8:30 a.m. Wednesday update:
JUPITER, Fla. • Former manager Tony La Russa, working unoffically now as a consultant for the Detroit Tigers and officially as a part-time special projects officer for commissioner Bud Selig, will be back in the Jupiter area on Feb. 29-March 2 as a guest of the promoters of the Honda Classic pro golf tournament at nearby Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
While in the area, La Russa said he planned to drop by the Cardinals' facility to watch the March 2 workout and then will be on hand on April 4 as a guest of Major League Baseball for the Cardinals' first regular-season game against the Marlins in Miami's new stadium.
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Our earlier story on La Russa:
LAKELAND, Fla. • For the first time in 50 spring trainings, Tony La Russa wasn't wearing baseball garb but blue jeans, a sports shirt, a lanyard with a credential and a golf hat from the recent tournament at Pebble Beach that he attended.
La Russa, who retired in October as Cardinals manager after leading the franchise to its 11th World Series championship in his 16th season as their manager, wasn't issuing instructions but instead was listening and learning Tuesday at the Detroit Tigers' camp.
For most of the morning, he was next to Detroit manager Jim Leyland, who coached for him in Chicago and has been a longtime confidant since both became big-league managers. They talked about signs and fake signs. They talked about spring training drills and different policies on stretching. La Russa also entertained brief visits from the likes of Tigers righthander Justin Verlander, the reigning American League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner who congratulated La Russa on his team's World Series triumph.
"I tried to get (La Russa) into uniform so I could order him around, but he wouldn't go for it," Leyland cracked.
Mostly, La Russa's weeklong-plus visit to Tigers camp involves him standing or sitting at the right hand of Detroit president and general manager Dave Dombrowski. It is an unpaid gig that also will send La Russa to Arizona for a few weeks in March.
Dombrowski invited La Russa to Tigers camp (La Russa says he invited himself ) shortly after the announcement of La Russa's retirement, which concluded 33 seasons of managing, following his modest playing career that began in 1962.
Commissioner Bud Selig, speaking by telephone from Milwaukee Tuesday, told the Post-Dispatch that La Russa also would be involved in special projects for the commissioner's office.
"He's already been helpful in one project that's very important to me," Selig said. "I'm very happy to have him. I've got great respect and high regard for him, as you know."
While La Russa said he would be involved with the commissioner's office on a part-time basis, he said he would most like to work for a team in the front office, and Selig said he understood that.
"I want him to do what he really wants to do," Selig said.
La Russa, who said he thought Dombrowski was the best person to help him learn about how to work in a baseball front office, first met Dombrowski in 1978 when La Russa was managing at Knoxville in the White Sox minor-league system and Dombrowski, fresh out of Western Michigan University, was an administrative assistant for player development and scouting (duties which included occasionally helping to roll out the tarpaulin and running the auxiliary scoreboard at Comiskey Park). In 1979, La Russa became White Sox manager and shortly thereafter Dombrowski their assistant GM.
"I've seen good front offices and some that aren't," said La Russa. "I know he's run a good one for years.
"The White Sox were having to watch their pennies — that's probably why I was the manager. He was the assistant farm director and two weeks into camp, the farm director quit to take a minor-league hockey GM job. Rather than hire somebody else, they just made Dave the farm director, which is a helluva responsibility and he pulled it off, with (general manager) Roland Hemond as his mentor. He was so impressive after a year or two that Roland asked him to be the assistant general manager and he went off from there.
"He was with the (Montreal) Expos and then he went to Florida and they won a World Series. He was smart enough to hire Jim (as Marlins) manager, so that tells me a lot.
"And the other thing that made it really nice was that Jim was here and I have a friendship with him. I obviously have a friend with (chairman) Jerry Reinsdorf with the White Sox and I could have spent time with (general manager) Kenny Williams, but that wouldn't have been fair to Robin Ventura."
Ventura is the first-year manager of the White Sox, and La Russa feared he might be uncomfortable with La Russa around, as opposed to the much more secure Leyland.
Asked what part of front-office work he might enjoy most, La Russa said: "I don't know. Since I've got no clue as to what goes on there, the more knowledge you have, the better off you are.
"I'm fired up about the conversations with Dave and I'm excited about keeping current with the players in both leagues for the All-Star Game."
La Russa, as manager of the World Series champions, will direct the National League team, by special arrangement with Selig.
Dombrowski said he had been compiling a list of topics to discuss with La Russa.
"I've got a nice agenda," said a smiling Dombrowski. "A couple of days ago, I started writing all this stuff down. Three pages. And then I thought, 'You know what? Tony's not going to want to do this. I might scare him off.' "
The only president-general manager in the majors, Dombrowski said he would try to cover such aspects as player development, Latin American operations, international scouting, statistical analysis, rules, finances, community relations, media relations, contract negotiations, arbitration ...
And also delegation of authority.
"That isn't easy," Dombrowski said. "But sometimes you're better when you let go. You're not going to spend 15 years learning the intricacies of each one of these things. What you do is learn the generalities and get people who are good to fill the roles for you."
La Russa, who hasn't been known for delegating authority, said he hadn't considered a front-office position until the last few years.
"I didn't do a lot of long-term planning," he said. "But by the time it got close to the end (of his managing career), I said, 'I've got to do something else in baseball.' "
Asked specifically why he left the Cardinals, La Russa said only that it was "a combination of factors. It was time to do something different. I will say that 16 years is a long time in one place and normally you wear out your welcome a long time before 16 years.
"I've known for a while that it would be really good for a lot of people and for the organization to get a fresh look. It definitely was time to analyze Mike (Matheny) instead of me. There was no more analyzing of me."
Offering his thoughts on a potential new career for La Russa, Leyland said: "He's going to be good at whatever he wants to do — because he's into it. He's dedicated to it.
"He would have been a good attorney (La Russa has a law degree from Florida State) because he's into it. That's half the battle.
"We're thrilled to have him. I wish he was staying longer."
Dombrowski said La Russa could stay as long as he liked. Permanently, Dombrowski hoped.
"We would create a job," Dombrowski said. "We would gladly create a job. We've already discussed it, but he said he wanted to take his time.
"Jim feels comfortable with it. My owner (Mike Ilitch) feels comfortable with it. You don't get a chance to add a person with that type of knowledge to your organization very often."
