Chicago White Sox manager out indefinitely

Right fielder Gavin Sheets had a conversation with manager Tony La Russa during batting practice Tuesday, a couple of hours before the Chicago White Sox played the Kansas City Royals.

Less than an hour before the first pitch, the Sox announced La Russa would miss the game at the direction of his doctors.

“I was with him all day,” Sheets said Wednesday. “Kind of got blindsided by that. He seemed fine all day.”

The Sox announced Wednesday that La Russa is out indefinitely and scheduled to undergo further testing with doctors in Arizona.

“As a team and as a player of his,” reliever Kendall Graveman said, “I want to wish him nothing but the best health and recovery and whatever that entails in his near future and moving forward. That’s obviously where our hearts and minds are. Hopefully we get the best doctors around him to see what’s going on.”

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USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported La Russa, 77, recently had tests with a cardiologist, and the recommendation was to miss Tuesday’s game. Nightengale reported that after more tests Wednesday, La Russa was advised to see heart specialists.

“I talked to him (Wednesday), he was fine,” Sox bench coach Miguel Cairo said. “But his doctor is in Arizona. They have all the info about his medical, and we will know later in the week what is going on.”

Cairo, who managed Tuesday’s 9-7 loss, will continue to fill in.

“Health and family,” Graveman said. “You guys see us a lot in uniform and see us at the field doing our job and preparing each day to be the best baseball players we can, and Tony was preparing to be the best manager he can. But at the end of all this, outside of traveling (between) different cities and suiting up every day and going to battle with each other, we have families, we have people that are dear to us and have gone through all this together. It really puts baseball in perspective.

“I understand that we want to compete and win and prepare and do the best that we can, and that’s what we get paid to do. But there’s stuff that I feel is vital and way more important than playing baseball. He needs to go be with his family and take care of himself in the moment.”

Some of the players, such as outfielder/first baseman Andrew Vaughn, found out the news Tuesday via social media.

“I saw that the White Sox posted something,” Vaughn said, “and I was like: ‘Oh, my goodness. This is crazy.’ And then we had to just go play.

“We were trying to talk about it, trying to figure out what was going on. They mentioned a few things, maybe his heart. Just health. Pretty scary.”

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La Russa is in the second season of his second stint with the Sox. Last season they won their first division title since 2008, but this year has been filled with…