Elaine and Tony La Russa Go To Bat for Pets with Animal Rescue Foundation

One of baseball’s greatest managers teams up with his wife to rescue animals in need.

by Rich Watson

Tony La Russa is one of the winningest managers in baseball history; third on the all-time list. He led the Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinals to six pennants and three World Series championships. 

After nine years, he has recently come out of retirement to once again manage the White Sox, the first team he led, from 1979-86. He’ll likely move up to number two this summer, passing John McGraw and trailing only Connie Mack.

La Russa’s on-field accomplishments are many, but almost as well-known is his work with his wife Elaine in providing homes for abandoned and injured animals.

When Tom Seaver Was Traded, a Poison Pen Didn’t Keep Him and His Wife Down

A newspaper columnist libeled them, but they got the last laugh.

by Rich Watson

Tom Seaver was the lynchpin of the astonishingly successful 1969 Mets, an expansion team that went from cellar-dwelling losers to World Series champions in seven years. The Mets won a second National League pennant in 1973. Seaver and his wife Nancy were the toast of New York.

In 1977, contract renegotiations between Seaver and the Mets broke down. A newspaper column by a firebrand sportswriter made matters worse by implicating Nancy as a factor in the breakdown.

The next day Seaver had been traded.

The Twisted Path to Marriage for Leo Durocher & Laraine Day

It took two weddings and two divorces before they legally tied the knot.

by Rich Watson 

Baseball manager Leo Durocher met Hollywood actress Laraine Day in 1942. They were married to other spouses at the time, yet they fell in love. 

He divorced in 1943. By 1946, once she obtained a divorce from her husband, bandleader and airport manager Ray Hendricks, she was ready to wed Durocher.

They would have to jump through a number of hoops first.