This is a post of recommendation. This is not a post for Dodger fans. This is a post for baseball fans. Even if you hate the Dodgers, that means you have some sort of passion for the game of baseball. That means you’ll enjoy this. I don’t think it’s commonplace for a sports blog to praise another sports blog so highly, but this is different. This is baseball. This isn’t some site you go to for your daily baseball news and opinions, you go to this site for nostalgia. You go for the love of a game who’ve played and watched since you can remember. It’s the most refreshing baseball blog I’ve ever stumbled across. It’s for any fan of the game, especially it’s history: Tommy Lasorda’s World. I don’t know the details about how it came to be, but it appears to be a ton of short stories as told by Tommy on the radio that have been transcribed into a blog series called, Lasorda at His Best. After reading through hours of his stories, I can say, Lasorda really is the best.
A very young Tommy Lasorda
There are so many great stories, and if you are anything like me, you’ll find yourself cracking up at Lasorda, his storytelling, and the shenanigans that he and his players have
been up to over the course of his vast baseball career. I absolutely love this blog. So simple. So great. Here are a few of my favorites. The story about Steve Sax at an away game in San Diego, and how Tommy had asked Rick Monday to go have a chat with him about leading off at third base. “Don’t ever ask me to talk to him about anything ever again,” said Monday. “What happened?” “I’m trying to tell him how to take the walking lead off third base and when I finished I asked him if he had any questions,” said Monday. And Sax said, “Yeah, is the chicken going to be here tonight?”
Then there was the time he won the PCL by a 26 game margin with the 1970 Spokane Indians, which was voted “greatest team in the history of minor league baseball” by Baseball America. How ’bout the time Rocky Marciano came to Vero Beach to tryout as a catcher for the Dodgers.
Wanna know why Lasorda, Dodger blue through and through, dressed up as Babe Ruth? One of my favorite stories was when Robin Yount and George Brett were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. They sat by Ted Williams and he started grilling them with questions about hitting. ““How many times do you think the ball spins?” “How fast is the pitchers arm?” “How does the wind affect the pitch?” Yount and Brett didn’t have any answers, even though they both are in the 3,000 hit club. “You guys are dummies,” said Williams. “But welcome to Cooperstown.””
The last story I’ll mention is this one, what Tommy calls his “claim to fame”. When he was cut by the Brooklyn Dodgers, know who took his place? Sandy Koufax. Great story. Tommy thought he was better than Sandy, the greatest left handed pitcher of all time. Love it.
-bp