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Tony La Russa holds a grudge against Keith Law

Gatorade All-Star Workout Day

KANSAS CITY, MO - JULY 09: National League Manager Tony La Russa looks on during the Gatorade All-Star Workout Day at Kauffman Stadium on July 9, 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

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More fun from Tony La Russa’s book. Not only does he still hold a grudge against Nyjer Morgan, but he holds one against ESPN’s Keith Law. Although, for reasons explained below, it’s a pretty misguided grudge:

Per Tony La Russa, he spent his final moments as a Card choked with rage over a Keith Law Cy Young ballot. twitter.com/timmarchman/st…

— Tim Marchman (@timmarchman) September 16, 2012


That “single writer” who “looked at some metrics” is Keith Law, who infamously left Adam Wainwright off his Cy Young Award ballot (which only allowed for three votes at the time). Except Law leaving Wainwright off the ballot did not cost him the award. Law -- like many other voters -- did not believe Wainwright was the best pitcher that year so he shouldn’t have voted him first. But even if he had voted Wainwright second or third, he would still have finished behind Lincecum.

So fine, go ahead and blame Law if you want to, La Russa, but just know it would only be the zillionth instance in your career when you got upset about something that is a product of your imagination.

UPDATE: As many commenters noted, La Russa has his facts wrong here anyway. Law had Wainwright on his ballot. He was third. He left Carpenter off. And this was 2009, not 2010.