by Rob Rains $24.95, 320 pages, hardcover Tony La Russa, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, is truly one of the most iconic figures in baseball today. Players and fans love him or hate him, so it’s surprising that although the 2009 season will mark his 30th anniversary in a major league dugout, nobody really knows much about him or his life. In this first full and authorized biography of La Russa, author Rob Rains goes behind the scenes to learn the influences behind La Russa’s intensity and uncompromising focus, why winning every game possible is so important to him, and why he often puts the game ahead of his private and personal life. Combining new interviews with past and current players, managers, and executives—including LaRussa himself— with intensive research through newspapers, magazines, and other archive material, Rains reconstructs La Russa’s life from his days as a young boy growing up in Tampa, where he spoke Spanish before he spoke English, to his current standing as the third-winningest manager in baseball history. |