Tony La Russa Talks About Rally Squirrel Dating Allen Craig’s Tortoise

October 8, 2011

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While the Milwaukee Brewers have their “Beast Mode” Monsters, Inc. celebration, the St. Louis Cardinals have an unofficial mascot/playoff theme of their own. Throughout the year, the Cardinals would tease Allen Craig by saying “Do it for Torty,” whenever the outfielder was up in a key situation. Torty was a reference to Craig revealing in an interview that he had a pet tortoise. When the teammates would say “Do it for Torty,” he always delivered, so the saying caught on.

Then in the NLDS, a squirrel ran onto the field at Busch Stadium in St. Louis during Game 3 and Game 4 of the playoffs. In Game 4, the squirrel likely cost the Phillies a strike. After winning the game, the Cardinals adopted the squirrel as a playoff mascot, calling it the “Rally Squirrel.”

The squirrel seemed to bring the Cardinals good luck in the NLDS, so manager Tony La Russa was asked if they would keep running with the Rally Squirrel in the NLCS. La Russa got a little carried away in animal land with his response.

“As long as Misses Squirrely keeps dating [Allen] Craig’s Mr. Torty … I just think we should get a sweep because we don’t want them to interrupt the game,” La Russa told TBS.

“The problem is Craig hasn’t been playing. I think the squirrel is looking around for Torty, because Torty was looking around for Craig. I don’t know, it’s nonsense.”

La Russa, a well known animal lover, really was getting carried away. Here I was thinking he was uptight, and then we see him shaking it on stage at a concert, and going off on two pet animals dating. I guess there really is an entirely different side to TLR. Who would have known?

Oh, and in case you missed it, the Cardinals have embraced the rally squirrel so much they celebrated with one in the clubhouse: