Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson, left, hams it up with Manager Tommy Lasorda on the steps of City Hall in Los Angeles on Oct. 24, 1988, during a celebration of the team’s World Series victory. The championship trophy is at left. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda dances for the team’s fans during celebrations of their World Series win in downtown Los Angeles, Ca., on Oct. 24, 1988. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. Former Los Angeles Dodger manager Tommy Larsorda smiles with a baby during a baseball game between Korea and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch Stadium on Thursday March 12. 2009 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manger Tommy Lasorda argues with home plate umpire Larry King during the Old-Timers game prior to a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, June 8, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Los Angeles Dodgers former manager Tommy Lasorda during a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at the Ballpark at Camelback Ranch on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, in Glendale,Arizona. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, right, talks with Andre Ethier before a Major League baseball game between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 19, 2011. Dodgers won the game 1-0. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, right, with Maury Wills (30) and Bill Buckner (22) during the Old-Timers game prior to a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, June 8, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
Tommy Lasorda of the Brooklyn Dodgers during pitching action, August 7, 1954. (AP Photo)
Tom Lasorda when he was the pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, taken Sept. 4,1954. (AP Photo)
FILE – Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda goes through congratulatory mail after the Dodgers won the 1981 World Series is in his office in Los Angeles, in this Oct. 29, 1981, file photo. Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93. The Dodgers said Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, that he had a heart attack at his home in Fullerton, California. (AP Photo/Rasmussen, File)
Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia, left, talks with former teammate, Los Angeles Dodgers senior vice president Tommy Lasarda, prior to their preseason game Friday, April 1, 2005, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Tommy Lasorda, former manager of the LA Dodgers, speaks to kids and their families at El Toro High School during a fundraiser for the school’s baseball team, telling them, “believe that you can do anything you want to,” on 2/2/17. (PHOTO BY JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager and Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, center, gives a pep talk to the Palm Desert Aztecs before a CIF-SS Division 4 championship baseball game against Bishop Amat Lancers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday, June 3, 2011. Bishop Amat won the game 7-0. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Birmingham/SPORTS)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager and Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, left, takes a moment as he pats Palm Desert Aztecs Ryan Garvey (son of Dodger great Steve Garvey) on the head before a CIF-SS Division 4 championship baseball game against Bishop Amat Lancers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday, June 3, 2011. Bishop Amat won the game 7-0. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Birmingham/SPORTS)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, shown attending a game at Dodger Stadium in 2018, has been hospitalized in Orange County and is in intensive care. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager Tommy Lasorda waves a Dodgers’ towel in the first inning during game one of a National League Divisional Series baseball game on Wednesday, October 7, 2009, in Los Angeles. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Birmingham/SPORTS)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Ron Cey, Left, speaks with his former manager Tommy Lasorda during a MLB baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Los Angeles Police Department Police chief Charlie Beck, left, with Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda prior to announcing a special baseball card that features a Dodgers’ player and a member of either the LAPD or LASD prior to a Major League Baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 in Los Angeles.
(Photo by Keith Birmingham/ Pasadena Star-News)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, left, with Bill Buckner (22) during the Old-Timers game prior to a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, June 8, 2013 in Los Angeles.
(Keith Birmingham/Pasadena Star-News)
Los Angeles Dodgers former manager Tommy Lasorda with owner Mark Walters daughter prior to a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2012 in Los Angeles.
(Keith Birmingham/Pasadena Star-News)
Washington Nationals vs Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium July 29. 2006, Dodgers Tommy Lasorda ,Left, and owner Frank McCourt during a baseball game Saturday.
(SGVN Staff Photo Keith Birmingham SXSports)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda during the Old-Timers game after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants 6-2 during a Major league baseball game on Saturday, May 10, 2014 in Los Angeles.
(Keith Birmingham/Pasadena Star-News)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda during the Old-Timers game after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants 6-2 during a Major league baseball game on Saturday, May 10, 2014 in Los Angeles.
(Keith Birmingham/Pasadena Star-News)
Bev Snider, wife of the late hall of famer, Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers Duke Snider touches the Hall of fame plaque as former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and teammate of Snider looks on as the Dodgers honored Snider prior to a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies in Los Angeles on Tuesday, August 9, 2011. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Birmingham/SPORTS)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda during a spring baseball game against the Cleveland Indians at Camelback Ranch on Sunday, March 3, 2013 in Glendale, Arizona.
(Keith Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)
Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and former Dodger and current Arizona Diamondbacks bench coach Kirk Gibson (23) before a game at the Ballpark at Camelback Ranch on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, in Glendale,Arizona. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Birmingham/SPORTS)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda talks with Matt Kemp during a spring baseball game against the Cleveland Indians at Camelback Ranch on Sunday, March 3, 2013 in Glendale, Arizona.
(Keith Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager and Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda waves to the crowd during a MLB baseball game during Opening Day at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, March 28, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles Dodgers won 12-5. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda greets Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia before a spring training game at Tempe Diablo Stadium as the Angels beat the Dodgers in a split squad 4-1 on Saturday, February 26, 2011, in Tempe. Arizona. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Birmingham/SPORTS)
The last Dodgers World Series title before this year came with Fred Claire, right, running the front office, Tommy Lasorda, center, as the manager and Peter O’Malley as the owner. (Photo by Craig Jones, ALLSPORT via Getty Images)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, left, Roz Wyman, the youngest person and the second woman to serve on the Los Angeles City Council, who in the 1950’s campaigned on getting major-league baseball to L.A., and former Dodgers pitcher and current broadcaster Orel Hershiser pose for a photo before Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully is honored in a pregame ceremony at Dodger Stadium Friday, Sept. 23, 2016. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda looks on as Mary Hart (not pictured) throws out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the start of game five of the National League Division Series between the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, Oct. 09, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – SEPTEMBER 10: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers and former manager Tommy Lasorda (L) celebrate in the clubhouse after defeating the Baltimore Orioles and clinching the National League West Division Title at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 10, 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda celebrates in the clubhouse after Game 7 of the National League Championship Series baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, in Milwaukee. The Dodgers won 5-1 to advance to the World Series. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela is interviewed by Manager Tommy Lasorda before a game against the Chicago Cubs on June 7, 1981 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Months later, Valenzuela was the winning pitcher in Game 3 of the World Series, beginning the Dodgers’ rally from an 0-2 series deficit against the Yankees. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Los Angeles Dodger Rick Sutcliffe wins National League Rookie of the Year. (AP Photo/Kennedy)
Tommy Lasorda celebrates winning the pennant in Montreal in 1981.
(Photo Courtesy Los Angeles Dodgers)
FILE – Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda celebrates after the Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos for the National League title in Montreal, in this Monday, Oct. 19, 1981, file photo. Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93. The Dodgers said Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, that he had a heart attack at his home in Fullerton, California. (AP Photo/Grimshaw, File)
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, right, congratulates Dodgers runner Derrel Thomas, center, after Thomas scored in the sixth inning of the World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 1981, New York. Davey Lopes (15) of the Dodgers moves to offer his congratulations. (AP Photo)
Tommy Lasorda and Ron Cey celebrate after the last out of the 1981 World Series at Yankee Stadium.
(Photo Courtesy Los Angeles Dodgers)
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda is covered with shaving cream and soaked with champagne after the teams victory party in the clubhouse after winning the World Series in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 1981. (AP Photo)
Los Angeles Dodgers Vice President Al Campanis, left, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Dodgers President Peter OMalley and Manager Tommy Lasorda, right, pose with the World Series Championship trophy, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 1981, New York. (AP photo)
FILE – Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, right, and Fred Claire, Dodger Vice President, hoist the World Series trophy following their team’s 5-2 win over the Oakland Athletics in Oakland, Calif., in this Oct. 20, 1988, file photo. Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93. The Dodgers said Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, that he had a heart attack at his home in Fullerton, California. (AP Photo/File)
October 1988: Pitcher and World Series MVP Orel Hershiser #55 and manager Tommy Lasorda #2 of the Los Angeles Dodgers hold up the World Series trophy in front of a crowd at the Mayor’s building in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA – OCTOBER 07: Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda greets Caleb Ferguson #64 in the dugout before Game Three of the National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park on October 7, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda sits next to current manager Dave Roberts during a press conference at Dodger Stadium to unveil the 2020 Allstar logo and talk about renovations to the stadium Tuesday, July 23, 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
2005 of Lasorda and Mike Scioscia
Lakers executive Magic Johnson, left, laughs with former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda between innings as a Dodgers game. The Lakers legend is part of the Dodgers ownership group. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
United States baseball manager Tommy Lasorda hands out birthday cake to his players after he was presented with a birthday cake in the locker room after the team’s win over Italy at the Sydney Olympic Park Baseball Stadium in Sydney, Friday, Sept. 22, 2000. Lasorda turned 73 Friday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Los Angeles Dodger’s Tommy Lasorda is honored by the players as he walks off the field at Holman Stadium for the last time after the Grapefruit League baseball game against the Houston Astros Monday March 17, 2008 in Vero Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Florida Today, Craig Rubadoux)
Former Dodger manager Tmmy Lasorda throws out the first pitch in game 2 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium on 10/10/2015. Photo by MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER/SCNG)
Manager Tommy Lasorda crosses the field at the Olympic Baseball Stadium draped in the American flag after his team beat Cuba 4-0 for the gold medal Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000, in Sydney. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Tommy Lasorda greets five-month-old Lindsay Metcalf before a Grapefruit League baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Vero Beach, Fla., Wednesday, March 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Tommy Lasorda dozes off in the later innings during a spring training baseball game against the Washington Nationals Sunday, March 11, 2007 in Vero Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
FILE – In this April 11, 2018, file photo, former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda attends a news conference in Los Angeles. Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93. The Dodgers said Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, that he had a heart attack at his home in Fullerton, California. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
FILE – Jo Lasorda, wife of Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager Tommy Lasorda, leans up to give him a good luck kiss on the start of his 35th season with the Dodger organization, in Los Angeles in this April 4, 1984, file photo. Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93. The Dodgers said Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, that he had a heart attack at his home in Fullerton, California. (AP Photo/Lennox Mclendon, File)
FILE – Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, background, pretends to put a choke hold on Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda during practice for the All-Star Game in Seattle, in this July 16, 1979, file photo. Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93. The Dodgers said Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, that he had a heart attack at his home in Fullerton, California. (AP Photo)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. Former Los Angeles Dodger Tommy Lasorda during the Old Timers game prior to a Major League baseball game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, June 10, 2017 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. Former Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda during batting practice before the Dodgers celebrating there 50th season in Los Angeles played an exhibition game in front of 115,300 people against the Boston Redsox’s March 29. 2008 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda during the Old-Timers game after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants 6-2 during a Major league baseball game on Saturday, May 10, 2014 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. Orel Hershiser, left and Tommy Lasorda, right, walk together prior to game six of a World Series baseball game at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. 91 year-old Hall of Fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, left, poses for pictures outside of the Vin Scully Press Box prior to a MLB baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, June 20, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
FILE – Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda waves to the crowd before a baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York, in this June 10, 2015, file photo. Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93. The Dodgers said Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, that he had a heart attack at his home in Fullerton, California. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
As a teenager growing up near Philadelphia in the 1940s, Tommy Lasorda said he went to a Phillies game once and asked an obscure outfielder with the visiting team, the New York Giants’ Buster Maynard, to sign his scorecard. Maynard snubbed the young Lasorda, pushing the scorecard away.
Years later, Lasorda hadn’t forgotten. Then a 21-year-old left-hander in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ farm system, Lasorda found himself in a Sally League game facing Maynard, hanging on after an intermittent big-league career. Lasorda brushed the veteran back multiple times, setting off a brawl. After the game, Maynard asked the brash young lefty what he had done to deserve that. Lasorda told him of the slight from years before.
For decades, Lasorda told that story to young Dodger players as a cautionary tale to treat fans properly and on the banquet circuit countless times where so many of his tall tales ended with Lasorda brawling with someone. Into another century, Maynard long relegated to the dustbin of baseball-reference.com, Lasorda was still pulling the story out to entertain reporters gathered around the golf cart that became his rolling spring training stage.
The seething competitiveness evident in that story was a through line in Lasorda’s 70-year career in professional baseball, spent as a player, scout, coach, manager and front-office fixture in the Dodgers’ organization. It served him well as he became a Hall of Fame manager, leading the Dodgers to eight division titles, four National League pennants and World Series titles in 1981 and 1988 – the latter fueled by the type of chip-on-the-shoulder underdog intensity Lasorda nurtured as a staple of life.
Along the way, he traveled the world as one of baseball’s most passionate ambassadors, a friend to celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles and a celebrity himself, his belly and status as the TV pitchman for a diet supplement serving as ready punch lines for late-night comics.
That brawling, sprawling life reached its conclusion Thursday as Thomas Charles “Tommy” Lasorda died at age 93 at his Fullerton home. Lasorda traveled to Arlington, Texas for Game 6 of the World Series on Oct. 27 when the Dodgers won their first championship since the Lasorda-led team in 1988. He was hospitalized in Orange County shortly after returning and spent some time in the intensive care unit. He was moved out of the ICU in early December but doctors continued to monitor his condition through the holidays. He was allowed to go home on Tuesday and the team announced that he was “resting comfortably” at home.
The outlines of Lasorda’s life are as familiar to Dodger fans as his bandy-legged profile.
A native of Norristown, Pa., Lasorda appeared in only 26 major-league games as a left-handed pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Kansas City Athletics during a 14-year professional career spent mostly in the minor leagues. Lasorda’s brief time as a member of the Dodgers’ pitching staff ended in June 1955 when he was sent to the minors to clear a roster spot for a hard-throwing, command-challenged bonus baby – Sandy Koufax.
Known for a gregarious, high-spirited nature, a love of Italian food and “a heart that bled Dodger blue,” Lasorda became a scout for the club in 1961 and a minor-league manager in 1965, winning five championships in seven seasons at Pocatello, Idaho; Ogden, Utah; Spokane, Washington; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Lasorda became manager of the Dodgers on Sept. 29, 1976, after having worked for four-plus seasons as the team’s third-base coach under his predecessor as manager, Walter Alston.
Sparked by their longtime infield of first baseman Steve Garvey, second baseman Davey Lopes, shortstop Bill Russell and third baseman Ron Cey, the Dodgers won pennants in 1977 and ’78, only to lose the World Series to the New York Yankees each of those years. Lasorda became just the second National League manager, after St. Louis’ Gabby Street in 1930-31, to capture league championships in his first two seasons.
The first of two world championships under Lasorda came during the strike-shortened 1981 campaign, when the Dodgers, led by rookie left-hander Fernando Valenzuela, defeated the Houston Astros in a division playoff, the Montreal Expos in the National League Championship Series and the Yankees in a six-game World Series.
The Dodgers captured NL West division titles in 1983 and ’85, two of six won under Lasorda’s guidance, but fell in the NLCS to the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively. After defeating the favored New York Mets in seven games in the 1988 NLCS, the Dodgers rode a dramatic and decisive, pinch-hit home run by hobbled outfielder Kirk Gibson in Game 1 to a five-game, World Series victory over the heavily favored Oakland A’s.
The Dodgers’ final postseason appearance under Lasorda came in a 1995 division series against the Cincinnati Reds. He retired with a career managerial record of 1,599-1,439 for a .526 winning percentage, having managed the National League to victories in three of four All-Star Games and also serving as a coach in five more. Lasorda’s 1,599 regular-season wins ranks 22nd all-time among major-league managers. He won NL Manager of the Year awards in 1977, 1981 and 1988.
Lasorda retired as Dodgers manager on July 29, 1996, shortly after having undergone angioplasty surgery following a mild heart attack. Lasorda’s condition was considered serious enough that the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee waived the usual waiting period and selected him for induction in 1997. The Dodgers retired his uniform number, 2.
But Lasorda spent 24 more years in the Dodgers’ organization, becoming a vice president following his retirement as manager and serving as interim general manager briefly in 1998 before being named senior vice president on Sept. 11, 1998.
Russell, who succeeded Lasorda as Dodgers manager, was among several players managed by Lasorda who went on to become major-league skippers. The group also includes Angels manager Mike Scioscia, Lopes, Dusty Baker, Johnny Oates, Phil Garner and Bobby Valentine.
Lasorda returned briefly to the field to coach the U.S. Olympic team that captured the nation’s first-ever baseball gold medal in the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and also spent much of his later life as an entertaining and powerful public speaker, making many appearances on behalf of the American Heart Association. He also received honorary doctorate degrees from Pepperdine University, St. Thomas University and the University of Phoenix.
Lasorda’s long and successful managerial career came after an all-too-brief run as a major-league pitcher during stints with Brooklyn in 1954-55 and Kansas City in 1956. He appeared in four games for the 1955 Dodgers, the first in franchise history to win a World Series, and threw a major-league record three wild pitches in one inning on May 5, 1955.
The Dodgers returned Lasorda to the minor leagues for the final time in order to open a roster spot for eventual Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax and eventually sold Lasorda to the A’s in 1956. Lasorda failed to ever win a major-league game, going 0-4 with a 6.52 career earned run average in 58-plus innings.
A minor-league career that began in 1945 and resumed three years later after a stint in the Army was much more kind to Lasorda. While in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, he gained the attention of the Dodgers by striking out a then-professional-record 25 batters in a 15-inning game while pitching for the Schenectady (N.Y.) Blue Jays against the Amsterdam (N.Y.) Rugmakers in the Class C Canadian-American League in 1948.
After signing with the Dodgers, Lasorda went 98-49 for their top farm club, the Montreal Royals of the International League, from 1950-1955 and 1958-1960. His best seasons resulted in a 17-8 mark in 1953 and an 18-6 record in 1958, when Lasorda led the league in victories, complete games, and shutouts.
Lasorda helped Montreal win five International League championships and pitched for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League in 1957, the year before the Dodgers moved West from Brooklyn.
Lasorda, who lived in Fullerton, is survived by his wife of 70 years, Jo; daughter, Laura; son-in-law, Bill Goldberg; and granddaughter, Emily Tess. Lasorda’s son, Tom Jr., died in 1991.
Lasorda, “Tommy” (Thomas C.)
Born: Sept. 22, 1927, Norristown, Penn.
Died: Jan. 7, 2021, Fullerton
Career managerial record: 1,599-1,439 (.526)
Career playing record: 0-4 in 26 games, 6.48 ERA
Elected to Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1997
