Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda has died.
Born on September 22 1927 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Tommy was second of five sons. He signed as an 7ndrafted player by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945. After a stint in the Phillies farm system, Lasorda was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949. He made his only start for the Dodgers in 1954 before being traded to the Kansas City Athletics in 1956.
He continued playing in the minor leagues until 1960, bouncing around between teams and leagues. His tenure with the Montreal Royals of the International League, where he amassed a 107–57 record and four straight Governors cup championships, led to him being inducted into Canadian baseball hall of fame in 2006.
Lasorda really came into his own as a coach and manager. Hired by the Dodgers to be a scout in 1961, he was named the manager of the Pocatello Chiefs, the Dodgers rookie ball team in 1965. From there he moved up the ranks in the dodgers minor league affiliates. For the 1973 season, Lasorda was named the third base coach of the Dodgers.
Lasorda became the Los Angeles Dodgers manager September 29, 1976, upon Walter Alston’s retirement. He compiled a 1,599–1,439 record as Dodgers manager, won two World Series championships in (1981 and 1988), four National League pennants, and eight division titles in his 20-year career as the Dodgers manager. His 16 wins in 30 NL Championship games managed were the most of any manager at the time of his retirement. His 61 postseason games managed ranks fourth all-time behind Bobby Cox, Casey Stengel (all of whose games took place during the World Series in baseball’s pre-divisional play days), and Joe Torre. He also managed in four All-Star games.
Lasorda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997 as a manager in his first year of eligibility. The Dodgers retired his uniform number (2) on August 15, 1997 and renamed a street in Dodgertown as “Tommy Lasorda Lane”. In 2014, a new restaurant named “Lasorda’s Trattoria” opened at Dodger Stadium. He was named the
Resquiscat In Pace.