Today they hung Tommy Lasorda in the National Portrait Gallery, and if you can believe it, the portrait is bigger than he is. It was a wonderful event for a wonderful guy, who is a true American hero and one of our most inspirational leaders.
This was a totally non-Washington event. Admiral Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for those of you in Rio Linda), a personal friend (Tommy went to Iraq with him, an event that almost brought Tommy, recalling it, to tears), was there, but for the most part it was Italians from Pennsylvania (family mostly) and baseball people, including the commissioner.
During the tributes to Tommy, one of his most famous slogans was quoted, and it’s so good we should all memorize it:
There are three kinds of people.
Those who make things happen;
Those who watch things happen;
And those who wonder what happened.
Tonight we went to the ballgame with him, and I was reminded once again that just being with Tommy Lasorda is a treat and an honor. Even for a Yankee fan, ahem.
What a disappointment for an admirer of yours to discover that you’re a Yankee fan. Oh well, I will continue to follow your commentary as much as a Phillie fan is able.
Kudos to Tommy, and you, Michael, for holding the torch of liberty high
for decades. I remember he was referring to the Dodger’s of the ’80s when he managed them, and how he said he would go to war with them.
Also, is it true that when kudos are delayed, when they arrive they are that much more sweeter? This coming from a BoSox fan when Luis Tiant was on the mound, and Carl Yaztremski was patrolling the outfield
in front of the Green Monster.
“Today they hung Tommy Lasorda in the National Portrait Gallery”
That seems a bit harsh, even for somebody who once played for the Yankees. Couldn’t he have asked the governor for a reprieve?
No Giants fans there, unless he was hung. I remember attending a game at Candlestick about 25 years ago. Before the start Lasorda was honored with some kind of humanitarian award. The fans of the Giants reacted as if, well, as if the repeal of Prohibition had itself been repealed. Smiling, Tommy played his part well.
Why now? I feel like it’s the anticlimactic ending to a promising stock I’ve been heavily invested in only to see it pop an unavailing 20%, nowhere near enough to cover the years of research, energy, sweat, tears, blood, and time dedicated. Under normal circumstances the book release could have missed its mark by a couple of weeks, but at last, this may be a ‘story’ that won’t go away.
Tommy Lasorda is one of the greatest self-promoting gasbags alive today.
The fact that he is in the Baseball Hall of Fame is evidence of that. Now we have this. Unbelievable.
His baseball career as a player was spent primarily in the minor leagues, and as a Big League manager he was so so, as a strategist. The one thing he did do was surround himself with good baseball people to make decisions. He, however, would never give them credit nor allow them to take credit for any thing. It was and still is “all about Tommy”.