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Baseball Coach Tony La Russa.

Baseball manager Tony La Russa. For the past two years, he's led the Oakland Athletics to the World Series. La Russa has been called one of the most intelligent, cerebral and innovative managers now in the game. His style of clubhouse management - taping all American league games in the clubhouse so batters can study upcoming opposing pitchers, computer analysis of statistics to show which batters hit best in clutch situations - is widely imitated and has been credited with revitalizing the American League West, once thought to be the weakest of all four divisions. He's won the Manager of the Year award twice, first while with the Chicago White Sox in 1983, after he guided them to a division title, and again last year when the A's beat the Boston Rex Sox to take the pennant. La Russa started attending law school when he thought his career as a ball player was ending. He intended to leave baseball altogether after passing his bar exam, but then was offered a coaching job with the White Sox organization. (Rebroadcast. Original date May 23, 1989).

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Other segments from the episode on October 27, 1989

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, October 27, 1989: Interview with Jean-Michel Cousteau; Review of Linda Ronstadt and Kate Bush albums; Interview with Tony LaRussa; Review of the television special …

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