Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Remembering Tommy Lasorda (Part I)

Episode Date: January 13, 2021

Los Angles Dodgers aficionado Jason Hernandez joins D.C. to talk about the life and career of legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. The two talk about his managing career, and also a little about his pitching career, which includes a great game in 1948 while pitching in Schenectady. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. All righty, thank you very much, Joey Martin, for leading us into another episode of Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, or for short, T-L-O-P-N, or for shorter, what, J-D. Slop in. You bet. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. your smart device to play Locked on Mariner's podcast or any program here on Tlopin.

Today we're celebrating Tommy Lassorda, who did pass away last Friday, here with me to talk about the late great Dodger manager is Dodger fan extraordinaire in Southern California native, Jason Hernandez. Jason, how are you doing today? Well, I mean, I'm excited because I get to talk about one of my Dodger heroes, Tommy Lasorda, and obviously my off topic, but hockey's back, woo! But I'm excited to talk about Tommy Lassorta because he was one of a kind. He was indeed one of a kind. He kind of struck me, Jason, as one of the better ambassadors in the game,

even after he had to retire from managing. Was it a heart attack that caused that to happen in 1996 prior to the All-Star break? I believe that's correct, because that was reported at the time that he had to retire because of a heart attack. Yes. At the time, he felt like he was going to be a best of a bad attack. managing at some point that did not wind up happening. But as it was, he managed 22 seasons. Two of those were partial seasons. He managed four games at the end of the 1976 season, so that barely counts.

And then in 1996, again, he had to retire prior to the All-Star break. So he had 20 full seasons. And in those 20 seasons, his teams finished with a sub-500 record. Let's see. Let's see, one, I think it's twice. Two, three, four, five, six times.

But six times in 20 seasons, if a manager has a career record of over 500, that's generally considered very, very good. And his winning percentage was five, twenty-six. In his first full season, 1977, NL Pennant. Next season, NL Pennant, 1981 World Series Champions,

1988 world series champions. This guy just had something special, JD. Oh, absolutely. He knew how to get the best out of his players. And those 70s teams helped because he did manage most of those guys to a minor league championship. Yes, he did.

And what city? Albuquerque with the Dukes. He also managed for the Spokane Indians when they were the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers back in their Pacific Coast League days. And in 1970, he led that team. to a 94 and 52 overall record.

And on this team, ladies and gentlemen, Doyle Alexander, very good Major League pitcher for a long time. Bill Buckner, who we may talk about in a future Hall Pass in the trivia corner. Steve Garvey was on those teams. Davy Lopes. Tom Beshork was on those teams too. So there's the Washington connection there. The connection is that he managed in Spokane.

And he is one of four permanent members of the Spokane Indians Rim of Honor. They have a yearly honorary, which they change out. But Tommy Lasota is one of four permanent members. The only one who is still alive is Mory Wills. He's another permanent member of the Spokin Indians Room of Honor. Dwight Aden and Levi McCormick, two great minor leaguers. We can talk about some other time. Or the other two.

But getting back to this 1970 team, Charlie Huff, I don't believe I mentioned him. Scrap Iron Bob Stinson spent some time with the Mariners. Bobby Valentine was on those teams, among others, Bill Russell. This was a great, great team. team 94 wins at the AAA level. That's not easy to do. Oh, not at all, especially in those days.

That's pretty difficult to do. They were known, or they're best known today, as well known as a minor league team can be, as having one of the top infields in minor league baseball at the time. They hit a team ERA that season of 3-3-1. They hit 299 as a team. Yeah, I mean, one of the better infields in minor league. But when you talk about infield, I mean, Tommy LaSorda had his infield set for the Dodgers.

I mean, let's come back to the Dodgers because that's what we're really here to talk about. I was wrapping up with Spokane anyway, so it's Dodger time. He had that amazing infield, of course, of Davy Lopes, Bill Russell, Steve Garvey, Ron, say. I mean, those four stuck together for nine seasons, and Tommy was part of seven of those seasons where he had that infield. and Tommy has said in the past that he felt that he hit the jackpot. He inherited that infield because they started before

and technically he was part of the coming together of that because Tomolosaura was a coach for the Dodgers when that formed in 74, 75 Toma Losaura was that coach. In fact there's audio and video of Toma Lassorta, kind of getting his players to, you know, get the best out of them, he riled them up. There is video of Tommy, and I want to say the 74 or 75 World Series.

So we're going way back even before he was a full-time manager. I think it was 74 because I believe the 1975. 75 series was Red Sox Reds. Yeah. So it has to be 74. So Tommy Lassorta was a coach, and this was on a World Series. Oh, that's right. That's against the Oakland Days.

Yes, it was. Their third straight World Series victory. Of course I knew that. So you see, Tom of Los Orta coaching that team, Warren 52, and, you know, he told his players that they can get there because he believes in them.

Tommy Lasorta was always the complete opposite of the previous coach. He was completely opposite of Walter Alston. You know, Walter Alston was more zen. He was calm. He had a, calmness to him. He would tell the players what to do and he would do it, but he would be more reserved. And he only speaks so few words, but those few words that he spoke were very powerful.

You see what I'm doing here. So that was the previous coach. And then you get to Tomula Sorda. He's Italian. He's loud. He spews out such gems of quotes all the time. So you had Alston, he picked his words carefully. He picked his quotes carefully. That was him. Tommy Lassota said whatever was on his mind. There's a famous audio clip asking him about, oh, some guy hitting three home runs.

How does he feel about that? Well, how the bleep do you think I feel about that? It's a very famous audio clip. If you haven't heard it already, go listen to it. Tommy Lassota goes off on a profanity-laced tirade because that's the kind of guy. that Tommy was. And that was the shot in the arm that the Dodgers needed.

And in fact, I think that Tomola sort of kind of helped propel that Dodgers team in 74 to even get to the World Series. So for him to be quoted as saying that he inherited that infield, no, he was part of bringing that infield together because he was a coach at the time. And again, a minor league manager in the Dodgers system.

So he was with these guys for a very long time. Yeah, people don't talk about that enough. They talk about his late 70s. No, talk about the minor league days and the mid-70s. He brought them together at the time, and this was a long time coming for the Dodgers. So when you say, oh, this happened out of nowhere. No, it didn't. It happened organically.

It happened in Spokane. It happened in Albuquerque. It happened with him as a coach. Then it happened with him when he managed. It was a decades, probably a 10-year plan to get to that 81 World Series. But that's not to say they didn't have success. 74, World Series, 77, 78,

World Series. I mean, granted, they beat the Yankees, and Tommy Los Ordo will swear to this day that the Yankees cheated that 78 World Series because of a controversial call where Reggie Jackson just happened to get in the way. No, you freaking cheated. I mean, I'll be a Dodger fan here and I'll say it.

Yeah, the Yankees cheated. Either way, it was a terrible call. Either way, it was a terrible call. Yeah, you know the one. he's like his big butt out. Yeah, that call, that one. I have to correct something I said earlier, JD, and then we're going to get to the trivia corner

and the second after. This is definitely going to be a two-part episode, ladies and gentlemen. But I want to correct the record. I'm looking at the managerial year-by-year stats here on baseball reference. They have 1981 listed twice because they split it into two halves of the season. So he managed 19 full seasons instead of 20. I just wanted to get that out there before anybody emails me. And with that, we are...

season. That's 20 seasons. If Tommy Lasota says it's 20 seasons, it's 20 seasons. I'll take his word for it. That 20th season might be 1996, which was a half season. So 20 and a half seasons plus 1976, four games worth. But let's get to the trivia corner, J.D., before we get any further out of time before his coaching and managing days, Tommy Lasorda, was a major league pitcher, although he didn't have a whole lot of success at the major league level. Today's trivia question, among these who had the highest career ERA, Tommy Lassorda, Bobby Ayala, Edwin Hurtado, or John Mabry.

That is the question today. And we're going to tell you who that is or the answer to that trivia question right after this word from BetOnline. Jady, do you want to do that BetOnline.ag ad? So BetOnline.A.G is, by the way, the exclusive online sportsbook of the Locked On Podcast Network. They're not going to have any baseball lines right now because there's no baseball for a while. I guess they have some futures lines, but they have all the other sports such as the NFL, which is in full playoff mode right now. They have the NHL, which has just started.

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Thank you very much, J.D., answered to the trivia question, who had the highest career ERA among Tommy Lasota, Bobby Ayala, Edwin Hurtado, or John Mabry. Jason, do you want to wait your guess? This is kind of an easy one. Tommy did not have much success as a pitcher. It's got to be Tommy Lasorda. Sorry, Tommy. That's wrong. Oh. Thank goodness. John Mabry had the highest career ERA. John Mabry was an outfielder, Jason.

Oh, that's right. John Mabry had a six... See, the reason I say this is because John Mabry had one of the more famous position players pitching moments for the Seattle Mariners. I know what you're talking about now. I remember.

Jose Mesa got ejected one game, and Lou Pinnola was walking up and down the bench, and he happened to be near John Mabry. So he pointed at John and said, get out to the mound. John Mabry has a 63.00 career ERA. He also pitched once for the Marlins. Among the pitchers that I listed,

Edwin Hurtado actually has the highest ERA. Yeah, it's 667 for Hurtado, Bobby Iala 478, and Tommy Lassorda was 6.48. If you've got a question or a comment, please do send it into Lockdown Maritors at gmail.com, and I will reply to it on the air. In a future mailbag episode, I got a question addressed to J.D.

and he will answer that on the next email episode, as it were. So keep sending him into Lockdown Maritors at gmail.com. Please do keep them appropriate as this is a family show. We will be back celebrating Tommy Lassorda right after this word from Bilt Bar. Jason, you did it so well with the bet online ad. You want to do Bilt Bar too? Sure, we can talk about Bilt Bar too. So Bilt Bar is the best tasting protein bar ever.

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Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. All righty. very much, Joey Martin, back on Locked-on Mariners. Going to continue to celebrate the life of the late Tommy LaSorteur here in just a second, but ladies and gentlemen, 2020's mercifully over. We're all very happy about that. It's time for a fresh start and a few more wins. So if you're betting this year and want a few more wins,

listen to the Lockdown Betts podcast with your boy Q and Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They are picking college basketball football and NBA picks all winter long. Subscribe to Locked on Betts wherever the heck you get your podcasts. probably on the same podcasting app. You're listening to us now on that English was terrible. I apologize to you, grammar people out there back here with Jason Hernandez, Dodger fan extraordinaire, frequent guests on Locked-on Mariners, celebrating the life of the late Tommy LaSorda here today.

And Jason, I can't imagine a better ambassador for baseball or for the Los Angeles Dodgers than Tommy LaSorda. This man bled Dodger Blue. Oh, absolutely. And you talked about the whole pitching stats that Thomas sort of, I guess, managed to have. Yeah, he never got a win in the major leagues. No, four losses, though. He said that frequently that he felt that he was the worst pitcher in Major League Baseball history.

I mean, he's probably not. There are worse pitchers. But, you know, he kind of mocked himself. You know, he had that sense of humor to kind of have that self-deprecating sense. Much like Bob Uker. Oh, God. Bob Euker is a legend too. Yep.

One of my favorite people of all time. And, you know, to be in the same presence as Bob Euker is amazing in itself. But to meet Tommyless order multiple times was more than a treat. And I'll get to that. But one of my favorite things that Tommy always said was, you know, I was actually not that bad in the minor leagues. And one of his favorite stories that he talks about, and I heard him briefly mentioned this. This was one of the first times I met him. this was at a 570k LAC

back in the day, back in the I guess, I should say late 2000s decade. They used to do this thing where they would have some guests come in the studio and whoever was in there you'd meet him. And it was Tommy Los Orda with three personalities from 570KLAC. So Tommy was telling stories and one of the stories that he talked about was that

he struck out 25 batters at a game. Wait, you think I'm lying, but I'm not. No, I don't think so. No, this was a can-am game where Tomlisorta was, you know, left-handed pitcher, and he was pitching for Schenectady, I believe. The Schenectady Blue Jays, yes. There we go. In the Phillies organization.

He was in the Phillies organization at that time. And if you know how to spell Schenectady, good for you. If you know how to say it, then you've spent some time in the East Coast. I've been to Schenectady, actually. Oh, nice. Yes. we know what it is, but people that see the war, they're like, what the hell? Anyway, so he went up, I forgot who went up against, but LaSorda did say this, that yeah, I got 25 guys out.

I struck out 25, and we're like, what? And he said, yeah, that was the height of my career. In terms of pitching, I suppose, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he also allowed 10 hits, but, you know, he went the distance and started. strikeout 25. That takes a lot of stamina to do that. To give up 10 hits and strike out 25 men? How many pitches did he have to throw in that game?

About 400? Well, it was a 15-80ing game. Oh, my gosh. I should point that out. It was a 15-80-game where the team who was pitching force to connect TV. They did win. Wow.

He did say, I pitched just long enough to survive and win. But that still takes a hell of a lot of stamina, man. That's like two games worth. Yeah, and I think there's another story out. there where he said, yeah, that was my entire pitching career right there. Keep talking for just a little bit longer. I'm going to try to find out who that game was against.

Yeah. So, you know, he talked about just his whole pitching career with the Dodgers where he said, yeah, so talking about his crew with the Dodgers, you know, they did give him a chance where he admitted that he probably didn't deserve a chance. He was just filling up space.

But he did always say, yeah, I did win a World Series. I have a ring. And people are like, well, how is that? Well, he was part of the 195 Brooklyn Dodgers and he was on that team for more than a couple games.

So he got that. Yep. And he got his World Series winning. Yeah, he was part of that Brooklyn Dodgers team. And also had some fun stories about Jackie Robinson as well. You know, he adored Jackie.

He, that was one of his guys. He said when he first met him, Jackie Robinson had this aura around him. Because Tommy didn't come up until 54. Jackie had been in the league for almost a decade at that point. Yes, he had.

You know, Jackie had already had numerous accolades. So to Tommy Las Sorta, Jackie Robinson was larger than life. Can you imagine that where Tommy feels that way about someone that he met? That's a lot. But when it's Jackie Robinson, though, I can believe it, because it's Jackie Robinson. Because it's Jackie Robinson.

Yeah. You know, one of the greatest ballplayers of that generation. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, the Rookie of the Year award is named after him for a reason. Yes. And thank you for finding this, by the way. Yes. So there's a newspaper clipping here from the Schenectady Gazette of all teams.

They won over Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Rugmakers. Wow. Mm-hmm. And that game took place May 31st, 1948. Yep. But that's where he, I mean, for him to jokingly say that was the highlight of his pitching career. That's not a bad game to choose, quite honestly.

Well, probably his only, you know, I'm going to say it. Probably the only game where he struck out more than 10. Maybe, maybe. I don't know what kind of pitcher he was or what kind of stuff he has. But yeah, this is from the Schenectady Daily Gazette, May 31st, 19th. The article was from June 1st. 1948, the game took place the previous night, the 15 inning games, the 15 inning game, pardon me,

okay, and he hit a single in that game. Yeah, but not my favorite Tommy story that I've heard in person. Nope, but we're going to get to that on the next episode, JD, because we're just about out of time. Please tell the nice, but hey, we're going to talk about it next time. We'll talk about it next time. Jason, we're going to nice people, listen to your show, and what show am I speaking of?

Locked-on Anaheim Ducks, which is back to daily shows because hockey's back, baby. That's right. I'm the host of Locked on Anaheim Ducks talking about the National Hockey League team that was named kind of after a famous movie of the same name. Yeah, quack, quack, quack.

Anyway, you can hear that podcast on the Lockedon podcast network. The Twitter for that show was at L-O-U-U-D and my personal Twitter is at Stimpy J-D. And speaking to Renan Stimpy, Nickelodeon recently had a football game,

and that was fun. I think we should have that for all sports. If someone gets a home run in baseball, slime them at home plates. Just saying. I want to see bowling. I'd like to have them do bowling and explain that and get a few more young eyes on that sport

and curling as well. But, you know, as the bowling and curling ambassador of the Locked On podcast network, of course I'm going to say that. Could be fun. It could be really fun. It could be fun. Thanks again, JD. You will be with us next time, and I hope you guys out there.

And I will tease for all the fans. There will be some really good stories on the next podcast. So make sure you're tuned into the next one. I've got some good ones. You will not want to miss that one, gang. So download rate and subscribe. Look for us on any podcasting app you can think of. And that's about it. Thanks again, Jason Hernandez. Do not miss the next episode, gang. It promises to be a great one. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.