Tommy Lasorda: Magnifique Moundsman Of Montreal

There is not much one can say or write about Tommy Lasorda that hasn’t already been said or written…raconteur, comedian, linguini lover, show biz schmoozer, coach, manager, goodwill ambassador for baseball…and the game’s greatest bullshit artist, though I don’t believe Sabermetrics has advanced to the point where any statistics can be adduced to bolster that assertion.

Though definitely not born a blueblood, he bled Dodger blue. He was a company man, an organization man. And it worked for him as well as it did for the Dodgers. He eventually got the job he wanted, managing the Dodgers from 1976 through 1996.

As the gig economy transforms the world of work, Lasorda’s attitude seems quaint, as obsolete as the six-day workweek. Yet even in his heyday, his loyalty defied the odds. He could just as easily have been bitter and resentful. Like Walt Alston, his predecessor as Dodger manager, his playing career at the major league level was brief and undistinguished. At the minor league level, however, it was noteworthy. Many minor leaguers less distinguished than Lasorda had respectable major league playing careers.

Lasorda was a baseball lifer but not a Dodger lifer. He was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies, more or less a hometown team for the young man from Norristown, Pennsylvania. Born in 1927, Lasorda was too young for the World War II. After signing with the Phillies before the 1945 season, Lasorda was assigned to the Class D Concord (NC) Weavers. His 3-12 record was nothing to be proud of, but the real bugaboo was wildness: 100 BB in 121 IP. Given all those base runners, it’s amazing his ERA wasn’t higher than 4.09. Still, he was only 17 years old, a raw youth. His peers, for the most part, were pitching high school ball.

After two years playing ball for the peacetime Army, he returned to pro ball in 1948. The result was a 9-12 record for the Class C Schenectady Blue Jays. Unfortunately, wildness was still a problem for Lasorda, as he issued 153 passes in 192 IP. On the other hand, he could boast of a 25-strikeout performance in a 15-inning game. Also, he struck out 195 in 192 innings. Intrigued, the Dodgers plucked him from the Phillies in the 1948 minor league draft.

Assigned to the Class A Greenville (SC) Spinners by the Dodgers, his wildness was still a problem (138 BB in 178 IP), yet he somehow managed to fashion a 7-7 record. Particularly outstanding was his 2.93 ERA. Despite all those free passes, he apparently knew how to work out of the jams he had created. This was good enough to get him promoted to Triple-A Montreal of the International League in 1950. There his wildness was tamed to some degree (his 5.1 BB/9 ratio was his first season below 7), making him a reliable starter.

Montreal, of course, was hardly a bush league backwater. When Lasorda arrived in 1950 it had a population of 1,343,000, more than many major league cities. 20,000-seat Delorimier Stadium was hardly Yankee Stadium, but its right-field foul pole was only 293 feet away, three feet shorter than in the House That Ruth Built. Theoretically, the left-handed Lasorda had an advantage when it came to neutralizing left-handed pull hitters. FUN FACT: One of the financiers who built the ballpark in 1928 was Charles Trudeau, father of former Prime Minister Pierre, and grandfather of current Prime Minister Justin.

Unfortunately, thanks to Branch (“Out of quantity comes quality”) Rickey, the Brooklyn minor league pipeline was chock full, as the franchise maintained multiple teams at every level of minor league play. In Lasorda’s first year at Triple-A, and Rickey’s last year as Dodger GM, the franchise maintained a grand total of 24 affiliates, including three teams at the Triple-A level (in addition to Montreal, the Hollywood Stars and St. Paul Saints). With so much talent in Brooklyn and the minor league pipeline bursting at the joints, making it to the Show was a daunting task.

Keeping track of all those players in those pre-computer days must have been laborious. If the spring training logjam of players at Dodgertown was a challenge for management, it was surely a bonanza for uniform manufacturers. With a population of 1,566 in 1950, Vero Beach grew by about 50% in the spring thanks to the Dodgertown players, managers, coaches, trainers, et al.

By contrast, the Phillies, Lasorda’s original team, had 12 affiliates and only one at the Triple-A level, namely, the Toronto Maple Leafs (an eternal mystery: why not Leaves?), Montreal’s main rival in the International League. As Lasorda observed the Phillies winning the pennant, defeating the Dodgers on the last day of the 1950 season, he must have wondered what might have been if he had remained with the Phillies. Since the Phils started to go downhill after their 1950 pennant, they would have been in the market for pitching. Lasorda could have bled Phillies red as easily as Dodger blue – in fact, it would have been easier. No food coloring required!

In five seasons with the Montreal Royals, Lasorda had a 66-30 record. He was a proven winner at the highest level of the minor leagues, but there was no room for him in Brooklyn. The Dodgers in those days were a talent-rich team, winning pennants in 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956, the era of the Boys of Summer. In 1953 the Dodgers won 105 games, their highest total in any 154-game season (and not surpassed in Los Angeles till 2019, even after 58 162-game seasons). Their starting pitchers (Carl Erskine, Russ Meyer, Billy Loes, Preacher Roe, and Johnny Podres) won 69 games. Spot starters Clem Labine and Bob Milliken won another 19 games. The team finished 13 games ahead of second-place Milwaukee (92-62) by. Obviously, no need to import pitching reinforcements from Montreal.

Just before the 1953 season, Lasorda was briefly the property of the St. Louis Browns but never pitched for them. He was returned to the Dodgers after a month. The prospect of Lasorda playing for Bill Veeck (arguably, the second greatest bullshit artist in baseball history) is intriguing but, alas, it was not meant to be.

Lasorda and his fellow minor leaguers were also fighting a numbers game against the population at large. Major league rosters were set at 25 in 1920 when the US population was 106,021,537. By 1950, when Lasorda started his career in Montreal, the population had increased to 151,325,798. Yet while the population increased by almost 50%, the number of major league roster spots remained unchanged. Also, MLB teams were mining the rosters of the Negro Leagues for talent. If the 1950s are sometimes characterized as a golden age, it might be more than boomer nostalgia; the concentration of talent was outstanding. And so it remained until expansion in 1961.

Of course, if you have spent any time perusing Topps baseball cards from the mid-1950s, you know that Lasorda did make it to the Show (his 1954 rookie card goes for big bucks). The results were not positive, but he deserves an “I” (incomplete) as opposed to an “F.” He pitched four games in 1954 and gave up 5 earned runs in just 9 IP. Hardly a decent showcase. In 1955 he returned for 4 more games, giving up 6 earned runs in 4 IP, good for a 13.50 ERA. And that was it for his career on the mound with Brooklyn. 0-4, 6.48 ERA in 13 innings.

In 1955 the Dodgers were on their way to their only World Series championship in Brooklyn, so the fate of Lasorda was of little importance. Also, he was 27 years old by then. Remember, however, that left-handers mature more slowly. While a 27-year-old right-hander may be as good as he’s going to get, a left-hander is still a work in progress. Sandy Koufax was the poster boy for this career trajectory. In fact, in 1955 when Lasorda was returned to Montreal after his second cup of coffee in Brooklyn, his roster spot was taken by Koufax, an erratic 19-year-old.

Like Lasorda, he should have honed his skills in the minor leagues, but that was against the rules for bonus babies. While Lasorda subsequently joked that it took Sandy Koufax to force him out of the big leagues, it’s hard to believe that he was jovial about going back to the minors to make way for someone who was eight years younger and had never spent – and never would spend – a day in the minors.

When Lasorda was purchased by the Kansas City Athletics before the 1956 season, it should have been a golden opportunity. The A’s had finished 63-91 in 1955, their first year in Kansas City. The staff ERA was 5.35, so help was sorely needed. Unfortunately, Lasorda could not take advantage of the opportunity. In 18 appearances (45.1 IP) he had a 6.15 ERA and a record of 0-4. That was substandard even by KCA standards. It was the last stop of Lasorda’s major league pitching career.

In mid-season 1956 Lasorda was traded to the Yankees, and he spent the remainder of the season with their Triple-A affiliate, the Denver Bears. While the A’s frequently got shafted, or at least got the short end of the stick, in trades with the Yankees in those days, this was an exception, albeit of minor consequence. Lasorda was swapped even up for minor leaguer Wally Burnette, who won 14 games for the A’s from 1956 to 1958 with a 3.56 ERA. Nothing to write home about, but an improvement over Lasorda’s record. Like Lasorda, Burnette had been stuck in the minor league system of a powerhouse big league franchise and after 87 minor league wins probably wondered if he’d ever make the major leagues. He was 27 when he made his major league debut with the A’s.

After the 1956 season Lasorda was re-acquired by the Dodgers and re-assigned to Montreal. Basically, he picked up where he left off. From 1957 through 1960, he won 39 games in 89 starts. His best year was 1958 when he was 18-6 with a 2.50 ERA in 230 IP. That performance garnered him the International League Pitcher of the Year award. It was his best year in terms of control as he gave up just 3 walks per 9 innings.

In 1958, the Dodgers’ first season in Los Angeles, they were going nowhere (they finished 71-83, only two games ahead of the cellar-dwelling Phillies). Another chance for Lasorda, at least a September call-up, might have seemed warranted, seeing as his control was better than ever. But it didn’t happen, perhaps because Montreal was in the hunt for the International League Championship, or perhaps because Lasorda was now 30 years old.

In 1960 Lasorda, now 32 years old, called it quits. His glory days in Montreal ended ignominiously (2-5, 8.20 in 45 IP), but he had enjoyed a good run. It was an appropriate time to retire, as it was the final season for the Royals, who moved to Syracuse the following season. When Lasorda retired he was the franchise leader in wins (107), games pitched (251), and IP (1,461). Along the way, he was named to two All-Star teams, hurled 20 shutouts, and helped the Royals win the Governors Cup (International League championship) in 1951, 1953, and 1958. Altogether, he won 117 games at the Triple-A level and 136 total in the minors.

Though never afflicted by attacks of false modesty, Lasorda tended to downplay his career on the mound. True, he was no power pitcher, relying on off-speed pitches (the 12-6 curveball was his go-to pitch). Lack of control is hardly unusual among young pitchers, but Lasorda’s lack of control of his temper (a former boxer, he often employed his pugilistic skills on the baseball field) may have been another reason the Dodgers were loath to put him on the big league roster.

Nevertheless, after Lasorda’s pitching career was over, Dodger Scouting Director Al Campanis immediately hired him as a scout. In 1965 Lasorda began his managerial career with the Pocatello Chiefs, the Dodgers’ Rookie League franchise, eventually working his way up to Triple-A ball with the Albuquerque Dukes. By 1973 he was back in the big leagues as a Dodger coach. After manager Walter Alston stepped down following the 1975 season, Lasorda was tabbed to helm the Dodgers in 1976, by which time his temper had mellowed considerably. And the rest is history: a record of 1,599-1,439 (.526), 8 division titles, 4 pennants, 2 championships. Altogether, he spent 47 seasons in the Dodger organization.

Given Lasorda’s success in Montreal, it is understandable that the only time he gave serious thought to leaving the Dodger organization was when he was offered the chance to manage the Expos. Though tempted, Lasorda turned down Expo GM John McHale and remained with the Dodgers. He never had cause to regret that decision. In 1997 he got a plaque in Cooperstown. That same year he joined the Dodgers Ring of Honor and his number (2) was retired. He was also enshrined in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame (2006) and the International League Hall of Fame (2008)

Not bad for a pitcher who never won a game in the big leagues.