It is impossible to spend even a few brief moments in Tommy Lasorda's company and not find yourself rooting for the Los Angeles Dodgers. About to begin his 60th year in the employ of his beloved ballclub - "Cut me and I'll bleed Dodger blue..." - at the age of 81 Lasorda serves as "Special Advisor to the Chairman". Here is a man who likes to keep busy in his twilight years, scouting, coaching while serving as the Dodgers' global ambassador by making more than 100 speaking engagements and personal appearances every year.
You can take it as read that he will also be the Dodgers' most vociferous fan when they entertain the Philadelphia Phillies in their must-win game five of the National League play-offs tonight. Part Bill Shankly, part Bob Hope, the wise-cracking Lasorda remains as passionate about everything LA since he joined the club in 1949. A pitcher of admittedly mediocre talents, Lasorda spent much of his career playing for a Dodgers' affiliate club in Cuba alongside the youthful Fidel Castro who harboured dreams of playing Major League Baseball in America.
He recalls: "I lived through the revolution. I was there in 1952 when Batista overthrew the government, and I was there in '59 when Castro came to power. Not a lot of people know this, but Fidel Castro had a number of trials with clubs in the States but was never offered a contract. If he'd succeeded, the history of Cuba might have been very different indeed." As a manager, however, Lasorda ranked with the best, winning won two World Series championships, four National League pennants and eight division titles in his 20 year career manager during the golden era of Hollywood when Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Dean Martin and Peter Lawford caroused in the Rat Pack's VIP box at Dodger Stadium.
Despite the assembled glitterati, it was Lasorda who reigned as the undisputed Prince of Tinseltown. On one famous occasion, Ol' Blue eyes was making blue eyes at the screen siren Claudia Cardinale in a Los Angeles restaurant when Lasorda made his entrance. "Excuse me," said Sinatra rising to his feet and leaving the smouldering Italian temptress in the lurch, "but someone important just came in."
Lasorda smiles fondly at the memory. "Frank and his pals were the Dodgers' biggest fans. That ballpark attracted more movie stars and entertainers than Oscar night. A lot of people didn't understand Frank - maybe because of all that nonsense about Mafia connections - but that man gave away millions to every good cause you can imagine." Although he is possessed of a never-ending stream of one-liners - "I once played under a manager who was so dumb that if you put his brain in a bird it would fly backwards..." - Lasorda is also the ultimate baseball romantic.
"The secret of being a successful manager is like holding a dove in your hand. Squeeze too hard and you'll suffocate it, hold it not hard enough and it'll fly away. I loved the Dodgers, I loved them as a father loved a child - still do, in fact." Not everyone is baseball was seduced by Lasorda's engaging charms. "It is my considered opinion," wrote one Chicago newspaper columnist, "that Tommy Lasorda is trying to see who he can drive crazy first - his players or us writers who are subjected to his non-stop babble."
Infamous for sending umpires sprawling (in his pre-diet days) with one shove of his awesome stomach a, Lasorda's one-time gargantuan appetite also inspired sniggers. "Tommy never met a meal he didn't like," observed one former Dodger. Ah, but like Shankly, Lasorda is impossible to dislike even though he may be a tad blinkered when it comes to the Dodgers. "I've always said I'd like to go on working for the Dodgers even when I'm dead and gone," he said. "How will I do that? Easy; I'll have someone carve the Dodgers' schedule on my tombstone every season so that when people are visiting the cemetery, they'll be able to stop by my grave and see whether the Dodgers are at home or on the road."
You can not help but love the artful Dodger. sports@thenational.ae
