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Maybe yes, maybe no. But the numbers — and not just 76 — would be against him. No manager older than 72 has won a World Series, and that’s probably what the White Sox have in mind after ending their playoff drought this year at 11 seasons. La Russa, who managed the Cardinals to two World Series titles, in 2006 and 2011, also has managed Oakland to one, and he skippered the White Sox to a division crown, although that was 37 years ago when he was just starting out.

If La Russa, whose 2,728 wins are third all-time, were hired as manager, he would be the third oldest in history behind Connie Mack, who, wearing a suit and tie, managed the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901-1950, finishing when he was 87. Mack owed his managing longevity in large part to the fact that he owned the team.

But Mack’s teams had 15 losing seasons out of his final 17, including a 52-102 finish in1950, and he didn’t win a World Series for the final 20 years of his reign, having beaten the Cardinals to win in 1930.

Next in line is Jack McKeon, who ended his managerial career in 2011, the year La Russa announced he had ended his. McKeon, who finished that season as Florida Marlins manager, was 80 that season, six years after he thought he had wrapped up his managerial tenure with the Marlins.

At the time of his return to relieve Edwin Rodriguez, McKeon said, “I look at it this way: Why should experience get penalized? Eighty doesn’t mean a thing. I’m not 80. My birth certificate says that, but I’m not 80.�

This week, in a telephone conversation, McKeon, a month away from 90, said, “I feel the same way right now.�

McKeon, in 2003, had become the oldest manager to win a World Series at age 72 when the Marlins, whom he took over a month-and-a-half into the 2002 season when Jeff Torborg was fired, went 75-49 in their final 124 games. They upended the Chicago Cubs in the league championship series and then took down the heavily favored New York Yankees in six games in the World Series.

Still scouting (for Washington) and driving his riding lawn mower for three hours a day on his 15-acre property in North Carolina, McKeon applauds a potential La Russa hiring.

“Hell, yeah, that’s fine,� McKeon said. “Hell, yeah.

“I’m still just as sharp as I was then. And I think Tony is, too.

“You don’t lose all that knowledge, all of a sudden.

“Just don’t go four years,� McKeon said, laughing that he would have to share the feat of managing at 80 years with La Russa.

“But if (La Russa) wants to go five, he’ll be the oldest manager in the history of the game,� said McKeon, who seems to believe that Mack’s managing at 87 had everything to do with his being the owner, too.

“All I need is one day of managing in the big leagues to pass Connie,� McKeon said, affirming that belief.

McKeon has to be the record holder for longest periods of time between multiple managerial stints.

He went from 1978 in Oakland to 1988 in San Diego, although he was the Padres’ general manager in the intervening years, Then, from 1991-96, McKeon didn’t manage until taking the Cincinnati job through 2000. Then he was idle more than two seasons before assuming control of the Marlins in 2003, and was out for five-plus seasons before stepping down from the Marlins’ front office to take one more crack at it.

Leo Durocher, who managed his only World Series champion in 1954 with the New York Giants, although he played shortstop for the Cardinals’ title-winning team in 1934, didn’t manage from 1956-65 after being let go by the Giants as he coached for the Los Angeles Dodgers and did some TV work for NBC.

Cardinals owner Gussie Busch had reached an agreement in August 1964 to hire Dodgers coach Durocher to manage the Cardinals in 1965 before the Cardinals rallied to win the league pennant and the World Series under Johnny Keane. Durocher suddenly had the short straw after Busch had offered to re-hire Keane, who jumped to the Yankees, and then hired Red Schoendienst.

Durocher would rebound, though, and managed the Cubs for seven seasons, coming close to winning a division title in 1969 before the Cubs blew it to the New York Mets. He finished his managing career at age 69 in Houston in 1973.

McKeon, whose first year of major league managing with Kansas City was the same year that Durocher stopped managing, said he doesn’t think he’s changed, but that he has seen the game move in a different direction.

“Strike out or you hit a home run,� said McKeon, who laments the emphasis on the three-run bomb. “I used to play for one run. Give me one run every inning.�

“You’re not playing a 162-game series in the playoffs. You’re playing in a tournament. Houston was the only one I saw that played for one run. They had runners at first and second and nobody out and they had (Martin) Maldonado bunt to put runners at second and third. Then, (George) Springer hits a ground ball through a big hole and they get two runs and they take the lead. Nobody wants to do that anymore.

“Of course, you don’t get paid for ‘little ball.’ And a lot of times, managers don’t want to hurt the players’ feelings by asking them to bunt. Tough (toenails), I say.�

Word should come sometime in the next week or two about La Russa’s potential future with the White Sox. “It could be him and Dusty Baker,� said McKeon, referring to Houston’s 71-year-old manager.

“Hell, I might as well come back, too. And then get Whitey (Herzog) back,� Mceon said of his longtime friend — and foe — who is a year younger than McKeon.

“Bobby Cox, also. We’ll have all the old-timers back,� McKeon said. “We could have a ball.�