Tony La Russa, or, a Colorado Rockies pipe dream

-USA TODAY Sports

Before going any further here, let’s make every effort to clarify the context of this article. This is not a rumor. This is not even a grumbling or a whisper. This is simply the reaction of a writer and a chance to dream about what could be if the Colorado Rockies would ever shake up their front office.

Tony La Russa is reportedly interested in becoming the Seattle Mariners’ team president. He was quoted in USA Today as saying the following:

"“I’m interested in getting to the competition upstairs…I’ve missed the competition since I left the field. I talked to the commissioner [Bud Selig] about it. It’s not a thing where you miss the dugout, but I miss the winning and losing.The situation has to be right.”"

The Mariners make sense as a fit for La Russa. They have loudly announced their intentions to matter this off-season, signing Robinson Cano and getting in the middle of the bidding for Japanese starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. That situation likely offers more promise and excitement than the Rockies, but Troy Renck of the Denver Post still wondered if the Rockies should move on La Russa:

Lest any of us overreact, Renck clarified that the idea is nothing more than his own musings at this point:

Can you imagine what it would be like to go from the current regime to one with La Russa as team president? One can hardly overstate the disconnect between La Russa’s accomplishments and the collective failures of the current Rockies front office. If you wanted to start to talk yourself into it you could note that La Russa does have at least a little bit of a connection to manager Walt Weiss, and one imagines that Troy Tulowitzki is his kind of franchise player.

Unfortunately this truly is a pipe dream, as any scenario in which La Russa would come to Colorado centers around the words “winning” and “empty the bank.”

But what else are baseball fans supposed to do in the dead of January but day dream about the better days that might lie ahead?