 12 years (in St. Louis). That’s one issue,” La Russa said. “Another is, even if you go year to year, if you’re going to do a good enough job in a new situation, you have to be ready to commit yourself to three to five years. I

wouldn’t sign a three-year contract here or someplace else if I didn’t think I had theree years in me.

By: Knup on Feb 20th, 2007
Tagged as: Cardinal Small Talk

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