Tony La Russa becoming only the third manager to attain that win level after Mack and McGraw. After the retirement of Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox in 2010, La Russa was the longest tenured manager in Major League Baseball, and with the resignation of longtime NBA head coach Jerry Sloan from the Utah Jazz on February 10, 2011, La Russa had been the longest tenured bench boss among all the Big Four sports leagues, until his retirement following his 2011 World Series victory with the Cardinals. La Russa became eligible as a candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013 through voting
Empire Professional Baseball League Empire Professional Baseball League The Empire Professional Baseball League is an independent baseball league that began play in 2016. The Empire League plays a 70-game regular season followed by a five-game post season. The six-team league consists of two teams from Upstate New York, two from Puerto Rico, one from Maine, and one from New Hampshire. League offices are in Tampa, Florida. The Empire League is a replacement of the North Country Baseball League, which folded after one season (and was itself a last-minute replacement for the East Coast Baseball League, which disbanded before the start of the 2015 season).