Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

They're going to have to do something to deter people from gathering at the stadium. It's already a Covid testing site anyhow. But I'm sure people will want to gather and pay tribute to Lasorda the way they did when Kobe died.

 

I’ll post a bit more once I’m home/settled in from work, but this right here is just so great:



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What a silver lining, too, to be seeing that Big Dodger in the sky with the team as the current champs. Niiiiice.

 

It's easy to forget now, with how ubiquitous sports are and how easy it is to follow just about any team or player or league, but when I was young, that simply wasn't the case. For baseball, I could listen to Cleveland on the radio, see Cleveland at the stadium, and the local news had Cleveland highlights every night they played, plus maybe a highlight from another game, if it was newsworthy enough. Beyond that, I could read box scores in the newspapers and get a little blurb on things, but it was really hard to find information on anyone who wasn't directly involved in Cleveland. I know I'm minimizing what was available for dramatic effect, but so what, just go with me here.

Tommy Lasorda, then, became one of the first non-Cleveland baseball figures to really captivate my attention. He was larger than life. He carried with him an unabashed love of the game,and it showed in everything he did. The 1988 World Series is one of the first ones I remember (though 1989 is drilled a bit deeper in the memory, but not for positive reasons), and I delighted in getting the quotes from Lasorda out of the newspaper the next day. It was probably helped that I vividly remember him in a national ad campaign for Slim Fast, and the obsession many people in my life had with Slim Fast at the time (though I cannot recall when that ad campaign ran and if it was before or after the World Series).

As we finally got cable in the house, Lasorda was joined by some other folks with their obvious love of the game - Harry Caray, for instance - but Lasorda was the first, and never got removed from that spot. He was a beacon, inviting me to experience baseball outside of the Cleveland bubble, and therefore at least partially responsible for my love of this game cutting deeper than most.

Rest in Peace, Tommy Lasorda. Rest in Peace

 

@DarthIntegral -- I had 1992 stuck in my head, but it was as early as 1989!

https://dodgersway.com/2013/02/14/top-ten-tommy-moments-5-slim-fast/

 

Hm. I thought Lasorda died like fifteen years ago.

 

So goddamn happy he was able to be there, to take in the triumph of finally seeing the Dodgers reach the pinnacle of baseball once again. This franchise has had no greater ambassador, and it'll be the toughest of tasks for someone in the present and/or future to be as effective as he was; his passion for the Dodgers is just so infectious, man.










From the 16-second mark to 22-seconds... look at how giddy Lasorda is there, and it was just a game in late-August!
















A bittersweet day for the inevitability, but despite the melancholy, you just have be smile & appreciate all that he did for the Dodgers/baseball. And of course...





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A master ranter.

 

My favorite clip with Lasorda.

 

RIP.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the Mets can do this year with a full season to work with.

 

i was always surprised Tommy's wife never came to the ballpark and sat with him. i wonder what her health is.

 

This is for DJ, for those who aren't psychic with heels.

 

Meanwhile the SF Giants owner is a huge Q financier:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/...Charles-Johnson-donated-to-QAnon-15868884.php

 

Also...

 

If I count correctly -- always suspect -- he netted out 0.9 WAR last year... which was good for T-4th with Perez on the Indians, and behind Grandal, Realmuto, and Vazquez, and he had the highest OPS of the bunch.

 

A crucially important question for discussion to help us get to Spring Training