Not so much in game two.

"Maybe he's a long-lost relative of Anatoly Karpov. It's possible he grew up with Boris Spassky. Or maybe he just ran into Garry Kasparov at a chicken dinner someplace.

But once again Wednesday night, that noted grandmaster of the emerald chess board, Mr. Tony La Russa, checkmated his way through the World Chess Championships of October, at his Karpovian best.

'You know, I've never seen him play chess,' said La Russa's hitting coach, Mark McGwire, after the Cardinals had finished outfoxing the Rangers, 3-2, in Game 1 of the World Series. 'But I'll tell you what. He's running a hot hand right now.'

Wait. He's never seen the guy play chess? Isn't that exactly what the Cardinals' zoned-in manager has been playing for about three decades now -- for 5,097 games and counting?

Of course he has. But it's very possible that never, ever, has Tony La Russa maneuvered those chess pieces better than he has over the past three weeks.

Maybe there's been a hotter managerial hand in somebody else's dugout back in some other time, some other place, some other October. But let's just say none comes to mind."

I think Stark is being serious.

LaRussa is a good manager. He is not a genius.