Lasorda

July 13, 1993 Oriole Park at Camden YardsLos Angeles Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, who managed four National League All-Star teams, knows full well how tough it is deciding whom to select because there always is somebody deserving who gets left off."One year I wrote seven letters to ballplayers to tell them how badly I felt that I couldn't select them," Lasorda said.Lasorda also recalled the year he didn't get Astros pitcher Joe Niekro into the game. "That's why every time we play in Houston, I get booed," he said.

Forget all that talk about Tom Lasorda's leaving the Los Angeles Dodgers. He's planning to stick around for a while.Lasorda, 64, got a one-year contract extension yesterday that will take him through 1993. He'll begin his 16th season as the Dodgers manager on April 6.Lasorda was the subject of much speculation earlier this spring. His contract was set to expire at the end of the season and questions had been raised about his future.But Dodgers president Peter O'Malley said there was no question that Lasorda would be back.

Measure Thomas Charles Lasorda on the goodness of the man. He has been one of the most successful of contemporary baseball managers but, again, that's not important. He has gone through life in the style of a modern Johnny Appleseed, spreading good will and contributing to the cause of humanity in ways this world will not always know about.He's an entertainer, a raconteur and his wife of 41 years facetiously says he loves the Los Angeles Dodgers and baseball more than he does her. "Yes," he answers with a wink, "but I love you more than football or basketball."

PHILADELPHIA -- As they walk into the Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse, out of uniform, you wonder what they are doing there. Did they make a wrong turn at the stadium entrance? Take a flight to the wrong city? Are they just visiting until game time?There is Brett Butler talking to Darryl Strawberry. Here comes Gary Carter and John Candelaria. Oh, did we forget to mention Bob Ojeda and Kevin Gross? And let us not overlook those longtime Dodgers, Eddie Murray, Mike Morgan and Juan Samuel.It used to be that the career path of a Dodger was pretty much the same: They signed fresh out of high school or college, climbed together from Vero Beach all the way to Chavez Ravine, won a few championships, got hugged by Tom Lasorda and walked off into the sunset, or at least to San Diego.

PHILADELPHIA -- The strain of a losing streak showed in Tom Lasorda's eyes. The strain of a long ordeal was evident, too, on the face of the 63-year-old Los Angeles Dodgers manager.If the past week has been a rough one for Lasorda, the past two months have been even more difficult. Losing games means nothing in the face of losing a son.It has been seven weeks since Tom Lasorda Jr., a 33-year-old artist, died of pneumonia and severe dehydration."Tommy may hide it, but the pain is there," said Dodgers pitcher John Candelaria, whose young son drowned five years ago. "The pain is always there.

Fourteen seasons have passed in his unlikely but not unremarkable career, and it might be said Tom Lasorda virtually has done it all. He has run the gamut, from A to Y.It was little more than a hour before his 15th season was to begin and Lasorda was working on some Z's. The Dodgers' manager was asleep in the visitors clubhouse at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta. Lasorda asleep? A man of boundless energy, he had spent the previous 14 years in perpetual motion. He deserved a snooze.Besides, Lasorda by now can rest assured his place in baseball history is secure.

The 33-year-old son of Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda died yesterday of pneumonia.Thomas C. Lasorda Jr. died at his Santa Monica, Calif., home, said Lee Solters, spokesman for the family. His father, mother and sister were at his side when he died, said Solters.The younger Lasorda was born in Greenville, S.C., and became an artist. He had been ill for about five weeks and was hospitalized briefly at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.Dr. Allen Metzger, who had been treating Lasorda, said he died of pneumonia and severe dehydration.

I'm not sure what this means, but the trophy that Frank Robinson got for being Manager of the Year in 1989 is broken.It still sits on a table across from Robinson's desk, but all that's left of it is the base. The trophy part, which fell off sometime between last season and this one, is in a box somewhere. My advice to Robinson is to get the thing fixed. It couldn't hurt."My wife is after me to get it done," Robinson was saying the other day.She's not the only one after Robinson. Suddenly, a whole posse of folks is after him. Maybe you're one of them.

HI, I'M DODGERS manager Tommy Lasorda and here's a picture of me taken just a few short months ago. Pretty gross, huh? Look at that gut! Geez, put a shirt on! Is that enough to make you sick or what?But that's all changed thanks to Ultra Trim Fast. Now I look great and feel terrific. Well, not too bad. I have my ups and downs, which is understandable when you lose 87 pounds in eight days or whatever."How does the program work? With Ultra Trim Fast, I have a delicious shake for breakfast and another for lunch, then a sensible meal for dinner -- large pepperoni pizza and a pint of Breyer's chocolate sounds about right.

The TV repairman:If the wire services, those guardians of the college football rankings, had any flair for the absurd, they'd wait about a week before conducting the polls to name the national champion.Imagine the arguments, not to mention the insurrection in the streets and the food fights in campus dining halls.As bowl days go, yesterday's record glut of eight games, beginning at noon and stretching past midnight, was fairly easy to negotiate. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Tommy Lasorda Slim Fast ads, which easily numbered in the hundreds.