As soon as the news hit that Dusty Baker was out as Reds manager people started talking about Tony La Russa. In addition to being a surefire Hall of Fame manager, he is close with Reds GM Walt Jocketty and worked with him for years in St. Louis.
Seems that’s just wishcasting:
Tony LaRussa has no interest in returning as manager. the #Reds likely will stay in house w Jim Riiggleman as one of leading candidates.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 4, 2013
The Riggleman thing is interesting. In the hour since the news broke Jon Heyman, Nightengale and C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer all mentioned him as a top candidate. Which, on a superficial level makes sense as (a) he has big managerial experience; and (b) he managers the Reds Triple-A team.
But I gotta wonder how serious the Reds can consider a guy who has never once been handed a winning team to manage and who quit the last big league job he had mid-season due to a contractual dispute. He’s headed the Padres, Cubs, Mariners and Nationals, often as a guy asked to hold the fort until the team got better and another manager could be found. There could be any number of candidates for the job, obviously, and I’m sure we’ll have a lot of names floating around. I would hope, however, that the Reds get more imaginative than someone like Riggleman.
And, no matter who it is, I hope the first question the guy is asked in an interview was what he thinks of Joey Votto’s walks, followed by a question about what he thinks about Brandon Phillips’ RBIs followed by a question about bunts, followed by a question about when he would have pulled Johnny Cueto in Tuesday night’s wild card game.