Colby Rasmus got his wish, a trade from the St. Louis Cardinals and far away from the team's crusty manager. The Red Birds sent Rasmus to baseball's version of Baghdad, otherwise known as Toronto.
The best part of the story? Rasmus' father ripped the future Hall of Fame manager, blaming him for his trade to Canada.
La Russa, 66, the longest tenured bench boss among the four major American sports, got the back-and-fourth game going, telling KSDK-TV that Colby doesn't listen to the Cardinal coaches much and intimated he was listening to his dad instead.
Tony Rasmus, the father, a high school baseball coach in Phenix City, Alabama, responded with a few blows below the belt. The dad thinks the statement that his son was turning to him for hitting advice instead of Cards coaches is "100 percent fiction."
The father, in so many words, called La Russa a liar in an interview with the Toronto Sun. “Evidently Tony (La Russa) has absolutely made that stuff up. He's got it on the brain. If I was working with my son I'd tell people. Tony needed pitching and wanted to force the GM into making a trade, so he belittled Colby to the fans.”
St. Louis added starter Edwin Jackson from the White Sox, in addition to relief pitchers Octavio Dotel and Marx Rzepczynski from Toronto. “Tony would like to have 25 pitchers,” Tony Rasmus said, “like he (La Russa) thinks he has to put his stamp on every ball game. They had nothing else to trade. I think everyone is better off now.”
The Blue Jays should see Colby become the type of player scouts compared to a young Grady Sizemore of the Indians. His dad thinks he will "blossom" in Canada.
Tony Rasmus, playing the role of the ultimate big league dad, said he believes La Russa will find a new scape goat in the locker room.
"There are three or four guys in the St. Louis clubhouse right now, thinking 'oh-oh, who is the manager going to pick on next with Colby gone?'"
La Russa has a rich history of being a jerk with reporters over the years.
