BREAKING NEWS: LARUSSA ARRESTED

[Popeye_Card]

Good grief. You cannot put qualifiers around an action like this in an attempt to mitigate it's seriousness. If the charges are true, then TLR broke the law just as much as any other idiot who drinks too much and drives. This is a huge lapse in judgement, and he put other people at risk by getting behind the wheel. Thankfully nothing worse happened (Leonard Little).

What if he had blown a 0.079? Not legally drunk, but we're talking about a 0.014 difference--about half a glass of wine, or 30 minutes of additional metabolism. Does this small difference drastically affect his ability to safely operate an automobile? Or is it that he made a bad decision to drive home after having a couple of drinks late at night when he's probably exhausted. Drinks or no drinks, somebody who works as many hard hours as LaRussa does probably shouldn't be driving that late at night. The chances of him driving "impaired" from being tired are incredibly high.

--P--

[ghostrunner]

I hope he's not fired and I agree this happens all the time. I'm sure I've done it in the past. He's a 60+ year old workaholic and it's his first offense. So I'm not that upset by it.

But the timing is pretty bad and he should have avoided this situation. The team is getting rings in about a week, so it'll be a shame if this overshadows that in the press.

[haltz]

Anyone watching Cold Pizza? Maybe Tony fell asleep listening to a book on tape with this Sally Collins woman as the narrator.

Also, Buster and Steve P think this is no big deal whatsoever.

[Popeye_Card]

Also, Buster and Steve P think this is no big deal whatsoever.

Well, I doubt Steve P wants to throw stones considering he has a sexual harrasment suit on his resume.

--P--

[TimeForGuinness]

Seriously folks, .093 is not driving "drunk". It's driving buzzed, and I'm guessing 90%+ of this forum has driven a vehicle at this level or above, and haven't been caught. If he had 2-3 glasses of wine at a late dinner, he could have blown this. I'm also guessing that Whitey Herzog drove back from multiple fishing outings far more "drunk" than .093.

The reason for being "passed out" I'm personally guessing is an adverse reaction with some medication.

Fired? Retire? Come on. It's an honest mistake that I hope none of us on here ever have to go through.

--P--

True, I mean at least he didn't pull a Leonard Little (oh snap)....but then again TLR is under a different microscope than Little.

Good grief. You cannot put qualifiers around an action like this in an attempt to mitigate it's seriousness. If the charges are true, then TLR broke the law just as much as any other idiot who drinks too much and drives. This is a huge lapse in judgement, and he put other people at risk by getting behind the wheel. Thankfully nothing worse happened (Leonard Little).

Agreed. I wasn't trying to take away from the seriousness of his actions. I was pointing out (albeit with a bad joke) that thankfully nothing worse happened.

Also, I was somewhat taking a different stance that he may not get fired or retire due to the fact that Little is still playing football in which the outcome was much worse.

TFG

[Hungary Jack]

Good grief. You cannot put qualifiers around an action like this in an attempt to mitigate it's seriousness. If the charges are true, then TLR broke the law just as much as any other idiot who drinks too much and drives. This is a huge lapse in judgement, and he put other people at risk by getting behind the wheel. Thankfully nothing worse happened (Leonard Little).

What if he had blown a 0.079? Not legally drunk, but we're talking about a 0.014 difference--about half a glass of wine, or 30 minutes of additional metabolism. Does this small difference drastically affect his ability to safely operate an automobile? Or is it that he made a bad decision to drive home after having a couple of drinks late at night when he's probably exhausted. Drinks or no drinks, somebody who works as many hard hours as LaRussa does probably shouldn't be driving that late at night. The chances of him driving "impaired" from being tired are incredibly high.

--P--

Bottom line is that he broke the law when he blew the .093. He may not be convicted, but it's quite clear that he applied poor judgement. He not only put his own life and potentially other lives at risk while driving impaired, but he also put his own credibility at risk as a leader and risked compromising the integrity of his organization. Stupid is as stupid does, and in my view he's no less stupid than Leonard Little, whose actions resulted in far worse consequences.

I don't think TLR should be fired for this, but I think he faces a huge uphill battle in regaining credibility as a leader.

[MDCardsFan]

Passed out in a running vehicle and he only blew a .093? That seems odd.

My thoughts as well.

Probably more tired than drunk. Still shouldn't be on the road. Bad news.

By the time they took his level -- at the station after he had been passed out, after he had been field tested, after he got in and was processed -- it was at least an hour after he'd got behind the wheel, probably 90 min to 2 hours. He was probably .125 or more when they found him . . .

Actually, there is some "evidence" that your blood alcohol level will rise for a couple of hours after you consume the product, meaning that it may have been lower than .093 when he was actually found.

[edit] Testing during absorptive phase
One of the most common sources of error in breath alcohol analysis is simply testing the subject too early -- while his or her body is still absorbing the alcohol.[5] Absorption of alcohol continues for anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours after drinking or even longer. Peak absorption normally occurs within an hour; this can range from as little as 15 minutes to as much as two-and-a-half hours.

During this absorptive phase, the distribution of alcohol throughout the body is not uniform; uniformity of distribution -- called equilibrium -- will not occur until absorption is complete. In other words, some parts of the body will have a higher blood alcohol content (BAC) than others. One aspect of this non-uniformity is that the BAC in arterial blood will be higher than in venous blood (laws generally require blood samples to be venous). During peak absorption arterial BAC can be as much as 60 percent higher than venous"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathalyzer

That's not to say when he actually consumed the alcohol, it's just to point out that we can't assume that his BAC was higher when he was driving

[jim]

This is going to get analyzed to death, but it's very simple. LaRussa was driving drunk. He should be penalized to the full extent of the law. Simple as that. There is no excuse for it.

[JL21]

I don't think TLR should be fired for this, but I think he faces a huge uphill battle in regaining credibility as a leader.

I don't know about as a leader for his players. I'd bet lots and lots of his players are saying "Wow, that could have just as easily been us".

As for his cred with the fans, it might be true but only because it's St. Louis and we take our baseball seriously here. Does anyone remember that Bobby Cox had some sort of domestic abuse problem in the mid-90's? Not many do. And I think that's a lot, lot worse than what TLR did.

[skmsw]

I know the whole "passed out at the wheel" thing makes this sound much worse than it is, but .093 is not enough alcohol to make one pass out. It has to be either sheer exhaustion (which would have been bad in itself, but yes alcohol makes it worse) or an adverse combination with some medication. Again, could happen to any of us.

"passed out at the wheel makes it sound worse than it is?" Frankly, I feel strongly the opposite -- the reality of how it affected him makes this much more serious than the 093 seems.

I do not want to over-react. Personally, I hate the fact that the media even covers stuff like this; it should not be news and it is not a sports story. I do not feel any differently about the manager of my favorite baseball team today.

But people pointing out that he was "barely over the legal limit," or that it "happens all the time" or it "is not enough to make you pass out" or who speculate that he must be tired or on other meds? That it is no worse than talking on the cell phone? Really straining credulity here.

He drank enough to be over the legal limit. If he was too tired to handle it, or is also taking other medications that accentuated the alcohol, that makes it worse that he got behind the wheel, not better.

Whatever he did, in whatever combination, was enough to result in him sitting in a running vehicle in the middle of the street. The ESPN report says that the .093 came in the station, which was extremely likely to be at least 90 minutes after his last drink. So it is not the 0.093 that "made" him pass out in the middle of the street in a running vehicle; it was obviously much higher. If he blew .093 in the station, he was likely to have been at least 106 when they found him, and at least 110 when he got behind the wheel. At least.

I agree with anyone who wants to ignore this completely as a sports story, and who wants to ignore it as far as the impact it has on their enjoyment of Cardinal baseball. But I have a real problem with anyone who wants to minimize the seriousness, make excuses, or rationalize it. As far as I am concerned, it's fine to say "I don't pay attention to news about the private lives of celebrities and sports figures, it does not change my enjoyment of the movie, song, or game." But it is not fine to say "I do pay attention, I do make decisions based on off-field stuff like this, and this is not a problem for me." Yikes.