Ex-A's manager La Russa saddened, angered by team leaving Oakland

Tony La Russa still is emotional about the Athletics leaving Oakland.

“My reaction at this moment is sadness and anger,” La Russa told NBC Sports California last week.

La Russa managed the A’s to their last World Series championship in 1989, the pinnacle of three consecutive appearances in the Fall Classic.

So La Russa, 80, has seen baseball in Oakland at its best. And he has seen the best of A’s fans, loyal to the end through years of owner John Fisher’s negligence. 

“That's part of the disappointment and the anger, because [they're] very, very loyal," La Russa said. "Very passionate."

He would know. La Russa is baseball’s second-winningest manager all-time, with 2,884 regular-season wins and three World Series titles with the A’s, Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals under his belt.

“I've learned that you don't say the most loyal, the most passionate because that's disrespecting fans [all] around," La Russa said. "But they were as loyal and passionate as anybody, especially in the last years, when you know they were going back and forth about whether the franchise was leaving.”

The A’s are scheduled to play in West Sacramento through at least the 2027 season before they hope to move into a new ballpark in Las Vegas.

“The Coliseum was kind of in tough shape," La Russa said of the fans. "They still cared."

The A’s played in Oakland Coliseum from 1968 to 2024, and multiple attempts to build a new ballpark in Oakland or elsewhere in the Bay Area stalled.

“I think we should have figured a way," La Russa said. "If it wasn't going to be Oakland, it should have been somewhere in the Bay Area."

Instead, it’s Viva Las Vegas for a franchise that won four World Series during its 56 years in Oakland.

“Last time I was there, a couple of times, the White Sox played the A's, and then I was there for the A's [2024] Hall of Fame, where they inducted Jose Canseco, Terry Steinbach, Miguel Tejada, [Bill King, Dick Williams, and Eddie Joost]," La Russa said. "So that was very difficult. All the Hall of Famers were there, Rickey [Henderson] and [Dave Stewart] and all the guys, Carney [Lansford]. And we were commiserating about the history, the memories that we had there, and that was it.”

Among La Russa’s better memories at the Coliseum?

Famously, the noted animal lover rescued a stray cat on the field at the Coliseum in 1990. When La Russa found out that the Bay Area didn’t have many no-kill shelters, he and his wife Elaine founded Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation that same year.

The organization still exists, under a different name, but La Russa has partnered with another animal rescue organization, which we’ll get to in a second.

La Russa still has fond memories of dog days at the park, and we’re not talking about August. At the Coliseum, dogs were allowed in every Tuesday for "Bark in the Park."

“I always know when that dog day is there," La Russa said. "And I will make it a point to come out early when they're making the tour around the field, just to watch them and just appreciate. They're wagging their tail. They're with their owner. The owner is happy to have them. It's just a wonderful vibe.”

La Russa last managed with the White Sox in 2022, and he always looked forward to these dog days, because his pups were at home.

“Most of the time when I'm away, we live in the Bay Area, so when I'm away doing my work, the players know that I'm not getting my pet fix, so they will come to the ballpark with their dogs and give me a chance to enjoy,” La Russa said. “So 'Bark in the Park' is a wonderful promotion, but it's mostly when you look at how happy the owners are and the dogs. It's a good reminder of how magical the combination of both them together can be.”

Speaking of a magical combination, La Russa has just named Penfed Foundation, a military veteran empowerment organization that raises service dogs for veterans, among many missions, as the beneficiary of his annual Leaders and Legends event.

Leaders and Legends, to be held in Phoenix, Ari. from Nov. 21-24, is a gathering of some of the nation’s greatest athletes, thinkers, executives and military heroes for a memorable weekend of leadership sessions and entertainment.

“I have a great, powerful anecdote for you. I have a veteran friend who came back from multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was put on 23 different medications. He got a dog. He's down to one med, one prescription medication. That shows you the healing power of animals on veterans and so many others,” Penfed Foundation senior vice president Andrea McCarren said. “We just, we really need the support of everyone in the Bay Area. And I think it's so exciting to hear that the La Russa family continues its great work and taking it to new heights.”

Among the speakers at Leaders and Legends will be A’s luminaries like Reggie Jackson, Dennis Eckersley, Mark McGwire and Harold Baines.

“It was a wonderful franchise," La Russa said. "Should have never happened. It shouldn't happen, but it did.”