Marcus Stroman had the perfect response to Tony La Russa comments about Lance Lynn

Marcus Stroman stuffed Tony La Russa into a locker after the White Sox manager threw Lance Lynn under the bus. 

Here’s the least surprising Spring Training prediction that has already come true: Tony La Russa is having problems accepting a new school of baseball thought.

When La Russa was hired by the White Sox this offseason, more than a few of those confused squiggly cartoon lines popped up over everyone’s head. The White Sox have one of the youngest rosters in baseball, one bristling with deep talent and Big Fun. La Russa is pushing 80 years of age

After La Russa was hired by the White Sox (and close personal friend Jerry Reinsdorf, which makes this feel even more suspect), the Chicago Sun-Times openly wondered, “how La Russa, at his age, would relate to a young team beaming its “Change The Game” motto with fun-loving, bat-flipping stars such as Tim Anderson.”

Turns out, to the shock of almost no one, not well.

La Russa is embroiled in controversy over Yermín Mercedes swinging at a 3-0 pitch from Twins utility player Willians Astudillo in a 16-4 blowout on Monday, and hitting a garbage time home run. The controversy isn’t that Mercedes swung on a 3-0 pitch, or that he ran up the score, it’s that La Russa has thrown everyone and their mother under the bus who doesn’t agree with him that this was a cardinal baseball sin.

He punished Mercedes, apologized to a division rival, and even went as far as to defend the Twins for throwing at Mercedes the day after the incident. All in the name of clinging to the good ol’ days.

On Wednesday, a quote from La Russa throwing Lynn under the bus surfaced and only added fuel to the fire.

Marcus Stroman, the New York Mets pitcher who has been vocal on Twitter this season, jumped into the ring and set his sights on La Russa. Specifically, he stuffed him into a locker and backed his fellow player.

We’re not that far removed from White Sox star Tim Anderson causing a stir when he flipped his bat a few years ago and earned a suspension. To hear La Russa trot out the same old tired tropes fetishizing how the game used to be played but to have it met with almost universal disdain is a sign of progress.

Baseball has been a lullaby for too significantly long of a time, and the sport is finally waking up and becoming fun. La Russa is entitled to his crusty old ways but players like Stroman, Lynn and both analysts and fans sharing the same opposite opinion of the White Sox manager is a step in the right — and fun — direction.