Tommy Lasorda Passes Away At 93

[TheCatInTheHat]

My view is that if somebody has a great life and manages to stay reasonably healthy and active up to about 85, it really should be a celebration of their life. So, based on that, Tommy got to "taste the fruits of victory" for about 8 years of overtime. Certainly close friends and family members left behind deserve all sympathy. My first memory of Tommy was on an NBC Game of the Week early in the season in 1974. The Dodgers were still the team of manager Walter Alston "The Quiet Man", Willie Davis, and Don Sutton. But, they brought up Tommy, along with the entire infield of the Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League, where he'd been the manager. He was to be the third base coach and heir-apparent to Alston. He had "his guys" with Cey at third, Russell at short, Lopes at second, Garvey at first, and Yeager catching. The game was at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. So NBC had him miked-up for the game. For the open, he bellowed, "I'm Tom Lasorda, and I'd like to welcome NBC-TV to DODGER BASEBALL, where today the DODGERS take on the Cubs at Wrigley Field!" I was like: "What the heck is this?" And it went on from there, with him running around questioning the umps calls and just non-stop narrative the whole game. Of course, the Dodgers went on to play the dynasty Oakland A's team in the first California World Series. They lost the series, but one of my all-time favorite plays in baseball history happened in that series. The Dodgers had traded for "The Toy Cannon" Jimmy Wynn from Houston to play center field. But, his throwing arm was injured. The A's had a runner on third with a couple of outs to play with, so Joe Rudi golfed a fly ball to center to get the sac fly. But, reserve catcher Joe Ferguson was doing his best to play right field. He came charging behind Wynn, basically knocking him over, caught the ball, and let loose a heave to home plate. The ball didn't bounce. It was a perfect strike to Steve Yeager, who stood there waiting for the stunned baserunner to be tagged out. So Tommy's coaching tenure with the Dodgers began with a pretty big splash. Later, the series win over the Yankees and then the Gibson homer series win over the A's were his biggest highlights. He must have been thrilled to see the Dodgers finally win it again in 2020. It's out of print, but if you can find a copy of The Artful Dodger, which was his autobiography in the 80's with David Fisher, it's hilarious, with a lot of stuff from his days as a pitcher, minor league ball, baseball in Central America, and of course, his managing career up to that time with the Dodgers. Rest In Peace, Tommy...but now I'm not sure if anybody else up there with you will get any.