Obituaries

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Baseball manager Tommy Lasorda

Thomas Charles Lasorda (September 22, 1927 – January 7, 2021) was an American professional baseball pitcher, coach, and manager. He managed the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1976 through 1996. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 1997.

Lasorda played in MLB for the Dodgers in 1954 and 1955 and for the Kansas City Athletics in 1956. He coached for the Dodgers from 1973 through 1976 before taking over as manager. Lasorda won two World Series championships as manager of the Dodgers and was named the National League's Manager of the Year twice. The Dodgers retired his uniform number in his honor.

Lasorda became the Los Angeles Dodgers manager September 29, 1976, upon Alston's retirement.[1] He managed the final four games of the 1976 season.[20] Lasorda 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.[21] 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.[22]


Lasorda managed nine players who won the National League Rookie of the Year award. The winners came in two strings of consecutive players. From 1979 to 1982, he managed Rick Sutcliffe, Steve Howe, Fernando Valenzuela, and Steve Sax. From 1992 to 1995, he managed Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raúl Mondesí, and Hideo Nomo.[14] Before retiring during the 1996 season, he had also managed that year's rookie of the year, Todd Hollandsworth.[23]

Lasorda's final game was a 4–3 victory over the Houston Astros, at Dodger Stadium, on June 23, 1996. The following day (June 24), he drove himself to the hospital complaining of abdominal pains, and in fact he was having a heart attack. He officially retired on July 29, 1996.[14] His 1,599 career wins ranks 22nd all-time in MLB history, at the time of his death.[22]