Vignettes from life of Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vignettes from the life and career of Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda. He died Thursday at age 93.

MOUND VISITS

Pitcher Orel Hershiser, the 1988 World Series MVP and NL Cy Young Award winner, remembers the banter between him and Lasorda during mound visits. At times, the fiery Lasorda would rip into Hershiser and then leave him in the game. Other times, the manager didn't need to get tough.

"He actually motivated me by saying, ‘Bulldog, I need you to get these guys out in a hurry. I’m hungry and the postgame spread is cooling.’''

Hershiser recalled a mound visit Lasorda made to reliever Jesse Orosco.

“He was trying to figure out the camera angle so that he could swear on the mound and people couldn’t read his lips because Vin Scully notoriously could read lips as could other broadcasters.”

DINING WITH THE MANAGER

Utility player Bobby Valentine first met Lasorda when he was scouted in 1968 and then played for him in Ogden, Utah, of the Pioneer League. Lasorda picked him up from the airport after his flight from New York. He told Valentine that he had a lot of responsibility as the top pick of the Dodgers.

“I said, ‘Well, you just tell me what the responsibilities are and I’m here to meet those responsibilities.’ And he said, ‘Well, the first thing you have to do is take the manager to dinner.’ And I took him to dinner on the way home from the airport. We bought a steak and I asked if the number two pick was going to take him out the next day. That turned out to be Billy Buckner, who refused to buy him dinner.”

PROLIFIC WRITER

Lasorda often wrote postcards and letters to his players during and after their playing days. Some contained messages of motivation for the coming season. Hershiser left the Dodgers as a free...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Vignettes-from-life-of-Hall-of-Fame-manager-Tommy-15857114.php