RIP Lee Elia

[HanSenSE]

I wasn't there, of course, but Lasorda went into one of his speeches talking about the greatness of the United States after his team upset Cuba for the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics. The international press was aghast. The U.S. writers knew it was classic Lasorda.

 

[Slacker]

Lasorda was a **** to me. I went to Lakeland one day to a Dodgers-Tigers game because I didn't want to deal with all the other reporters in Clearwater. Tommy acted like I was wasting his time and put me off continually until I finally got five minutes. Even then he was short and gruff, not the ebullient Lasorda you would see in front of the cameras. Later on I found out many people had similar Lasorda stories

And a fat tub of goo.

 

[Liut]

Lester Grobstein snared that audio. Loved talking about it. Then again, Les liked talking about most everything.

 

[ChrisLong]

I witnessed one in Clearwater. Lasorda was in the middle of his sentence when he spotted Rick Talley of the Chicago Tribune and unloaded on him. Supposedly Talley outed Lasorda's son and Tommy was not happy. That kinda cut the press availability short

What year was this? Talley also worked for the L.A. Daily News and was a talk-show host on Dodgers programming on the team's radio station. That was when I covered in the early '80s.
Weird memory for me. I was at every game in 1981 and spent considerable time in Lasorda's office. There was a photo of a pretty girl (I thought) on his desk, but I never asked about it. Then, on opening day in 1982, I was there and his office was crowded. In walked this person who was wearing black leather pants, bright red boots that nearly reached the knee, and a black satin shirt, half unbottoned. I thought, who is that? Then I glanced at the photo, then went back and forth between the photo and the person in the office. Lasorda bellows, "Spunky!! Good to see you, glad you're here." That's when I realized his son Spunky was the one in the picture and he was obviously gay. Prior to that, the only reference that I recall was in a magazine article about Glenn Burke, a former Dodger who came out as gay. The story mentioned people who Burke hung out with (not by name) and it said "the son of a major league manager." A few years later, Lasorda opened a restaurant in Marina del Rey. Spunky was the manager. The restaurant flopped and wasn't open very long. I wondered if the gay influence of the restaurant kept people away.

The other thing about your Lasorda interview, you needed to have a camera with you. He would have treated you better. He loved having his picture taken. Most of his embellished arguments with umpires were just to get on TV. We even had a press box pool for which inning Lasorda would put himself in position to be on TV. I picked "before the game starts." The criteria was, he had to cross the foul line. I nearly won, but he stopped short of the line.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

It was around 83. Talley might have been in LA then

 

[ChrisLong]

It was around 83. Talley might have been in LA then

He was definitely in L.A. then. One of his obits says he was a columnist at the Chicago Tribune from 1974-79. I remember him at Vero Beach, we hung out a little bit. He brought friends there a few times and we got to know them. Lesley Visser played in our lunchtime media basketball games. We teased her about going from print to broadcast, going over to the dark side. She said she didn't really want to, but she just had to do it. Dale Tallon told us about his sure-fire plans to run an NHL team and it turns out he was right. Another story was that when the Chicago Tribune was filling a columnist position, it came down to Talley and Brent Musburger. Talley got it. Whatever happened to that Musburger guy?

 

[brn623cl]

He was definitely in L.A. then. One of his obits says he was a columnist at the Chicago Tribune from 1974-79. I remember him at Vero Beach, we hung out a little bit. He brought friends there a few times and we got to know them. Lesley Visser played in our lunchtime media basketball games. We teased her about going from print to broadcast, going over to the dark side. She said she didn't really want to, but she just had to do it. Dale Tallon told us about his sure-fire plans to run an NHL team and it turns out he was right. Another story was that when the Chicago Tribune was filling a columnist position, it came down to Talley and Brent Musburger. Talley got it. Whatever happened to that Musburger guy?

I heard he bacame an influencer long before that meant something

 

[I Should Coco]

Lester Grobstein snared that audio. Loved talking about it. Then again, Les liked talking about most everything.

WLS, back when it was “the Big 89” on the AM dial and radio giants like Larry Lujack, Tommy Edwards and Fred Winston were the morning DJs. And yes, Les was the sports guy.

 

[ChrisLong]

I heard he bacame an influencer long before that meant something

Haha. I guy I know was married to her for a little while. Cody Decker, held UCLA's HR record, prominent minor-league slugger. 0-for-10 as a September call-up by the Padres. He's a sports radio talker now.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I wasn't there, of course, but Lasorda went into one of his speeches talking about the greatness of the United States after his team upset Cuba for the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics. The international press was aghast. The U.S. writers knew it was classic Lasorda.

I was there for that one. Also pregame Lasorda monologue before a Mets game in NYC. Once I crossed out all the "****s" I think I had like two sentences in my notebook I could use.

 

[Liut]

WLS, back when it was "the Big 89" on the AM dial and radio giants like Larry Lujack, Tommy Edwards and Fred Winston were the morning DJs. And yes, Les was the sports guy.

Mentioned this before so won't belabor, and you'll probably remember ...
Les arranged a visit. Lujack was doing p.m. drive by then with Rich McMillan. Fred "balls to his knees" Winston was handling a.m.
Lujack couldn't remember the actor who Kate Jackson had been married to. I made a cue to Lujack and I told him Andrew Stevens.
That was pretty much the extent of it.
Les was a reporter's reporter. RIP.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Found this thread via the similar threads at the bottom of the page and...

I searched and couldn't find it, but did find this awesome thread.

Thread 'Tommy Lasorda: 80 and still shoveling bullsh*t'

Sep 22, 2007

Tommy waxing poetic about God, baseball, America and the Dodgers. Give it up Tommy. We all know you're completely full of **** and actually a miserable old cheap man.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070922&content_id=2223603&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

• BYH
• Replies: 75
• Forum: Sports and News

So much gold. Stuff like this is why I've wasted way too much time here over the years.

...wow, that was a trip back in time. Ended with Boots getting blasted (heh) for being a racist and a homophobe. Eighteen years ago, those were traits that got you excised from proper society. He's probably in the cabinet a few steps away from the presidency now.

As for Lasorda, I softened on him the last time I saw him in the late 2010s. He was doing a signing in Cooperstown and had that don't-come-here-unless-you're-buying look to him. But every time he saw a little kid, he waved him or her over, signed a baseball and gave it to the child. I'm not going to lie, I wished my daughter was with me, b/c that would have been pretty neat. Everything said in that thread was true. Lasorda could be a difficult guy and had a decidedly hypocritical bent, but he was also a great ambassador for the game, right to the end.

 

[dixiehack]

It looks like Handsome Harley Race (who himself turned out to be a cringy bigot) no longer posts here. But in the middle of some thread he absolutely shredded Lasorda like Fawn Hall at the filing cabinet.