To everyone's amazement, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa retired just last week after his team won the World Series. A future Hall of Famer, La Russa finished third in all time wins for coaches, and he brought two titles to St. Louis and one as well to Oakland. It just so happens that Cardinals star first baseman Albert Pujols is going into the off season as a free agent. It will be very interesting to see if La Russa's retirement effects his decision to stay with the team. It is too early to determine who will get the spot but it will definitely be a job many people will be vying for.
What a finish the Red Sox had to their season. Going into the last month, they were sitting pretty atop the AL East with a 9.5 game lead. It went all downhill in September as they got knocked out of the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Rays in the final game of the regular season. Immediately following the last game, fingers started pointing in Boston and most were to head coach Tony Francona. Lets not forget Francona was the one that brought the Red Sox back to the top as they went decades without winning a world series. In a short time, Francona won two championships with the Red Sox with the most recent one coming in 2008. This season, the team seemed to start to ignore the leadership of Francona and the front office decided it was time for a change. Now, this is probably the most coveted job in sports due to the history that lies inside Fenway Park.
The Chicago Cubs have always been known as the team that has a huge salary cap, but year after year they don't seem to have the wins to support it. They also seem to be cycling through managers quite often. The latest victim was Mike Quade. He spent one year with the Cubs leading them to another disappointing season under .500. With so much negativity surrounding the team, all they could do was go up. A couple weeks ago they went up in a big way when they signed Theo Epstein to take over as president of the team. The young mastermind turned the Red Sox team into champions and the Cubs are hoping he can do the same thing in Chicago. His first move was firing Quade so now he has a big choice on determining who he wants to coach. Don't expect a decision soon, but it will definitely make headlines when the time comes.
Three teams, three openings. Expect a lot of scrambling and searching for that "right guy" but I believe all three teams will have a coach they are happy with when all is said and done.
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