La Russa Tells Stockton! Podcast: "Watching as neutral seemed unnatural..."

In the latest installment of the Stockton! podcast, hosted by hall of fame sportscaster Dick Stockton: Tony La Russa, three-time World Series champion manager and current Chief Baseball Officer with the Arizona Diamondbacks, talks about his career in baseball and what makes a manager and player successful. Among the many interesting topics covered, La Russa discusses his time after leaving St. Louis, working for Major League Baseball, and how ?when you watch the game as a neutral it just seemed unnatural.? As part of the Diamondbacks organization, La Russa says he is ?doing what I like to do, which is care about the Diamondbacks winning and losing.? The complete interview can be heard at the Stockton! podcast website. The baseball hall of famer is the latest of a star studded list of guests that Stockton has had on his podcast, which include Alex Rodriguez, Joe Buck, Bill Walton and John Lynch. Below are more quotes from La Russa is below: ?That-s a good way to start, that a good question because you go back to after I retired in 2011 I had this wonderful opportunity to stay close to baseball with MLB, I did some assignment work with the commissioner, got to meet the Commissioner Rob Manfred, and all the crew in New York and it was really a lucky way to stay close to the game when you weren-t going to be in uniform but what you realized after a couple of years, that when you watch the game as a neutral it just seemed unnatural.? ?The Diamondback opportunity came up about the middle of 2014. I have always loved responsibility, it was a big responsibility and I enjoyed it. It was, we always understood a qualifier to it, that is, they put me on top of the way we compete, but really, my expertise is looking at players and teams and evaluating whether they are good enough to play in October-? ?The most haunting thing about the 2016 season, Dick, was we went from making a lot of progress to really having a terrible year, going 20 something games under .500, and I thought man-if I leave, and that is the last time I ever compete, that I am part of a competition, I-d be haunted by that because you know, we just had a really tough year.? ?I said, I can-t leave unless they tell me they don-t want me, and when the new guys came on board, they felt like that one kind of consistent contribution which was to evaluate players and teams, was something they still warned me to do, and I just don-t have the authority to make final decisions, but, I-m doing what I like to do, which is care about the Diamondbacks winning and losing.? ?It-s the best of both worlds, I get a chance to watch the big leaguers, and get a chance to go to the back field during the season, go down to the minor league operations and see a young player or pitcher grow through the system.?