Pastime Baseball League
July 28, 2011
Hitmen Fire LaRussa
CHICAGO -- After five straight losses in a season that has spiraled on them in eerily similar fashion to the inaugural 2009 campaign, the Chicago Hitmen prepared to board a plane headed for New York, where they visit the East division-leading New York Heroes.
Tony LaRussa won't be joining them.
General Manager Javier Martinez announced today that the Hitmen - 37-66 currently - have relieved LaRussa of his duties, replacing him with Bill McKechnie.
The decision marks LaRussa's second termination. He was fired as manager of the New Orleans Knights early in 2009, and the Knights went on to thrive under skipper Walter Alston. Now, LaRussa is jobless again.
"It's frustrating," LaRussa said. "We have been decimated by injuries. I'm the same guy who had this team rolling at the end of last year. I didn't forget how to manage."
But Martinez said there was more to it.
"There is a feeling, as an organization, that the clubhouse, the team, could not continue on the course it was on." Asked whether Babe Ruth's apparent banishment to start the season was part of the decision, Martinez declined to elaborate. "We're doing what's best going forward," he said.
McKechnie walks into arguably the PBL's most talented locker room. Yet that talent has peaked as a team fighting to reach .500 last season.
Whether he proves to have a similar touch as Alston did in succeeding LaRussa remains to be seen.