The Shoebox - Day 18

Tony LaRussa
Manager - White Sox
#591, Topps, 1984

"The law is a ass."
--Mr. Bumble, Dickens, Oliver Twist

You read the law, then put the law aside.
Left for the farm system, a cup of coffee

in the show, made a few friends
wisely and started stacking wins

in a windbreaker. Tuned bullpens
like your father rolled cigars,

science wrapped as tradition, guts never better
than what the boss pays for. Success

made you old. Things have changed
enough. The law is a pile of books

in a humid Talahassee carrel. Small.
Fine when they catch out the right ones.

Ah, but The Right Way--when the world
crosses itself walking past the altar

of what you recall--those are the rules
fit for winners. They rise, unwritten,

like vapors from an old wine breathing.