Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Hate Linking to Simers, But...

But here's a great take on our Dodgefather:

He brought Los Angeles a World Series championship in 1988, later stepping down as manager, and yet no one has worked harder for the Dodgers to hang another championship banner.

Just ask him, and Tommy Lasorda will tell you.

"I believe," he's yelling at me like he would an umpire, and it's three hours before Monday night's game with the Giants and he's turning colors while screaming, "I believe, I believe."

I'm worried he might keel over and I'm going to have to ask our beat reporter Dylan Hernandez to give him mouth to mouth.

As it is, Lasorda is suffering from a severe case of vertigo, the travel and the heat making him the first bobble-body in baseball.

He's taking pills and is being treated by a doctor, who has told him to rest. Obviously the doctor does not understand who he's advising.

"It's like being drunk, your balance gone and you're going to fall; I've got to hold on to everything,'' Lasorda says.

And so, on yet another steamy night, why is Lasorda here?

"I came here to pull for my team," he says, "And to let them know I'm here for them."

Not everyone is so committed, Dodger Stadium sparsely filled as it might be for a team like the Astros rather than the Giants. Another fine example of how few have hung in there as Lasorda has over the many years.

For all the bluster and blarney, and take any potshot you like at the guy, Lasorda has spent a lifetime being a Dodgers' cheerleader.

"Maybe it doesn't always sound sincere to some but I want to see another championship banner flying in center field," he says. "And even though I'll still be cheering for them in heaven, they better do it before the big Dodger in the sky calls me. I don't want to go without knowing we have another world championship.

"I've already told my wife that when I do go I want our home schedule attached to my tombstone. I want people who are in the cemetery visiting their loved ones to say, 'Let's go to Lasorda's grave and see if the Dodgers are playing home or away.'

"Hey, I love this organization so much I want to be working for it even after I'm dead."
God damn right, Tommy! *Kisses the ring*