Tommy Lasorda Remembered For His Love Of The Dodgers, Baseball

The baseball world mourned the loss of Tommy Lasorda Friday when the Los Angeles Dodgers announced that the Hall of Fame manager had died. Former and current MLB players have shared their memories of Lasorda, who was beloved within the sport that dominated his life for seven decades.

Lasorda was a baseball lifer. He started his professional career in 1945 at 18 years old and remained a part of the game up until his death. Lasorda spent the last 14 years of his life as a special adviser to the chairman of the Dodgers.

“There are two things about Tommy I will always remember,” legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said in a statement released by the team. “The first is his boundless enthusiasm. Tommy would get up in the morning full of beans and maintain that as long as he was with anybody else.

“The other was his determination. He was a fellow with limited ability and he pushed himself to be a very good Triple-A pitcher. He never quite had that something extra that makes a major leaguer, but it wasn’t because he didn’t try. Those are some of the things: his competitive spirit, his determination, and above all, this boundless energy and self-belief. His heart was bigger than his talent and there were no foul lines for his enthusiasm.”

Lasorda wasn’t the most skilled player to ever take an MLB field, but he worked hard to keep a spot in the league. The Dodgers drafted him in 1949 and he finally made his debut in 1954, only to play his final MLB game in 1956. Lasorda continued to play in the minor leagues until he retired in 1960.

Lasorda worked his way through the Dodgers organization for 15 years before he became the team’s manager in 1976. He spent 20 years as the Dodgers’ manager and was inducted into Cooperstown the year after he left Los Angeles’ bench.

Lasorda led the team two a pair of World Series championships as a manager. He seemed happier than anyone to bring titles to the Dodgers, for whom he vowed to work until he couldn’t do it anymore.

“I will continue doing it until the day the Big Dodger in the sky calls me,” Lasorda once said, years after he had finished managing. “He’s gonna call me one day and I’m gonna see all the ex-Dodgers up there.”

In his post-managing career, Lasorda continued to try and grow the game. He led the U.S. team to a gold medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics and was the World Baseball Classic’s ambassador in 2006 and 2009.

“50 years from now, we're still going to know Tommy Lasorda as a great ambassador to baseball,” former Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser said, via ESPN. “And I think that's going to be the number one thing on his resume.”