Tony La Russa made quite the blunder during Game 5 of the World Series Monday night, failing to correctly relay the message to his bullpen that he wanted Cardinals closer Jason Motte to begin warming up.
La Russa made the telephone call to the bullpen in the eighth inning, a move that's as easy as A-B-C and as simple as 1-2-3. Unless you're La Russa, who apparently botched the phone call — twice.
The Cardinals skipper said that bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist might have hung up after La Russa mentioned the part about Motte the first time. Then, after speaking to Lilliquist again, Lilliquist hung up thinking La Russa had asked for reliever Lance Lynn.
The Rangers went on to score twice and take a 3-2 series lead. St. Louis now faces elimination, but Will O'Toole has a solution to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again. Check out his plan in the cartoon above.
Since graduating from Seton Hall University, Will O'Toole has been doing cartoons for over 30 years for a number of papers (USA Today), magazines (College and Pro Football Weekly) and websites (CBSSportsline.com). He is believed to be the only national cartoonist to have voted for the Heisman Trophy and the Wooden and Naismith Awards.
