TLR (Tony La Russa)

As a life long Cardinal fan I will be the first to admit I have hated Tony La Russa more than a handful of times. The facts are the facts though, he led us to 3 world series appearances and won 2 of them. A manager that defined the laws of baseball by batting the pitcher 8th in the line-up and using 6 bull pen pitchers to each get just one out. He is arguably the greatest of all time and had he come back next year he would have had the 2nd most wins all time  (he has a better win percentage than the 1st & 2nd all time). While it is difficult to see that the only manager they have had since 1996, and the only one I remember watching walk away from the game. He is going out on top as a world series champion yet again for the 3rd time in his 33 years as a manager. So who do the cardinals hire for next year? Dave Duncan (La Russa's right hand man/ pitching coach), Terry Francona (managed the red sox when they beat the cards in the world series in 2004), or even Ozzie Smith (a great cardinal short stop that said he would like to manage after tony). Leave no doubt this team is returning a HUGE amount of talent, and hopefully keep Albert Pujols, and will be back in the world series next year.