BREAKING NEWS: LARUSSA ARRESTED

BenNX74205 · Post by **BenNX74205** » March 22 07, 9:41 am

wart57 wrote:Not true. I often have a drink or two at dinner, get in my car and drive home.

Not only am I safe, I am well within the law.

This has nothing to do with LaRussa the manager.

Being well within the law has nothing to do with being safe. If you drink something, and then you drive home, that is by definition "drinking and driving." Any time you drink any amount of alcohol, it has an effect on your body. The government just chose to place the cut-off between crime and not-crime at .08 BAC. This doesn't mean you were magically safe if you were at .07 or magically unsafe at .09. This is the government's policy choice to set the limit at a certain point because it is in their view the best way to protect the public, punish the "guilty," and allow those in the government's views have not done enough wrong to warrant a hefty fine and criminal punishment.

Being within the law doesn't mean you weren't drinking and driving, or that you were safe.

wart57 · Post by **wart57** » March 22 07, 9:42 am

jim wrote:
wart57 wrote:
jim wrote:
wart57 wrote:All of those out there who have never had a drink while out at dinner and then drove home can yell all you want, but if you have ever had a drink or two at dinner and driven home, you could be in the same position as TLR today.
Not true. I often have a drink or two at dinner, get in my car and drive home.

Not only am I safe, I am well within the law.

This has nothing to do with LaRussa the manager.
How do you know your safe? Do you have a portable breathalizer? Two beers are enough for you to blow a.09.
I think you have a misunderstanding of what it takes to blow over the legal limit.

Fine, I am wrong. Throw all the stones you want. TLR is a horrible man and should be fired immedeatly, and then forced to eat steak ever day while he spends the rest of his life in jail.

I sure hope you never get pulled over after a nice dinner out and find out what Tony is going through....

jim · Post by **jim** » March 22 07, 9:46 am

wart57 wrote:
jim wrote:
wart57 wrote:
jim wrote:
wart57 wrote:All of those out there who have never had a drink while out at dinner and then drove home can yell all you want, but if you have ever had a drink or two at dinner and driven home, you could be in the same position as TLR today.
Not true. I often have a drink or two at dinner, get in my car and drive home.

Not only am I safe, I am well within the law.

This has nothing to do with LaRussa the manager.
How do you know your safe? Do you have a portable breathalizer? Two beers are enough for you to blow a.09.
I think you have a misunderstanding of what it takes to blow over the legal limit.
Fine, I am wrong. Throw all the stones you want. TLR is a horrible man and should be fired immedeatly, and then forced to eat steak ever day while he spends the rest of his life in jail.

I sure hope you never get pulled over after a nice dinner out and find out what Tony is going through....

If you read my posts, you would see that I have said this has nothing to do with him as a manager. It doesn't make him a bad person. But there are no excuses, he should be punished if he is guilty. Pretty seriously punished, because this is a pretty serious crime.

He made a mistake, and I'm not going to make excuses for him. He has to pay the price handed out to him.

haltz · Post by **haltz** » March 22 07, 9:47 am

skmsw wrote: 1) Since TLR had apparently driven at least 15 miles (at least some of which were non-highway and had traffic lights), had stopped and passed out at least once, was questioned at the scene by police, received a field sobriety test, and was transported to the station ALL BEFORE he received the breathalyzer -- it had been AT LEAST an hour and a half since his last drink, even if he DID get in the car right after his last drink -- but --

Did he drive 15 miles? I can't remember where in the thread I read something about 15 miles--although I know I did--but, I thought the statement was just "15 miles from Roger Dean." Or something to that effect. Either way, there is little chance that he blew within an hour of his last drink; however, hour, hour and a half, whatever, it doesn't really change things all that much. And there is some middle ground anyhow, it's not like he couldn't have peaked sometime in the hour to two between his arrest and station breathalyzer (sp?, how do you spell this word?).

2) That TLR is more likely to have been drinking more heavily early in the evening, than that he was still drinking right before getting in the car some time in the range of 11 PM

Maybe. Or maybe he sipped his wine after the meal, maybe he was drinking a port at 11:15 with one of those "dignitaries."

Anyway, from what we know about metabolizing alcohol (30 min to 3 hours) and the fact that he was out late with friends, and likely didn't stop before his 5-30 minute trip home, there is a possibility that he wasn't even over the legal limit when he was operating the vehicle.

I fell asleep in a drive-through once, pretty embarrassing actually (at the window), and I hadn't been drinking anything. If I had been sixty-two, getting up at 5 am and going to bed late, bartender overpoured a couple of glasses of Merlot, exhausted, and all that, I probably would have fallen asleep at the stop light before I turned into the Steak 'n Shake.

But whatever, it's all kind of ancillary. Like I said, I'm not so offended by the act, but by the fact that a millionaire and public figure could be this stupid. Feel free to respond obviously, but I probably won't belabor the point after this.

TimeForGuinness · Post by **TimeForGuinness** » March 22 07, 9:50 am

fulldeck wrote:I didn't see this posted.

From Bernie...

Post subject: On La Russa....
Posted: 22 Mar 2007 09:36 am

I don't claim to know what happened last night, but I want to make a couple of observations:

* When I spoke to him on his cell phone last night (about 7:45 FLA time), he was sitting down for a meal with a few friends and looking forward to good food and conversation. This is what Tony does virtually every night during spring training following day games. He'll round up a coach or two, plus any visiting dignitaries who want to go, and he heads to one of his favorite spots, and has a nice long meal, talking baseball for several hours.

* La Russa from everything I know sticks to red wine. He savors it. Again, from what I have seen and know, he goes through a bottle very slowly. He isn't looking to get his drunk on. He's contained in public, reserved in public. Usually the wine is part of these long, leisurely dinners. Or, he'll have some wine after a game (reg season) while reading a book, to wind down from the competition.

* I'm not making excuses for the man, but I know he has very long days in FLA. He gets up very early, has to do all his advance work and supervision of any pertinent on-field work, and then there's the exhibition game. And then more meetings and/or baseball talk. Then he has dinner. I would assume -- again, with not knowing the details of the evening -- that fatigue was a factor. I think by a certain point of the evening, he's pretty wiped out.

* Baseball decisions or not -- we all disagree with him on things -- I think he's a solid guy who lives right, and who tries to do the right thing in his personal life. I'm sure he feels awful about this, for the embarrassment he may have caused his team, his bosses, and himself.

* I made a terrible mistake along these lines many years ago, so I know what it's like, and the feeling of shame is very intense. If others feel compelled to pass moral judgement and throw stones at him, they're free to do so. I won't do it, because I am not without sin. I don't think La Russa needs to be told that he did something wrong. He knows it. He'll beat himself up more than anyone else will.

--B

First time in a long time that I agree with Bernie.

Elphie15 · Post by **Elphie15** » March 22 07, 9:51 am

Wow. I certainly didn't expect to wake up to this.

FWIW, and not to excuse anyone who gets behind the wheel of the car intoxicated because it's not, IMO, an excusable offense... but wasn't there a poll in Social a few months ago where it was over 50% of the people that voted admitted that they had been behind the wheel intoxicated before?

As despicable it is, a lot of people probably could be in the same situation.

Fan_In_NY · Post by **Fan_In_NY** » March 22 07, 9:52 am

haltz wrote:
skmsw wrote: 1) Since TLR had apparently driven at least 15 miles (at least some of which were non-highway and had traffic lights), had stopped and passed out at least once, was questioned at the scene by police, received a field sobriety test, and was transported to the station ALL BEFORE he received the breathalyzer -- it had been AT LEAST an hour and a half since his last drink, even if he DID get in the car right after his last drink -- but --
Did he drive 15 miles? I can't remember where in the thread I read something about 15 miles--although I know I did--but, I thought the statement was just "15 miles from Roger Dean." Or something to that effect. Either way, there is little chance that he blew within an hour of his last drink; however, hour, hour and a half, whatever, it doesn't really change things all that much.

I dont think it was 15 miles, more like 1.5. Unless I guess he didnt eat at the stadium. This is from Deadspin...

Elphie15 · Post by **Elphie15** » March 22 07, 9:52 am

Leroy wrote:The real travesty, is that he isn't even decent enough to get a DUI in St. Louis...or live there.

Unforgivable.

LOL.

clement · Post by **clement** » March 22 07, 9:57 am

Tony was given a field sobriety taste and then submitted two more breath test samples at the station. Not sure where the .093 number comes from though.

.093 is over the limit but not by a great deal. Basically we could be talking about the equivalent of half a beer, or less.

Yeah he broke the law and he should be treated like anyone else in the same situation. If he had just been stopped and tested, I'd probably be more inclined to dismiss it. But he fell asleep at a stop light, with the car still in drive. Very dangerous. I'm sure he was exhausted, and the alcohol, probably just made it worse.

I'm sure he learned a valuable lesson last night.

Go Cardinals!

ThatGuy · Post by **ThatGuy** » March 22 07, 10:03 am

I can't wait to catch flack for this for the entire 2007 season.

Hope Tony learned his lesson. At least he wasn't totally hammered.

Steve Phillips feels that this incident will "make La Russa more human in the eyes of his players."