Tommy Lasorda

Thomas Charles Lasorda (September 22, 1927 – January 7, 2021) was an American professional baseball pitcher and manager. He managed the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1976 through 1996. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 1997.

Lasorda played in MLB for the Dodgers in 1954 and 1955 and for the Kansas City Athletics in 1956. He coached for the Dodgers from 1973 through 1976 before taking over as manager. Lasorda won two World Series championships as manager of the Dodgers and was named the Manager of the Year of the National League (NL) twice. His uniform number 2 was retired by the Dodgers.

Early life

Thomas Charles Lasorda was born on September 22, 1927, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Norristown High School in 1944, where he excelled in baseball.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Lasorda signed with the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1945 and began his professional career that season with the Concord Weavers of the Class D North Carolina State League. He missed the 1946 and 1947 seasons because of a stint in the United States Army. He served on active duty from October 1945 until spring 1947. Lasorda returned to baseball in 1948 with the Schenectady Blue Jays of the Canadian–American League. On May 31, 1948, he struck out 25 Amsterdam Rugmakers in a 15-inning game, setting a professional record, and drove in the winning run with a single. He played with Schenectady from 1948 through 1950.

Lasorda then played for Almendares of the Cuban League in Havana, Cuba in 1950–52 and again in 1958–60, compiling a 16–13 record in four seasons, including 8–3 with a 1.89 ERA in 1958–59. Lasorda also pitched for Marianao, a league rival of Almendares also in the Havana area.

The Brooklyn Dodgers drafted Lasorda from the Phillies organization in 1949. The Dodgers sent him to the Greenville Spinners in 1949, and to the Montreal Royals of the International League in 1950. He pitched for Montreal in 1950 through 1954.

Brooklyn Dodgers (1954–1955)

Lasorda made his Major League debut on August 5, 1954, for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He made his only start for the Dodgers on May 5, 1955, but was removed after the first inning after tying a major-league record with three wild pitches in one inning and being spiked by Wally Moon of the St. Louis Cardinals when Moon scored on the third wild pitch. Lasorda made only three more appearances for the Dodgers, was optioned back to Montreal on June 8, and was replaced on the major league roster by Sandy Koufax.

Kansas City Athletics (1956)

Before the 1956 season, Lasorda was sold to the Kansas City Athletics, Kansas City traded him to the New York Yankees for Wally Burnette in July 1956. He appeared in 22 games for the Yankees' affiliate Triple-A Denver Bears in 1956–1957, and then was sold back to the Dodgers in 1957. During his tenure with the Bears, Lasorda was profoundly influenced by Denver manager Ralph Houk, who became Lasorda's role model for a major league manager.

"Ralph taught me that if you treat players like human beings, they will play like Superman," he told Bill Plaschke in the biography I Live for This: Baseball's Last True Believer. "He taught me how a pat on a shoulder can be just as important as a kick in the butt."

Lasorda returned to Montreal for the 1958 through 1960 seasons, but was released in July 1960. He was the winningest pitcher in the history of the team (107–57). On June 24, 2006, he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. He ended his major league career with a 0–4 record and a 6.52 ERA in 26 games.

Coaching career

Minor leagues

Al Campanis, the Dodgers' scouting director, hired Lasorda as a scout in 1960. In 1966, he became the manager of the Pocatello Chiefs in the rookie leagues, then managed the Ogden Dodgers from 1966 to 1968. To inspire confidence in his players at Ogden, he would have each of them write a letter to the LA Dodger that played their position everyday in the big leagues, informing the regular that they would be replacing him one day. He became the Dodgers' AAA Pacific Coast League manager in 1969 with the Spokane Indians. He remained manager of the AAA team when it became the Albuquerque Dukes in 1972. His 1972 Dukes team won the PCL Championship.

Lasorda also managed in the Latin American winter leagues. He led the Dominican Republic team Tigres del Licey to back-to-back LIDOM titles, as well as a Caribbean Series title at the 1973 edition in Venezuela.

Dodgers' third-base coach

In 1973, Lasorda became the third-base coach on the staff of Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston, serving four seasons. He was widely regarded as Alston's heir apparent and turned down several major league managing jobs elsewhere to remain in the Dodger fold. He later returned to the third-base coach's box on a temporary basis while managing the Dodgers.

Managerial career

Los Angeles Dodgers (1976–1996)

Lasorda became the Los Angeles Dodgers manager September 29, 1976, upon Alston's retirement. When asked by broadcaster Vin Scully if he felt any pressure replacing Alston, Lasorda responded, "No, Vin, I'm worried about the guy who's gonna replace me. That's the guy who's gonna have it tough." He managed the final four games of the 1976 season. Lasorda oversaw the remainder of the historic Dodger infield, which started on a regular basis from 1973 to 1981.

The 1981 Major League Baseball season saw a unique split-season setup in which the leaders of each division at the time of the strike (which lasted from June to July) guaranteed them a playoff spot. The Dodgers, as champions of the first half (by less than a game over Cincinnati), would be matched up against whoever led the NL West after the season re-started. The Dodgers were matched against the Houston Astros, who narrowly beat out the Reds to win the West and play in a National League Division Series. The Astros took the first two games on walk off plays where the Dodgers scored one total run combined. But with three games remaining all in Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles would turn the tables and dominate in pitching (holding Houston to two runs combined) to win three straight and reach the NLCS. In the best-of-five 1981 National League Championship Series, the Dodgers would split the two games in Los Angeles before having to go to Montreal for the next three. They decisively won in Game 4 to stave off elimination before Rick Monday hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning to deliver a 2-1 victory in Game 5 to win the series.

A fiery motivator, Lasorda was known for firing up his players when the moment could come up, such as his tirade prior to Game 4 of the 1988 World Series when NBC broadcaster Bob Costas praised the Dodger pitching but criticized the batting as one of the worst seen, with Lasorda exclaiming to the clubhouse, "You hear what Costas said? He said you’re the worst offensive team ever!” The Dodgers, labeled as underdogs against the favored Oakland Athletics, proceeded to win the Series in five games.

Lasorda managed nine players who won the NL Rookie of the Year Award. The winners came in two strings of consecutive players. From 1979 to 1982, he managed Rick Sutcliffe, Steve Howe, Fernando Valenzuela, and Steve Sax. From 1992 to 1995, he managed Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raúl Mondesí, and Hideo Nomo. Before retiring during the 1996 season, he had also managed that year's eventual winner, Todd Hollandsworth. Lasorda's final game was a 4–3 victory over the Houston Astros, at Dodger Stadium, on June 23, 1996. The following day, he drove himself to the hospital complaining of abdominal pain, and in fact was having a heart attack. Former shortstop Bill Russell would take the reins of the team on an interim basis. He received a clean bill of health from his doctor, but he took into account seeing Don Drysdale die in a hotel room a few years prior with a similar ailment, stating "I got to thinking about my little 9-month-old granddaughter, and how I'd like to be around when she goes to school." On July 29, Lasorda formally announced his retirement, thus making Russell only the third man to manage the Dodgers in 43 years.

Lasorda compiled a 1,599–1,439 record as Dodgers manager, won two World Series championships (1981 and 1988), four National League pennants, and eight division titles in his 20-year career as the Dodgers manager. His 16 wins in 30 NLCS games were the most of any manager at the time of his retirement. He also managed in four All-Star games. His 1,599 career wins rank 22nd all-time, and only two other managers have as many wins with one team: Alston and Mike Scioscia, with the latter playing under Lasorda.

At the time of his retirement, one was quoted as saying, "It's tough playing for Tommy. It's like you're playing for two different things. It's like you're playing for the Dodgers and you're playing for Tommy, too. It's hard to explain, but it's just a different atmosphere."