I just heard Tony La Russa on KCBS with John Madden, Steve Bitker and Stan Bunger. He's doing an event for his animal rescue foundation tomorrow in Walnut Creek, didn't get the details but among those signing "low cost" autographs for charity will be Mark Ellis, Dan Haren, Mark Mulder and C.C. Sabathia.
 Tony sounded a little down about his pitching -- they missed out on AJ Burnett by $12 million, he said, and they aren't likely to get Matt Morris back. He also said they started out the offseason team building process several weeks late because of the playoffs. Somehow, I can't imagine this as much of a problem with the well-organized A's.
 Walt Jocketty calls him daily to talk personnel. He noted that some teams don't involve the manager in those decisions. (wonder which one he's talking about!).
 Somebody, maybe Madden, approvingly quoted Bill Parcells as saying, "If I'm going to cook the meal I'm going to do the shopping."
 Anyhow, La Russa is a good guy and even though I was mad at him for several years after he jumped ship and took Duncan with him (not to mention McGwire), it's great to have him living in the Bay Area.