White Sox’s La Russa charged with DUI for February arrest in Arizona
Nov 9, 2020, 7:36 PM | Updated: 7:37 pm
(AP Photo/Matt York, File)
New Chicago White Sox manager and former Arizona Diamondbacks executive Tony La Russa was charged with DUI from a February incident in Arizona, according to ESPN.
In a detailing of the events obtained by ESPN, La Russa was seen standing alongside his vehicle shortly before midnight in late February near Sky Harbor International Airport. He had allegedly crashed his car into a curb and left it smoking on the side of the road.
La Russa, 76, told the peace officer responding to a call that he had hit something and his tire blew out. After the officer smelled the odor of alcohol on La Russa, he was subjected to a field sobriety test and then taken into custody.
The case against La Russa for DUI was filed on Oct. 28, one day before La Russa was hired by the White Sox. He has one additional DUI arrest from 2007 in Florida.
The White Sox were aware of La Russa’s arrest before hiring him, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
In May 2014, La Russa was hired by the D-backs to oversee their baseball operation. They signed Zack Greinke to a $206.5 million deal following the 2015 season. La Russa got demoted to an advisory role following a 93-loss season in 2016 and joined Boston’s front office as a special assistant to then-president Dave Dombrowski in November 2017.
The Associated Press contributed to this story