RIP Tommy Lasorda
 

I just saw that we lost Tommy Lasorda. RIP

Just saw this. He was a fixture of my childhood as someone who grew up a Dodgers fan. RIP.

Devastating. We lost so many Legends over the last 12 months. The man is synonymous with the Dodgers, I remember reading the only other team he worked for was when he coached the Olympics squad in 2000.

I'm so devastated I can't believe it.

I started crying while reading the comments in The Athletic story where I found out.

I didn't cry when my grandmother died, and she was my favorite person in the whole world.

I already turned my phone off because I can't handle the truth of the texts and emails I'm getting.

Such a horrible day.

I'm going back to bed.

Doug

My son with Tommy Lasorda from 2005 at Vero Beach and Port St Lucie during Spring Training

Your son could be a young Sandy Koufax! :)

I met him when I lived in Vegas in the 90’s. Had season tickets for the AAA Dodgers team Stars.

Everyone better have a fork in their hands...
 

...and a huge plate (or 2) of pasta tonight in his honor.

So many memories of him being a such good sport while walking down the 1st base line at Candlestick getting showered with boo's as long as he was on the field. He gave as good as he got. One more time for old times sake.

You suck Lasorda!!

Said with the utmost respect and love. RIP Tommy Lasagna, you were a class act and will be missed.

He is still a Dodger Fan, but works in the Racing Industry as a metal fabricator NHRA and was in NASCAR, I have the fastest tire changer that money can buy

His picture could be in the dictionary under baseball.

Classic Lasorda sound-byte about Kurt Bevocqua (warning for language)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fzjWQF1oP2M

RIP Tommy

Maybe a good baseball guy, but not a good guy in my book.

My favorite Lasorda moment....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RQT1nN0M9Y

Well its a good thing your book is being read by NO ONE!

EXACTLY! RIP Tommy.

Damn! Not a week into the new year and already three HOF sports figures have passed: Floyd Little, Paul Westphal and now LaSorda. Let's hope 2021 doesn't repeat like 2020 for our sports heroes dying. :(

I had an interesting experience with him and it was one that only happened one other time in my collecting life ( the other was with Johnny Mize when I called him ).
After he was inducted into the HOF in 1997 I sent him a letter as I always did when requesting an autograph ( this was to get their permission to send them items before sending items blindly to the person , asking them their fee to sign and limit to sign , as well as the address to use when sending ) . I received a nice hand written note from him with his answer ; basically it was send whatever i wanted and no fee to his home address just include return postage ). A few weeks after sending them on a Sunday afternoon I received a call from his personal assistant . I asked curiously how they got my phone number and he said they called my dental office and got the recording with my after hours home phone number on it and called me ay home because Mr Lasorda was sitting with him in his office signing my items and Mr. Lasorda wanted to know how I wanted them signed and if I had any inscriptions I wanted on the items. I was shocked that this was happening BUT it did and I said he can sign them anyway he wishes and I'd be happy .
All went well and I received my items a week or so later , and believe it or not I got a phone call again from his assistant wanting to know if I received my items and were they in good condition.
Can't explain why it happened but it did !

RIP Tommy
 

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That's cool. When I get to the point in my life where I need the approval of a board of card collectors to validate my views on the morality of other people I will let you know. I mean any guy who supports Donald Sterling, screams at Asian American fans who bought tickets to a Dodgers game to go back to their country, and denies his son was gay and died of AIDS is just an all around charming good dude to some folks. Not to me.

I recall reading that he was the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I believe that title now passes to Mays?



And a card in his memory:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1610141086

Your son looks like a 12 year old Koufax!

Thanks, The only thing different my son was a right handed pitcher when he played baseball until early years of High School

...but if we were all perfect like you, it would be a boring ass country.

I don't know what kind of guy Lasorda was, but I've never quite understood why someone would trash a person that just passed, especially in this forum (whether it's Lasorda or one of the other half dozen Hall of Famers we've lost in the last year and change). I think it's a safe assumption that we're all here because we're baseball fans, and each time one of these guys passes, someone on this board is losing something that has likely brought them great joy at some point in their lives. These guys are human and they all have their faults, but at least let their fans do a bit of grieving over the loss of someone that they felt some type of connection to.

Cheers,
Mark

Is this the clip you are referring to? If so, I see no screaming? Also, if this is the clip, are you basing your opinion on a 5 second interaction that was suspiciously cut off right after the question was asked?
Could he be leading up to a joke with this question?

This so reminds me of how MSM brainwashes the masses. Fabricate a story that didn't actually happen but if it sells newspapers or gets more people to watch their news on T.V. then the hell with credibility, morals and values. :mad:
https://asamnews.com/2020/07/16/dodg...to-korean-fan/

I agree. The clip also doesn't show the guy Lasorda is talking to. For all we know, he was a Giants fan wearing a shirt that said "Lasorda Sucks" and was flipping Tommy off. Point being, we don't know the whole circumstance and since Tom was gracious right before that with the other fan, my guess is, he was provoked in some way.

Partial news is often fake news.

Tommy was a kidder, a jokester so I can't help but believe this was all part of a setup/lead up to for some joke that I assume went over well. If it didn't, you can bet your bottom dollar the whole vid would have been shown, guaranteed.

Like I said above, it amazes me what some people will believe based on so little information without at least fact checking/verifying the story first. The same goes for MSM. Lies, fake news stories, deception, deflection......the list goes on and on but yet people believe what they are shown to be true, unbiased and factual when nothing could be further from the truth. :(

All message boards have their Colin Cowherd wannabes. Poorly informed, ignorant of facts but always looking to have a "hot take," especially if it goes against popular, public opinion. This board is no different.

Great post right there, as well as Irv's post #28. Both so true...

Nobody despised Lasorda more than me. As a teenage Reds fan, I actually hated the man. He was loud, brazen, and loved to hog the spotlight. The type of guy you love if you're a Dodger fan, and hate if you root for the other team.

The Reds and Dodgers had a bitter rivalry in the 70s, as they were always the two best teams in the NL West. You just knew one of them would win the west, and there was no love lost between the two teams. As luck would have it, we lived in the LA area as diehard Reds fans...

It was very difficult to be stranded on that "island", and the Dodgers' man in charge bore the brunt of our resentment. To us, he was nothing more than a loudmouth blowhard spewing his blue propaganda to anyone who would listen.

But (now that I've grown up), I realize what a fighter he was. I remember how he groomed and mentored Orel Hershiser, and gave him the unlikely moniker of "Bulldog". At the time, I thought it was a ridiculous name for a pale, skinny guy, but I'm positive that it helped make him a great pitcher.

Lasorda was truly a positive influence for the Dodgers and for the game of Baseball. A great story teller, a brilliant strategist, a hell of a manager, and a true winner. His passing represents a giant loss for the game, and I can say with the utmost respect, that he was the guy you loved to hate .

RIP Tommy

I was born in Columbus and family moved to LA when I was 5...my father was in the clothing business and he became very friendly with Tommy when he was a 3rd base coach for Walt Alston. Went to the game and after my dad takes me down to the Dodger locker room where we are outside of course and Tommy comes out with Steve Garvey and Ron Cey to meet me....what a thrill because both gave me bats and signed pics, etc...I was amazed on the size of Garvey's forearms.

Fast forward and Tommy is now the manager and one day I am at home and my dad calls me from work, has me on the speaker phone. My father says he has someone here that wants to talk to me. Of course it is Tommy and he asks who is my favorite team...I am about 11 and tell him "Cincinnati Reds", he asks what can he do to convert me to the Dodgers. I told him that getting me an autograph ball of Johnny Bench would be a good start....about a month later went to the game and that day it was Dodger family day. I get invited down into the dugout with all the other families as they played a 1 inning game for fun. While there, Tommy comes up to me and behind his back he pulls out that autograph ball personalized to me from Johnny Bench.

So many other great memories of going to the World Series and sitting with his family...

Two great Lasorda stories, Bobby....

You can probably count on the fingers of one hand, the number of major leaguers who would go that extra mile. Amazing!

Thanks Mark (dealme), my fellow Hoosier, and BobbyVCP. Great posts and very supportive of those of us really hurting over the passing of the great Tommy Lasorda. --- Brian Powell

My tiny, tiny little memory is when the Dodgers played the first game of the '88 World Series. One of my parishioners was a lonely old lady who liked baseball. I went to see her and she invited me to watch the World Series. I stayed 'til the last out, though many of you know there wasn't a last out, but Kirk Gibson's walk off the field home run! They had one of the cameras on Tommy Lasorda to watch his reaction-----he threw up his arms and began whooping it up and and ran with the rest of his boys to congratulate the virtually lame Kirk Gibson. I guess I just remember his massive enthusiasm for what was obviously a magical Dodger moment.

No baseball man had a larger "Joie de vivre" than Tommy Lasorda. "Joie de vivre" is a French phrase pronounced "ZHWAH DE VEEV" and expresses a cheerful enjoyment of life and an exultation of spirit---from Wikipedia encyclopedia) than Tommy Lasorda. RIP dear sir. You're being sorely missed already!!!:( --- Brian Powell

A little late to the remembrance, but it took a minute to dig out this picture. One of my favorites of Tommy.