His minor league career had been delayed for two years while he served active duty in the U. He returned to the Dodgers organization, which had moved to Los Angeles in , ahead of the season as the club's third base coach. He was promoted to manager in Lasorda guided L. His antics were entertaining, but he backed them with good results and was promoted to manage at the triple-A level in Spokane, Wash.
His teams won five pennants in seven seasons, and 75 players he managed made it to the major leagues. By the time Lasorda wore a major league uniform again, this time as a coach, the Dodgers had long before left Brooklyn for Los Angeles. Alston retired on Sept. Lasorda had managed all four in the minors. He invited players to drop in, sample the food and chat.
Fans loved the new, more colorful Dodgers. Home attendance surpassed 3 million for the first time in and peaked at 3. Sagacious moves can account for that much success. During the World Series, he agreed to wear a microphone for enhanced TV coverage. After the New York Yankees got three straight hits off Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau in Game 4, Lasorda went to the mound and confronted Rau and the two went at it in an expletive-filled conversation that — while it never made it onto air — later became a favorite internet sound bite.
How much of it was a genuine display of temper, and how much was contrived by Lasorda to give the reliever in the bullpen time to loosen up is a matter of debate. Lasorda ran afoul of a microphone the following season, too. You have to show your appreciation. He won National League pennants in his first two full seasons, and Both years, the Dodgers lost the World Series to the Yankees.
Lasorda was blessed with a prolific farm system that produced four consecutive rookie-of-the-year winners from through , in pitchers Valenzuela, Rick Sutcliffe and Steve Howe and second baseman Steve Sax. A young Dodgers team in won 91 games and captured the National League West but lost to the Phillies in the league championship series.
After missing the playoffs in , the team won 95 games to finish first in the division. The Dodgers, matched up against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL championship series, were on the brink of elimination and clinging to a lead in the top of the ninth with two outs when Jack Clark stepped to the plate with runners on second and third.
Clark, a much-feared right-handed hitter, was batting. With first base open, logic dictated that Lasorda would tell reliever Tom Niedenfuer to walk Clark and face Van Slyke, or pull Niedenfuer and bring in left-hander Jerry Reuss. The Dodgers had intentionally walked Clark three times in the series. But Lasorda kept Niedenfuer in the game and the move backfired spectacularly when Clark hit a fastball into the left-field stands for a three-run home run that put the Cardinals ahead to stay and launched them into the World Series.
Mostly, they rode the arm of Cy Young award-winning pitcher Orel Hershiser, who had set a record by pitching 59 consecutive scoreless innings. In the World Series, outfielder Kirk Gibson spent most of the first game getting treatment in the clubhouse for his injured back. Lasorda summoned him with two out in the bottom of the ninth, a runner on base and the Dodgers trailing, Facing premier closer Dennis Eckersley, Gibson slammed a slider over the right-field wall for a stirring victory that gave the Dodgers a memorable comeback.
The image of Gibson pumping his right fist as he hobbled around the bases became an instant classic in Dodgers lore. The team went on to finish off Oakland in five games. As a favor to Lasorda, the Dodgers picked a family friend in the 62nd round of the draft, 1,th overall. More Videos Lasorda had a sudden cardiopulmonary arrest while home Thursday evening. Less than an hour later, he was pronounced dead at p. Lasorda, who won World Series titles as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers in and , pitched in the Brooklyn Dodgers system in and He took over as manager of the Los Angeles in , a job he held for 20 years, winning two National League Manager of the Year awards along with those two world championships.
He also led the team to 1, wins during his time as manager, and was the first National League manager to win two pennants in the first two seasons. Read More. After retiring in , he was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in Photos: Legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.
Lasorda was affiliated with the Dodgers as a player, manager and executive for 71 seasons. Hide Caption. There was no immediate word on a cause of death. The couple were married for 70 years. Tommy Lasorda passed away in January at the age of 93 after suffering a heart attack. She met Tommy Lasorda at a Greenville Spinners minor league baseball game, where he was a pitcher.
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