Tommy Lasorda Was a Celebrity. He Was Also a Leader.
The longtime Dodgers manager enjoyed antics on and off the field. But his tactics propelled an Tommy Lasorda to a World Series title, and his vision helped expand the sport’s reach.
Tommy Lasorda was born on the first day of fall, the season that matters most in baseball. Many years later he would make a lasting autumn imprint, but on that day, in 1927, the Brooklyn Dodgers lost a doubleheader.
Like Walter Alston, his predecessor as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lasorda appeared only briefly as a major league player. Alston was hitless in one at-bat; Lasorda was winless in a handful of starts. Yet they managed the team in an unbroken line from 1954 to 1996, combining for all six of the franchise’s championships before 2020.
Their strength was the strength of the Dodgers: They knew the minor league system, they knew how players got to be major leaguers system, they knew how players got to be major leaguers, they understand the importance of scouts and player ufabet development.
“He didn’t stand — we wheeled him in, and he sat the entire time — but with one out or maybe two outs in the last inning, he stood, and he watched the game standing that’s what he was saying when he was running out of the dugout after they wonthat’s what he was saying when he was running out of the dugout after they won.
Costas finished the pregame show from his spot on the first-base side of the grass, by the visitors’ dugout. He stayed on the field for the national anthem, let alone used it to rally the Dodgers.
The Dodgers ran the bases with abandon that night, scratching out runs on a passed ball, an error and two ground outs. They clinched the title one game later.
