La Russa: I feel deep remorse and regret

During last week's "virtual" winter meetings, major league baseball made 29 of its 30 managers available to the media on Zoom calls.

Tony La Russa was the only one missing.

The White Sox's new manager had legal issues to tend to, and he did conduct a phone interview with local reporters Monday after they were resolved.

Arrested last February in Phoenix and charged with driving under the influence, the 76-year-old La Russa pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless driving and won't be facing any jail time.

La Russa pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in 2007 after he was found sleeping in his running sport utility vehicle at a stop light in Florida.

This time around, he was handed a lesser charge and will pay a $1,300 fine, perform 20 hours of community service and spend one day in home detention.

"The charge was reduced because Mr. La Russa was found to be over the legal threshold by a small amount," Lawrence Kazan, La Russa's lawyer, said in a statement.

Before taking questions from the media Monday, La Russa was apologetic in his opening remarks.

"I want to begin by saying I brought this on myself," La Russa said. "I know it. I feel deep remorse and regret over what I did. It's impossible actually to explain how daily and deeply this gets at you and has bothered me for a long time. Obviously, I displayed bad judgment that night in February. I am grateful for the White Sox for standing by me, even though this happened before they hired me.

"I really feel like I let them down and many others. My family, friends and I think, starting out in Chicago, I've let the fans down. I think about fans in Oakland and St. Louis, many of them became friends, and now starting again in Chicago, it's not the way I wanted to start my relationship the second time around."

La Russa is already a Hall of Fame manager who won two World Series rings with St. Louis and one more with Oakland.

But his return to the Sox on Oct. 29 sent shock waves throughout the game. Not only did La Russa last manage in 2011, he did not fit the profile Sox general manager Rick Hahn laid out after parting ways with Rick Renteria.

Hahn said his ideal candidate would have experience with a championship organization in "recent years."

White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has been close with La Russa for decades and he obviously made the call to hire the same manager he fired in 1986.

The Sox knew about La Russa's latest trouble before he was brought back. They say there will be no more chances for the manager.

"We understand that people make mistakes and exercise poor judgment in life," the White Sox said in a statement. "In this case, Tony is fortunate his decisions that night did not injure himself or anyone else. We also believe people deserve the opportunity, at all points in their lives, to improve. Tony knows there is no safety net below him. There cannot be a third strike."

La Russa completed a 20-hour counseling session on alcohol abuse, and he said he does not have a drinking problem.

"I know I don't have a drinking problem, just like I know I made a serious mistake in February," La Russa said. "And where I am right now is to prove that I don't have a drinking problem and to prove it every day off the field that I'm going to handle it. And what's painfully clear to me is, if I have a drink, I will not drive.

"There's always an alternative, have a car service, call Lyft, Uber, have a friend (drive), if I'm with somebody. The options, the alternatives are going to help me prove that I'm going to take care of this issue the way it should be."

La Russa is well aware that a sizable segment of White Sox fans were not happy when he was hired after being away from the dugout so long. Adding on another impaired driving incident has made him even less popular.

"Fans should be concerned because it's a mistake that is totally avoidable, and I'm pleased that I'm having a chance to talk publicly about the anger that I feel for myself for making that mistake," La Russa said. "I know how serious, when you have a drink and you decide to drive, what a mistake, how serious that mistake is. There hasn't been a day since February, and even when it became public, that I haven't been upset with myself and feel tremendous remorse or regret. And I think about the effect on the people I know, my family, friends, the fans. It all comes together."