Tony La Russa defends Arizona Diamondbacks against accusations of dirtiness
By Dan Zinski
The Arizona Diamondbacks have been getting hammered in the wake of their retaliation strike against Andrew McCutchen and the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Tony La Russa is sick of it. The D-Backs’ chief baseball officer fired back at critics who think the Diamondbacks are a low-down dirty operation (via azcentral.com):
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"“I don’t see where the Diamondbacks should catch all this (expletive) they’re catching,” La Russa said."
The Diamondbacks have been under fire for throwing at McCutchen in seeming retribution for their own star Paul Goldschmidt being hit the night before by accident.
Somewhat amazingly, La Russa went on to defend pitcher Randall Delgado, the guy who hit McCutchen likely on orders from manager Kirk Gibson, saying he isn’t sure Delgado was throwing at McCutchen on purpose:
"“Who’s got a mind reader?” said La Russa, the Diamondbacks’ Chief Baseball Officer. “I don’t know that Delgado — he got the ball inside. I’m very careful when I say I know. If I don’t know, I don’t know.”"
This is the same guy who also didn’t know anything about Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire doing steroids. Tony La Russa has gotten very good at the see-no-evil/hear-no-evil bit.
La Russa also ripped the Pirates, who like to pitch inside and therefore, in his mind, have to live with the consequences:
"“What surprises me about this one is Pittsburgh is one of those clubs. And I don’t judge because if that’s the way you want to pitch, you need to understand — with those rewards, it comes with risks. There’s an old expression that you learn in competition — there ain’t no free lunch.”"
So after saying he didn’t know if Delgado’s pitch was intentional, he makes some remark about how there ain’t no free lunch for teams that like to throw inside. He doens’t know if his guy threw at McCutchen on purpose, he just knows that kind of thing happens.
La Russa should really go into politics. He is a master of double-speak. And the Diamondbacks are a disgrace.
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