Snooze Button

Did Tony La Russa seriously fall asleep in the FIRST inning of the Chicago White Sox game Monday night?

August 02, 2022

As of right now, the Chicago White Sox are in good position to make the playoffs, sitting just three games back of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central and just three games out of a Wild Card spot. The rest of their schedule could be classified as "favorable," and they still have nine games against the Twins. For most teams, it's all you could ask for at this time of the year: a chance to make a run.

But for this White Sox team, one with a fearful lineup and a strong pitching staff, their current 51-51 record and their third-place standing in the AL Central division is a massive, enormous, gigantic disappointment. Not only was this team the favorite to win its division, it was a -200 favorite, the largest of any MLB team to win its division prior to the season. For comparison's sake, the New York Yankees, who currently lead the AL East by 12 games, were +200.

On top of that, the Sox were the third favorite to win the American League (+550) and they were among the top five favorites to win the World Series (12-1). As of now, there's a chance they miss the playoffs entirely.

There are myriad reasons for that: injuries, lack of production from the big hitters, a mediocre year from Lucas Giolito and a bad year from Lance Lynn, who was an All Star a year ago. Oh, and one more thing... their manager, Tony La Russa, might be too old to still be managing in the show. Go ahead, call us ageist all you want, but the 77-year-old was quite literally falling asleep in the dugout on Monday night... 

In the first inning. 

This is no internet conspiracy and it's certainly not something even the biggest White Sox fans are even trying to defend. That man is dozing off in the bottom of the effing first. He's not blinking, hell, he's not even "resting his eyes." He's ready for night night! You can see whoever is sitting to his left literally bump him to wake him up, to which La Russa seems to respond "sorry man." This is Mike Francesa-ian levels of nap time:

In fairness to Francesa, Sweeny Murti can be a bit of a bore and this was in the mid-afternoon, a time of day we've all dozed off at some point. For La Russa, this is 7 p.m. It's first pitch. It's go-time bud. It's quite literally time to do your job. You can't be hitting the snooze button when the Kansas City Royals are in town and they are begging to get their sh-t kicked in buy the AL Central favorite. Of course, the Royals went on to win 2-1, making this cat nap from La Russa all the more embarrassing for the organization. You could argue it's far too late in the season to make a change, or you could argue he's got to go now. Fun times in Chi-town.