With Training Camp Opening, Lasorda Can Slow Down a Little : Another Hectic Offseason for Dodger Skipper

Don’t ever think Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda, the animated bleeder of Dodger Blue, slows down just because there isn’t any major league baseball being played.

This winter, within an off-season schedule stuffed with more than 40 speaking engagements, Lasorda made an appearance on the David Letterman Show, took two ocean cruises and even spent election night with President Reagan.

“He called a week before election night and said that he and Nancy wanted us to join them the following Tuesday night,” said Lasorda, who, along with his wife, spent the evening watching the returns in the Century Plaza Hotel with the First Family.

“And if you don’t think that was a thrill and an honor . . . “

Invitations to visit with the president and appearances on television shows are not the usual activities for a baseball manager, and Lasorda marvels at his good fortune.

“All of these things happening to a third-string pitcher on the Norristown (Pa.) High School baseball team and a son of an Italian immigrant, it could only happen in the greatest country in the world,” Lasorda, 57, said.

Lasorda became the 19th Dodger manager when Walter Alston retired in 1976 after 23 years at the post. In his first season, Lasorda guided the Dodgers to the National League pennant and repeated the feat the next year.

In his eight seasons in the Dodger dugout, Lasorda has led the club to a world championship in 1981, three pennants and a Western Division title.

During that time, he also has taken on a celebrity-like status. The attention he receives is unexpected but appreciated, he said.

“It’s great, really great that people recognize me wherever I go,” Lasorda said. “Whether I’m on the planes or in the airports or in restaurants, they ask for an autograph, which makes me very, very proud.

“I’m extremely honored that they would ask me for my autograph.”

Popularity is bringing the New York Stock Exchange to a screeching halt, which Lasorda did. He was watching the trading from a balcony overlooking the floor when he was spotted by those below.

“All of a sudden two guys look up and recognize me and wave to me and I wave back,” he said, obviously relishing the story. “And within a matter of a minute or two--it was the most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen--everybody on the floor stopped what they were doing and they look up and start waving . . . all of a sudden the ticker tape began to move very slow.”

“A silence had fallen, and a guy looks up and he hollers to me, ‘Hey Lasorda, you guys made a bad trade when you traded Steve Garvey,’ and there was laughter.

“And then I said to him, ‘Is that right? You’ve made a lot worse trades down there than I ever made in my life.’ ”

More laughs. He then went down and began signing autographs.

“A guy who had a seat on the exchange said that in 20 years, he’d never seen where they’d do that,” Lasorda said.

Lasorda said his affect on the stock market was trumpeted the following day.

“The next day in the New York Times there was a big headline in the financial page that said, ‘The New York Stock Market Stalls,” he said. “That made me very proud.”

Lasorda’s offseason pace peaks at frenzied, flying across the country speaking at fundraisers or corporate gatherings. He combines his speeches with various functions associated with the Dodgers.

This winter his speaking schedule took him from Miami to Maui, from Newburgh, N.Y., to Baton Rouge, La.

During one particularly hectic January week, Lasorda spoke at a fundraiser at Nevada-Reno on Monday, and another one for a youth baseball group in Appleton, Wis., on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Lasorda spoke to the Notre Dame basketball team before a game against Holy Cross. By Thursday, he was in Ontario, Calif., to speak to a group of Boy Scouts.

Friday, Lasorda was in Miami to speak to a group of IBM executives, before backtracking again to be at Brigham Young University in Utah on Saturday for a baseball clinic.

On the seventh day, he rested.

The speeches he’s given over the years blend into flashes of travel schedules, airports and hotels, but there is one talk Lasorda will always remember.

“I got to speak at West Point,” he said. “I spoke to 4,600 cadets at West Point. It was the thrill of my life.”

The off-season itinerary is coordinated by Lasorda and Bill Shumard, the Dodgers’ director of community services and special events.

“I work on it, he works on it and then he lets me know,” Shumard said. “I handle the details, just part of the club’s function. He’s a great PR man, a great ambassador for the Dodgers.

“I bet 20% of my time in the offseason is spent on coordinating the legistics of Tommy’s schedule.”

Shumard said that this winter was nothing special for Lasorda.

“It’s been this way since 1977,” he said.

Thoughout his offseason travels, however, Lasorda always has baseball in his heart.

“The juices flow for me the day after the season ends,” he said. “I don’t ever want a season to end. When I was a player I didn’t want the season to end and now as a manager I don’t want the season to end because I love exactly what I’m doing.”

The Dodgers have opened spring training in Vero Beach, Fla., where they, along with their vagabonding manager, will stay put for six weeks. For Lasorda, it might feel like a vacation.