Manager Tony La Russa's Return To White Sox Being Left Up To 'Experts'

CHICAGO — As the Chicago White Sox continue to make a late surge toward a division championship, their 77-year-old manager remains uncertain as to when he may return to the dugout to finish the push.

Tony La Russa told reporters Sunday in Oakland that he will leave his return up "to the experts” after he recently had a pacemaker inserted for his heart, the Associated Press reported. La Russa, who has been away from the team after doctors told him to step away, has not laid out a clear timeline for his return to the Sox.

The Sox announced on Aug. 30 that the Hall of Fame manager would be away from the team for an indefinite period of time while he dealt with a medical issue. Doctors told him that he shouldn’t manage the team an hour before the Sox were to play the Kansas City Royals and La Russa left for a consultation with his doctors in Arizona the next day.

The Sox are 9-4 under interim manager Miguel Cairo and remain 2 ½ games behind first-place Cleveland in the American League Central Division.

“The most important thing is you don’t want to be a distraction,” La Russa told reporters before Sunday’s 10-3 loss that prevented the Sox from sweeping the A’s. “That’s why it’s best to let it run its course and in the meantime, what they’re doing, concentrating and the game they’re playing if I think I’m distracting being upstairs like (Sunday), then I won’t be up there watching.”

He characterized the chances of his return to the team this season as "uncertain."

La Russa said he has watched all of the games since his departure but that doctors haven’t yet cleared him to return to the field. La Russa flew back to Chicago with the team following a road trip in which the Sox went 5-2.

Asked about when he possibly could return to the dugout, La Russa said, “I don’t plan to be in uniform until (doctors) say it’s time to be in uniform.”

La Russa said he was made aware of the health issue in spring training and that they have the manager information that needed to be addressed. But he said things got more serious at the end of August when doctors told him to step away from the dugout.

He said the heart issue has been dealt with and now it’s just a matter of when he can properly fully regain his strength.

“Health ain’t nothing to mess with,” La Russa told reporters.