[Elvis]

[Elvis]

[PARAM]

NBC

Tommy Lasorda, the only person to manage World Series and Olympic champion teams, has died at age 93.

Lasorda suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest at his home and died Thursday night. He was hospitalized in November and released from the hospital earlier this week, according to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Lasorda guided the only U.S. baseball team to win an Olympic title at the 2000 Sydney Games, three years after being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Lasorda is best known for leading the Dodgers to World Series crowns in 1981 and 1988 while at the helm for 21 seasons.

In 2000, USA Baseball tapped the then-73-year-old to manage a rag-tag Olympic team, the first to include professional players but none on Major League Baseball active rosters.

Lasorda, four years removed from his last Dodgers season, said he wanted the job for three primary reasons: to serve his country, to bring a gold medal back to the U.S. — “where it belongs,” he said — and to make Americans familiar with Olympic baseball.

“I tried to tell people before I went over there, this is bigger than the World Series,” Lasorda said after the Olympics. “People thought I was wacky for saying things like that.”

The team drew obvious comparisons to the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that also took an unexpected gold. It had a largely unsung roster — excluding its oldest player, 37-year-old catcher Pat Borders, the 1992 World Series MVP — and defeated the tournament favorite, 1992 and 1996 Olympic champion Cuba, in the final.

“This may have been the biggest upset since David slew Goliath,” said Lasorda, who was in tears as his players received gold medals following Ben Sheets‘ shutout of the Cubans. “I really think it was a miracle.”

In what became a routine after each win, Lasorda would get on the team bus and holler, “How sweet it is, the fruits of victory.”

The team’s story was later chronicled in a book — “Miracle on Grass.” In 2019, it was announced that a film production company acquired the exclusive rights to the story.

First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who hit a walk-off home run in the semifinals against South Korea, said the hardest part of the job for Lasorda was remembering the names of players who came from the minor leagues.

“Tommy just sat back and laughed with us,” Mientkiewicz said after the Sydney Games. “If we were going to be idiots, he’d let us be idiots. That’s what you needed when you’ve got this cast of characters we had.

“He might not have the most talented guys, but he’s going to get more out of that average guy than the other guy’s going to get out of his superstar.”

Baseball returns to the Olympic program this year for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Games. The U.S. has yet to qualify.

Always loved Tommy.

[PARAM]

A baseball legend. Baseball Royalty. I always loved Tommy



I posted a thread in GD. Should I delete it? You want to delete it Elvis? Then again, maybe he deserves a thread everywhere!!

[rams74]

Tommy always said he wanted to see the Dodgers win the Fall Classic again before he died. Mission accomplished.

Now he's with the Great Dodger in the sky. Rest in peace, Tommy, you earned it. You'll be dearly missed.

[Elvis]

I merged the topics, we'll keep it here, for now anyway...

[Elvis]

NSFW:

[ramsrams]

The nerd in me loves this fact.

The Dodgers had two managers from 1954 to 1996. Astounding.

Alston defined stoicism, while Lasorda wore his emotions on his sleeve.

Prolly the reason I don’t get hyped up if the Rams QB du jour does not do a Tasmanian Devil impersonation on the field. I’m wired Walter’s way.

Two ways to skin a cat.

Loved them both.

RIP Tommy.

[PARAM]

Loved this stuff from the World Series against the Yankees. I would have been pissed too. Ballistic for sure.

[snackdaddy]

Last year it was Kobe. The pandemic. The riots. 2021 is starting out with riots. Now Tommy Lasorda. Only 8 days in and its like 2021 is telling 2020 "Hold my beer".

You won't ever find another manager like Lasorda. He was one of a kind. So many classic comments from him. I remember when he told someone about how slow Steve Yeager runs. "If he raced a pregnant woman he'd come in 3rd".

Loved the comment about Kurt Bevacqua.