La Russa ’s DUI arrest
We’re disapppointed to hear to the news of Tony La Russa’s DUI arrest. Drunk-driving may not be on par with the utter selfishness of people who fly or drive kids to their deaths, but it is similarly a dangerous manifestation of self-centeredness. We’re not planning to offer any excuses for La Russa, but, at the same time, we’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt on the matter and wait until he comments on it himself. Until then, we trust that he’ll be forthcoming and contrite before the season starts.
In the meantime, we’ve been disturbed by the tenor of the public debate — if internet message boards and columnists qualify — of the issue. Contrary to some indignant passivists who claim that a person can blow a .093 "after just a couple of drinks at dinner," if alcohol-impairment charts are to be believed, a man La Russa’s size (we’ll estimate it at 200 lbs., based on his playing weight of 190) would have to imbibe five drinks in an hour to hit .09. Even considering other factors like fatigue, that’s difficult to excuse as simple carelessness. Then there’s the pompous moralizing — veiled as "tolerance" — of those who wish to dismiss La Russa’s decision as nothing worse than anything they’ve done and pass judgment on those who merely want to hold people accountable for their actions as "stone throwers." Then again, we suppose it has always been easier for sinners to comfort themselves in others’ sin than to repent. Then we read the accompanying cop-out that somehow the public shame will be punishment enough (though we suppose that it will be greater than the $500 pittance that the legal punishment carries). We have little doubt that La Russa will indeed be sorry for his actions, but judging from the amount of admitted fellow drunk drivers who’ve weighed in on message boards ("After all, who hasn’t done it!"), the idea of public shame would appear to be an insufficient deterrent. We would guess that a more efficacious deterrent — and civilly just punishment — would be a mandatory sentence of a one-year license revocation. After all, the purpose of the law is to protect the innocent, and La Russa was simply a dream away from being the Cardinals’ version of Leonard Little.
Our bet is on La Russa to man-up about his offense and make a swift and strong public mea culpa. With less than 10 days until opening night, the Cardinals and their manager need to put this behind them as quickly and properly as possible, but only after facing the public honestly (If nothing else, they’ll serve as an example to the many fans who seem to see drunk-driving as a minor problem.). In St. Louis, fans may be willing to forgive and forget a drunk-driving charge, but, ironically, won’t be so tolerant of a losing season.