Rescuing Animals Remains Higher Calling for Baseball Hall of Famer Tony La Russa

Only one other MLB manager has won more games than Hall of Famer Tony La Russa. When rescuing animals, La Russa is in first place.

Hall of Fame Manager Tony La Russa and his wife Elaine stand with his Hall of Fame plaque prior to the start of a Major League Baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 9, 2014. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Animal rescue has been a higher calling for Baseball Hall of Famer Tony La Russa for as long as he can remember.

For all the accomplishments La Russa racked up during a 35-season run managing for MLB’s Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals—beginning mid-season in 1979 through his last day as the skipper in 2022—loving and caring for animals has brought comfort to La Russa. Pressure to win, and win routinely at the big league level, was part of La Russa’s job description that the Tampa, Florida, native was able to master.

After leading St. Louis to a World Series championship over the Texas Rangers in 2011, and then coming out of retirement to steer the White Sox in 2021 and 2022 before stepping away due to health issues, La Russa had nothing left to prove from a personal standpoint. Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum as part of the Class of 2014—which included fellow managers Joe Torre and Bobby Cox—four times selected MLB Manager of the Year, and three-times piloting clubs to World Series titles, La Russa positioned himself to where he pursued causes away from the dugout that stirred his passions.

Since a ballgame in May 1990 when managing the Athletics, La Russa with the partnership of his wife, Elaine, have dedicated their efforts to saving stray dogs and cats. During that game against the New York Yankees at the Athletics’ Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, a cat found its way onto the playing field. When play was stopped, the cat found itself in the Athletics’ dugout, and eventually into La Russa’s caring arms. A life-changing moment was in the works for both the feline and its new friend. When La Russa learned that the stray cat would be sent to a shelter and likely euthanized, he not only saved the animal, but decided to open his own shelter one year later.

“When I was a kid, I was raised without a dog. When my mom was young she was bitten by a cat. She had to go through the process of having a series of rabies shots. I always wanted pets. So, when I grew up and got married, we had pets,” La Russa told The Epoch Times while appearing at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York, during the recent Hall of Fame Induction Weekend.

The La Russa plans began with their animal rescue foundation formed in Walnut Creek, California. Saving abandoned and injured animals were top priorities. As support has grown for the La Russa animal care plan, the foundation morphed into a larger operation on Walnut Creek’s Mitchell Drive. Transitioning from the Tony and Elaine La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation to Joybound People and Pets, the organization has successfully completed more than 50,000 pet adoptions to date, and over 100,000 veterinary procedures and vaccinations have been administered to animals who otherwise would not have been in position to receive the necessary care.

Interviewing Hall of Famer Tony La Russa (R) about his animal rescue foundation. Courtesy of Donald Laible

“Pets give us unconditional love. When my wife and I started our foundation, we were looking for solutions to a problem that seemed to be growing,” says La Russa, who broke into the MLB at the tender age of 18 in May 1963 with the Kansas City Athletics. “Spaying and neutering [procedures that prevent animals from reproducing and offer health benefits to them] was a start for us. Our foundation received a lot of support.”

Realizing what unconditional love does for people from pets, La Russa tells of having cats and dogs in his foundation’s care, and subsequently with Joybound, being dispatched to those who could benefit most with the use of friendly company.

“We have animals visiting patients in hospitals, abused children, rescue dogs meeting veterans,” explains La Russa, who currently has two dogs and five cats of his own.

By pairing shelter dogs with veterans who are in need of a friend while dealing with PTSD and other issues related to their serving their country, both the animal and their new owner are in a win-win situation.

Rescuing cats and dogs from public shelters isn’t a glamorous goal for many. For La Russa and Joybound, their work has put a spotlight on a sensitive dilemma most in society are aware of but may not know what solutions are available. Using his Hall of Fame status, La Russa is afforded a platform to raise awareness and offer education on making a difference in animal population, not just in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay area where Joybound is located, but in towns such as the hamlet-sized Cooperstown to metropolitan regions as New York City and Chicago.

Although La Russa didn’t say for sure what personal accomplishment his mother Olivia La Russa was most proud of him for—graduating from the Florida State University College of Law, being voted into the Hall of Fame, or saving abandoned and injured animals—it’s not a stretch to believe all three choices are equal. Thanks to baseball and a caring heart, La Russa continues to make a measurable difference in society.