Tommy Lasorda, the longtime Los Angeles Dodgers and Hall of Fame manager, dies at 93

Rick Sutcliffe and Tommy Lasorda shared a laugh behind the batting cage at Wrigley Field before a Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs game in 2017 — 36 years after Sutcliffe destroyed Lasorda’s storied manager’s office at Dodger Stadium.

“I have two World Series rings thanks to two people,” said Sutcliffe, a spring training coach and unofficial ambassador for the Cubs. “Joe Maddon and Tommy Lasorda.”

A light-hitting infielder could feel like a batting champion and an unheralded pitching prospect could think like a Cy Young Award winner after listening to the fiery speeches of Lasorda, a 1997 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee who died at 93.

In a statement on Friday, the Dodgers said Lasorda “suffered a sudden cardiopulmonary arrest at this home” on Thursday night and was transported to the hospital “with resuscitation in progress”.

Lasorda, who won 1,599 games and World Series titles in 1981 and 1988 during an eventful 20-year managerial career, stepped down shortly after suffering a heart attack during the 1996 season. His last public appearance was at Game 6 of the 2020 World Series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, where the Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays for their first championship since 1988.

Lasorda’s devotion to the Dodgers was surpassed only by his love for his country. He proudly led the United States to the gold medal in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, upsetting the heavily favored Cubans 4-0.

“When the Dodgers won, the LA fans were happy, but they weren’t happy in San Francisco or Philadelphia,” Lasorda told the Tribune’s Ed Sherman. “But today, all of the U.S. is happy for us.”

Born on Sept. 22, 1927, in Norristown, Pa., Lasorda relished his Italian American roots and dreamed of pitching for the New York Yankees. Instead, the stout left-hander signed with the Philadelphia Phillies after high school but served in the military after one season.

Lasorda returned in 1948 and struck out a record 25 in a 15-inning game in the Class C Canadian-American League. The Dodgers took notice and drafted him from the Phillies the following season, but Lasorda didn’t make his major-league debut until 1954.

He made only 26 major-league appearance, none after 1956, while mostly languishing in the minors before the Dodgers released him in 1960.

Lasorda gained a keen eye for talent during four seasons as a scout before embarking on a managerial career in the minors in 1965. That’s where he began to make a name for himself with his confidence and ability to enhance the skills of future Dodgers mainstays such as Steve Garvey, Bill Buckner, Ron Cey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes, Joe Ferguson, Steve Yeager, Doug Rau and Charlie Hough.

He brought his spirited style to the majors for four seasons as the Dodgers third base coach, engaging in a pregame fight with San Francisco Giants manager Charlie Fox in 1973.

After taking over for Walter Alston as manager at the end of the 1976 season, Lasorda declared the Dodgers ready to dethrone the two-time defending National League champion Cincinnati Reds, and he succeeded with back-to-back league titles in 1977 and ’78. The Dodgers lost to the Yankees in the World Series in six games both years.

As the success of the Dodgers and Lasorda soared, so did their popularity. Hollywood celebrities such as Frank Sinatra began to flock before games to Lasorda’s office — the same office Sutcliffe trashed after being left off the 1981 postseason roster. Lasorda appeared on television shows such as “Fantasy Island,” “Hart to Hart,” “Silver Spoons” and “Simon & Simon.”

Lasorda also won over some of his players by bringing food to the clubhouse, a practice that Dusty Baker, who played for Lasorda from 1976 to 1983, frequently employed at his own numerous managerial stops.

During his Dodgers tenure, Lasorda managed nine NL Rookie of the Year winners, including Hall of Famer Mike Piazza and Fernando Valenzuela.

“Rookies are like snowflakes,” Lasorda told me in 1993 about the way he handled rookies. “No two are alike.”

Valenzuela became the only player to win the NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in the same year in 1981, the strike-shortened season that ended with Lasorda’s first World Series title in six games against the Yankees.

Lasorda didn’t limit his attention to stars. In 1984 he chewed out young pitcher Orel Hershiser during a rough relief outing and gave him the nickname “Bulldog” in hopes he would adopt a tougher demeanor on the mound. Hershiser rebounded by winning 19 games the next season before a 23-win, Cy Young season in 1988.

That season was the zenith of Lasorda’s managerial career. He directed a largely overachieving roster to the World Series title — the franchise’s last one until this past October.

In the NL Championship Series, the Dodgers stunned the New York Mets, who had beaten them 10 of 11 times during the regular season.

In the World Series against the heavily favored Oakland Athletics, Lasorda saved an injured Kirk Gibson for a dramatic game-winning pinch-hit home run off Dennis Eckersley in the ninth inning of Game 1. That set the tone for the series, which the Dodgers won in five games with Hershiser winning Games 2 and 5 to take World Series MVP honors.

One year after retiring because of heart problems, Lasorda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the oldest living Hall of Famer since Red Schoendienst’s death in June 2018.

Lasorda briefly served as Dodgers general manager before accepting the assignment of managing the 2000 U.S. Olympic team, which consisted of fringe major leaguers and minor-league prospects.

If the U.S. needed any motivation against the Cubans, Lasorda provided it with a political statement.

“I wanted to win the game for the people who left the country,” Lasorda told the Tribune after a 5-1 loss to Cuba in qualifying play. “I had friends who had to evacuate their homes.”

Home for Lasorda for the last two decades was Dodger Stadium, where he served as senior vice president and a senior adviser. Before the final night game at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1999, the rival Giants invited Lasorda to reenact his famous walk from the clubhouse entrance down the right-field line to home plate, where he waved and blew kisses to angry Giants fans.

In September 2001, the Dodgers presented Lasorda with a batter’s-box-sized cake on his 74th birthday before a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Lasorda seized the moment by delivering a passionate speech to 40,000 fans, reminding them of their service as Americans in the wake of the recent 9/11 attacks.

In recent seasons, Lasorda sat in a field-level seat near the Dodgers dugout, frequently sitting with Chairman Mark Walter or co-owner Magic Johnson and often leaving for his Orange County home well before games ended.

In April, Lasorda taped a message for baseball fans coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Stay home! Wear your mask,” Lasorda said in the video. “Do everything to help yourself and your country and your friends.”

In addition to his wife of 70 years, Jo, Lasorda is survived by a daughter, Laura, and a granddaughter. His son, Tom Lasorda Jr., died in 1991 at age 33 of pneumonia related to AIDS.