THE SIDELINES : Fur Flies Over La Russa Ad

Tony La Russa, whose Oakland Athletics were just swept in the World Series by the Cincinnati Reds, now has the fur industry on his back.

La Russa was featured in a Humane Society ad calling on people not to buy fur. “When you buy fur, you strike out,” La Russa says in the ad.

Foul ball, cried the Fur Information Council of America.

“In light of the Humane Society’s position that also bans leather, Mr. La Russa, I would say that you are playing for an animal activists team that would revolutionize baseball,” FICA Chairman Charles A. Kehoe said in an open letter. “Can you imagine what baseball would be like if there were no leather gloves? . . . And need I remind you what baseballs themselves are made of? Would you advocate that we switch to synthetic gloves and plastic baseball?”