Didn't know if this should go in a baseball forum or not, but Lasorda was actually bigger than baseball. I was originally a Giants fan and later an Astros fan, so I always hated the Dodgers and Lasorda (the manager, not the person). But he was not only a successful manager but also added a lot of pizazz to baseball.
RIP Didn't follow much baseball outside of Astros while growing up. I remember him more for his weight loss commercials and occasional movie cameos.
He was a real character, although baseball has produced many. It's a gift the sport has and I hope that gift is never lost. It separates baseball from so many other sports, in my opinion. Lasorda loved baseball and countless fans loved to boo him . . . affectionately more often than not. Rest in Peace. You earned it.
some classic videos of tommy's opinions on Kurt Bevaqua (who had accused tommy of ordering his pitcher to hit the .220 hitter on dave kingman's performance, after he had hit 3 HRs against Tommy's team ,
Tommy Lasordo called my 16yr old sister on the phone, once, after she met him in a St Louis hotel after a game, with Vin Scully. My sister and I grew up huge Dodgers fans in Illinois. She gave him a poem I wrote "An Ode to Don Sutton" and won him over as a "bleeding Dodger Blue" teenager, a surprise in St Louis. After chatting up her fandom, he sent her a signed picture, etc. We loved that man. I later stopped liking him after he started bleeding racism more than Dodger Blue in the Piazza era.
There's about 500 amazing Lasorda talks, on the radio or wherever. Like OP said...hated him as a Dodger, love listening to him talk. The Jim Rome interview back in the 90's when he talks about golf vs Nolan Ryan fastball is an all-time classic, not sure if it's on the internet.
This is kind of it, can't find the good radio interview where he totally goes off on golf... And this is prime Lasorda...total *******, but amazing and hilarious:
fwiw. all that materials Rome used was copied from local LA radio legend, Jim Healy, whose team had originally interviewed Tommy in the 70s and 80s altho Rome was based in LA, he was not popular locally, the local sports listeners held it against him for not giving Healy credit https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-jim-healy-dwyre-20140722-column.htmlHealy, an UCLA alum, was often dismissive of the crosstown rival, USC. when some USC student athletes were placed on academic probation, Healy offered this solution send all the F students from UCLA to USC, that way the GPA at both institution would be improved there are many Angelenos who believe that this tape recording by Healy's team was responsible for Tommy's induction to the Hall of Fame
