{"id":3593,"date":"2021-02-05T21:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T02:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/?page_id=3593"},"modified":"2023-05-26T18:38:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T23:38:12","slug":"remembering-tommy-lasorda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/?p=3593","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Tommy Lasorda"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Larry Dierker<\/em><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know<\/strong><\/span> Tommy Lasorda was watching the worst game I pitched in high school.\u00a0 He was a Dodgers scout at the time (1964).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lasorda as a Brooklyn Dodger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Had I known, I still wouldn\u2019t have known that he was an outstanding pitcher in his day, who only missed his chance because the Dodgers signed a kid named Sandy Koufax and had to protect <\/span>him on the major-league roster.<\/p>\n

Years later, when Tommy came up to manage the Dodgers, he gave me a good-natured shot-across-the-bow.\u00a0 We were near the batting cage at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou shoulda pitched a good game against Birmingham.\u00a0 I was there, and you stunk it up,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cYou coulda been pitching for us<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the only time the Dodgers sent a scout to see me that year.\u00a0 The Colt .45s saw me pitch the rest of the games, and they signed me to a generous bonus.\u00a0 The Dodgers signed Willie Crawford, another Los Angeles player.\u00a0 So it goes.<\/p>\n

In 1988<\/strong>,<\/span> the Dodgers drafted Mike Piazza in the 62nd <\/sup>round as a favor to Piazza\u2019s father, one of Tommy\u2019s friends.\u00a0 When the new recruit took batting practice at Dodger Stadium, he peppered the left field bleachers with home runs.\u00a0 Lasorda was peacock-proud.\u00a0 But the scout who watched him play first base at Miami Dade Community College was still unimpressed.\u00a0 He told Tommy that his friend\u2019s son had a weak arm and was deadly slow afoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if he was a catcher?\u201d Tommy asked.\u00a0 The scout said that would be a different story.\u00a0 Tommy said, \u201cSo, now he\u2019s a catcher.\u201d \u00a0And what a story it turned out to be. All the way to the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

When I was<\/strong><\/span> 30 years old and at the end of my pitching career, Tommy was 49 and just getting started.\u00a0 For 18 years, while I was broadcasting Astros games, Tommy would tweak me about the Birmingham game during batting practice.\u00a0 After the 1996 season, he retired and I started managing the Astros.\u00a0 I saw him occasionally during my five years at the helm.\u00a0 He was good- natured, but there was always a Birmingham dig in there somewhere.<\/p>\n

Tommy often threw early batting practice when he was managing the team.\u00a0 What a smooth delivery he had! And what a textbook curveball.\u00a0 The hitters had some trouble with that pitch, even when he told them it was coming.<\/p>\n

As an analyst on TV, I had a high regard for his managing.\u00a0 In a 22-inning game we played in the Astrodome, he had Fernando Valenzuela pitch in relief, or pinch-hit; I can\u2019t remember.\u00a0 But then he left him in the game, and played him in left field and at first base.\u00a0 Fernando was a really good hitter.\u00a0 Third-baseman Jeff Hamilton pitched for them in that night and lost it, but was throwing 95 mph. Tommy made so many moves in those extra innings, it was hard to keep up with them on the scorecard. Masterful is what I would call it.<\/p>\n

I know<\/strong><\/span> some of the Dodgers players during his years didn\u2019t like the exorbitant hugging that was part of his \u201cDodgers Family,\u201d Italian style.\u00a0 But there were none who doubted his faith in the team, what with the bleeding of Dodger Blue and all.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t like his act.\u00a0 Would have found it to be a bit much as a pitcher.\u00a0 He was certainly easy for opponents to hate, prancing around the infield like a pregnant duck.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But what a character! He was wildly entertaining as a speaker. And I ended up with fond feelings for him in the end. He aged, gracefully but still aggressively.\u00a0 He was a baseball original.\u00a0 And that species is becoming rare.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder<\/strong><\/span> how my life would have changed if I had pitched well against Birmingham and played for my hometown team?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Larry Dierker I didn\u2019t know Tommy Lasorda was watching the worst game I pitched in high school.\u00a0 He was a Dodgers scout at the time (1964). Had I known, I still wouldn\u2019t have known […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4181,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593\/revisions\/4181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}