Tony La Russa gets the credit, or the blame, for the invention of the modern bullpen — the closer, the setup men, the matchups against left-handers and right-handers.
But, as a new generation of baseball minds reinvents bullpen use, La Russa also should be remembered for a maxim the Dodgers are using in their perfect postseason run: Don’t use your closer on some days in the summer, so you can use him every day in October.
What took hold with Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley in Oakland has been happily inherited by Kenley Jansen in Los Angeles.