Saturday, September 22, 2007

Happy 80th Birthday Tommy


Today is Tommy Lasorda's 80th Birthday and I would not be a Dodger fan if I didn't spread the gospel of this man and how much I live him and wish he was my grampa. He coached the Dodgers for twenty years (and it's quite obvious the downhill slope of our team since then) won 2 titles and, to cement his place as the best manager ever he led the United States to a win in the 2000 Olympics when no one expected him too. And so to the greatest Dodger alive I wish him an amazing birthday.

Some quotes

  • About the only problem with success is that it does not teach you how to deal with failure.
  • All last year we tried to teach him Fernando Valenzuela English, and the only word he learned was million.
  • Always give an autograph when somebody asks you.
  • Baseball is like driving, it's the one who gets home safely that counts.
  • Guys ask me, don't I get burned out? How can you get burned out doing something you love? I ask you, have you ever got tired of kissing a pretty girl?
  • I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly you kill it, but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it.
  • I bleed Dodger blue and when I die, I'm going to the big Dodger in the sky.
  • I love doubleheaders. That way I get to keep my uniform on longer.
  • Listen, if you start worrying about the people in the stands, before too long you're up in the stands with them.
  • Managing is like holding a dove in your hand. Squeeze too hard and you kill it, not hard enough and it flies away.
  • My theory of hitting was just to watch the ball as it came in and hit it.
  • No, we don't cheat. And even if we did, I'd never tell you.
  • People say you can't go out and eat with your players. I say why not.
  • Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it's because you've started to think of failure.
  • The difference between the possible and the impossible lies in a person's determination.
  • The only way I'd worry about the weather is if it snows on our side of the field and not theirs.
  • There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens.
  • When we win, I'm so happy I eat a lot. When we lose, I'm so depressed, I eat a lot. When we're rained out, I'm so disappointed I eat a lot.


seriously you have to love a man who speaks truth /suffers fools lightly (like this) or has such wisdom such as this


or this


and any man that causes such a reaction from the Giants is obviously a Great and Just man

The following is from Tommy's Blog:

You know, when I was a kid we didn't have fancy birthday parties with lots of presents. Every Christmas my four brothers and I would get the same thing every year; a scarf and gloves. As I look back on my life I am still in awe. I still can't believe how it turned out. Who ever could have dreamed that the son of an Italian immigrant from Norristown, Pennsylvania, who was the third-string pitcher on the high school baseball team, would end up managing the Dodgers for 20 years?

Who ever could have dreamed that a guy like me who has never stepped foot in college would give six commencement addresses and have six honorary doctorate degrees?

Who ever could have dreamed that I would shake hands with Presidents Nixon and Ford? Hug President Carter? Befriend Presidents Reagan and Bush? Meet President Clinton and George W. Bush?

Who ever could have dreamed I would hang out with the great Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles and travel the world with them?

Who ever could have dreamed that I would join a fraternity of only 15 managers to make it to the Hall of Fame? As I stood at the podium in Cooperstown making my induction speech I told the story of when I was 14 years old. I would actually dream that I was playing for the Yankees and pitching at Yankee Stadium. I would look around the diamond and see Bill Dickey, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Than I would feel my mother shaking me, saying, "Wake up Tommy. It's time to go to school."

Why didn't she leave me alone? Why couldn't I stay in the dream? It was so real!

Standing on that stage in Cooperstown with all the greatest baseball players in the world behind me, I said, "I thank God for all of this, and it won't be too long before I feel my mother shaking me, telling me to wake up because it's time to go to school."

I have lived a dream. Thank you.


No thank you Tommy and may the Great Dodger in the sky watch over you and may you live another 80 years!

(and this was the main reason i decided to post today.)

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