Making a Pitch for the Sake of Animals

Put a man for all seasons--that would be home-run guy Mark McGwire--on a calendar cover and just maybe it’ll fly out of the ballpark.

That’s what Tony La Russa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, is hoping will happen with his 1999 celeb ‘n’ canine calendar to benefit his Animal Rescue Foundation. (McGwire, who works for La Russa as Cardinals first baseman is pictured for June. The slugger is a hugger whose great arms are wrapped around a great Dane. Other featured celebs include Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart and Wayne Gretzky.)

“I think the comprehensiveness of what we’re doing is pretty unique,” La Russa said about the ARF programs over lunch recently at the Summit Hotel in Bel-Air.

Some of the programs include Operation Fix (neutering and spaying); emergency vet care; animal rescue (they’re sheltered, not euthanized); and adoption. Some resident animals work--visiting patients in hospitals and making home visits to senior citizens.

“I think people feel better that they are not only contributing to an organization that helps animals,” La Russa explained, “but animals that help people. . . . I think it’s been really important to our organization.”

La Russa did not grow up around cats and dogs. His mother was petrified of animals after she had been bitten by a cat and received the painful medical treatment for rabies.

La Russa said his heart would go pitter-patter--he gestured with his hand over his heart--whenever he saw a dog.

It was a cat, however, that brought about ARF. In May 1990, an abandoned cat stopped a ballgame between the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees. (La Russa was the A’s manager back then.) The cat had wandered onto the Oakland Coliseum field, panicked and raced around until she stopped in front of La Russa. He rescued the stray and named her Evie. He found a home for Evie where she stayed until her death, at age 15, in 1995. La Russa learned, during that rescue, that Evie would have been put to sleep within a week’s time if she had been left at a local animal shelter.

ARF, which La Russa started in January 1991, is on a 6.2-acre spread in Walnut Creek in Northern California. La Russa, 54, lives in nearby Danville with his wife, Elaine, and their two daughters.

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Question: How many animals do you have at home?

Answer: We have 10 rescued cats and three rescued dogs.

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Q: What was the first problem that ARF tackled?

A: We love animals, and we’re really concerned about a lot of issues in the animal world. But the one that hit us the hardest was the animals’ overpopulation, euthanasia. So, we started out doing this little rescue thing. People started criticizing. I said, “I hate being on the defensive.” And a bunch of us started thinking it would really be healthy for the rescue work that we do . . . if we start identifying all the ways that animals help people. So, with that simple transition, our concept has just exploded.

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Q: What’s one of the hardest parts of fund-raising for you personally?

A: I started managing in ’79. I played for 16 years before that. I hardly ever asked anybody any favors. I like doing favors. Asking favors is really uncomfortable. It’s difficult. I piled up a lot of contacts. So, all of a sudden, we’ve got something going and somebody says, “Hey, I’ll help you.” Or I’d ask for the help.

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Q: I’d find that difficult too, particularly if it meant having to explain the “value” of animals. I’d want to deck someone, do you know what I mean?

A: I tried the other approach for years, like in baseball.

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Q: You get worked up?

A: Yeah, you get real feisty. Then it becomes real emotional. Everybody hardens. They quit listening or they decide, “I wouldn’t give in to you no matter what.” So, it doesn’t work. I’m hard enough in baseball. I can be understanding in animal rescue.

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Q: Can you tell how much time you actually put in to ARF?

A: The main point of our conversation would be to get others into volunteering and getting involved. I would be concerned that if they find out how much time I put in, they would say, “Gee, I can’t do that.” If you give an organization an hour, a week or a month, every little bit helps.

The last six years, in the off-season, I probably put in an average of five to six days a week, five to six hours a day. Part of what I try to do is raise money. I bet you it’s common to make somewhere between 30 and 50 phone calls a day.

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Q: Don’t you ever get tired?

A: There are times, you know, you go through a season, you’re a little bit brain-dead and you’d like to kick back, but, the corny truth is, I’ll go to ARF and I’ll see something that’s happening where people are connecting with the animals, and it’s really invigorating. We’re just starting this thing with abused children, battered women; we’re taking our animals in [to them]. You take them in a senior home--all of a sudden there comes a dog and it’s magic.

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Q: When you’re making all those phone calls, does it make a difference how the Cardinals are doing?

A: It helps if we win. People return your calls better if you have a winning club rather than a losing club.

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Q: Tony, I was joking.

A: It’s true. Depending on which way the wind is blowing. You think more people are trying to talk to Mark now, than if he hit 20 home runs?

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Q: Was he hard to get for your calendar?

A: He loves animals. He always kids me because he knows I’m raising money. He gives me something and signs it. Lately, he’s been putting it “To Tony,” [and says] “Here, you can’t auction this.” He gave me a pair of gloves and a bat. I said, “Hey, you didn’t put ‘To Tony.’ ” He says, “I know.”

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Q: What are you going to do with the gloves and bat? Sell them?

A: Oh, absolutely.