Of course Colby Rasmus’ dad ripped Tony La Russa yesterday

Here’s something you coulda set your watch to yesterday: as soon as Colby Rasmus was clear of the Cardinals, his father, Tony Rasmus, slammed Tony La Russa. He claimed that, contrary to what La Russa says, he wasn’t working with Colby on his hitting. He thinks that La Russa is simply a control freak who was looking for someone to go after and Colby was an easy target:

“Tony needed pitching and wanted to force the GM into making a trade, so he belittled Colby to the fans ... Tony would like to have 25 pitchers, like he thinks he has to put his stamp on every ball game. They had nothing else to trade. I think everyone is better off now ... There are three or four guys in the St. Louis clubhouse right now, thinking ‘oh-oh, who is the manager going to pick on next with Colby gone?’

I’m not the biggest Tony Rasmus fan on the planet -- parents of grown up major leaguers should be seen and not heard -- but it’s not like he’s totally out to lunch on this stuff.

Fact is La Russa has had run-ins with a number of guys over the years. Fact is that La Russa does like to put his stamp on games. Fact is that La Russa probably would like to have more pitching so that he may one day achieve his Holy Grail of a the 27-pitcher, 27-out ballgame. Fact is also that Colby Rasmus probably will do better now that he’s out of St. Louis than he did when he was there.

But seriously Mr. Rasmus: time to zip it. You may have a couple of valid observations about the difficulty some people have with Mr. La Russa, but your comments do more harm than good for your son. And it’s not like anyone is going to win a run-in with Tony La Russa in St. Louis. At some point you and Colby should have probably realized that.