48 Facts About Tommy Lasorda

Thomas Charles Lasorda was an American professional baseball pitcher and manager.

Tommy Lasorda managed the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball from 1976 through 1996.

Tommy Lasorda was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 1997.

Tommy Lasorda played in MLB for the Dodgers in 1954 and 1955 and for the Kansas City Athletics in 1956.

Tommy Lasorda coached for the Dodgers from 1973 through 1976 before taking over as manager.

Related searches

Tommy Lasorda won two World Series championships as manager of the Dodgers and was named the Manager of the Year of the National League twice.

Tommy Lasorda graduated from Norristown High School in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1944.

Tommy Lasorda signed with the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1945 and began his professional career that season with the Concord Weavers of the Class D North Carolina State League.

Tommy Lasorda missed the 1946 and 1947 seasons because of a stint in the United States Army.

Tommy Lasorda served on active duty from October 1945 until spring 1947.

Tommy Lasorda returned to baseball in 1948 with the Schenectady Blue Jays of the Canadian–American League.

Tommy Lasorda pitched for Marianao, a league rival of Almendares in the Havana area.

Tommy Lasorda pitched for Montreal in 1950 through 1954 and made his major-league debut on August 5,1954, for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Tommy Lasorda made his only start for the Dodgers on May 5,1955, but was removed after the first inning after tying a major-league record with three wild pitches in one inning and being spiked by Wally Moon of the St Louis Cardinals when Moon scored on the third wild pitch.

Tommy Lasorda was demoted after the game and never pitched for the Dodgers again.

Tommy Lasorda returned to Montreal for the 1958 through 1960 seasons, but was released in July 1960.

Tommy Lasorda was the winningest pitcher in the history of the team.

Tommy Lasorda was a manager for the Dominican Winter Baseball League team Tigres del Licey.

Tommy Lasorda led the team to the 1973 Caribbean World Series title in Venezuela.

In 1973, Tommy Lasorda became the third-base coach on the staff of Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston, serving four seasons.

Tommy Lasorda was widely regarded as Alston's heir apparent and turned down several major league managing jobs elsewhere to remain in the Dodger fold.

Tommy Lasorda later returned to the third-base coach's box on a temporary basis while managing the Dodgers.

Tommy Lasorda became the Los Angeles Dodgers manager September 29,1976, upon Alston's retirement.

Tommy Lasorda managed nine players who won the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

Tommy Lasorda was named vice president of the Dodgers upon his retirement from managing in 1996.

Related searches

Tommy Lasorda came out of retirement to manage the US national team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Tommy Lasorda led the Americans to the gold medal, beating favored Cuba, which had won the gold medal at the prior two Olympics.

Tommy Lasorda briefly came out of retirement to manage the team that remained in Florida.

In 2011 an unnamed Dodger executive came up with the idea of having Dodger manager Don Mattingly ask Tommy Lasorda to be an honorary coach on his 84th birthday, against the San Francisco Giants.

Tommy Lasorda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997 as a manager in his first year of eligibility.

Tommy Lasorda was famous for his colorful personality and outspoken opinions regarding players and other personnel associated with baseball.

Tommy Lasorda had a number of obscenity-filled tirades, some of which were taped and became underground classics, like his explosion over Kurt Bevacqua in 1982.

Tommy Lasorda explained in an essay he wrote for Tim McCarver's compilation volume Diamond Gems that he wanted to break a mold by ending a longstanding unspoken taboo against managers socializing with their players off the field.

Tommy Lasorda felt it made players even more loyal to him if they saw him as a friend as well.

Tommy Lasorda said that he made it his business to know the names of all of his players' wives and children and to ask about them regularly, another characteristic that endeared him to his players for many years.

In 1996, Tommy Lasorda voiced the role of Lucky Lasorta, a Rough Collie commentating the baseball game in the film Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco.

Tommy Lasorda made a cameo appearance in the movie Ladybugs alongside comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

Tommy Lasorda portrayed the Dugout Wizard in the syndicated children's television show The Baseball Bunch.

The parent company through which Tommy Lasorda maintained his stake, Tommy Lasorda Foods Holding Corp Inc, was initially based in Fountain Valley, California, before moving to Irvine and then Paramount.

In June 2005, President George W Bush asked Lasorda to serve as a delegate to the US National Day at the World Exposition in Aichi, Japan.

Tommy Lasorda's father, Sabatino was an Italian immigrant from Tollo the region of Abruzzo.

Tommy Lasorda would have a priest come to Dodger games on Sundays to offer Mass for Catholic players.

Tommy Lasorda denied that his son was gay; according to sportswriter Bill Plaschke, he insisted his son died of cancer.

Tommy Lasorda was the godfather to Thomas Piazza, the younger brother of Major League Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza, both of whom are from Tommy Lasorda'shometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania.

Tommy Lasorda was the godfather to Alex Avila, a catcher with the Washington Nationals.

Related searches

On June 3,2012, at age 84, Tommy Lasorda was hospitalized in New York City after suffering a heart attack.

On November 8,2020, Tommy Lasorda was hospitalized for heart problems and was reported to be "in serious condition" in intensive care.

On December 1,2020, Tommy Lasorda was taken out of the intensive care unit as his condition continued to improve.