Dodgers Can’t Expect to Get Back to the Top by Not Making Waves

Granted, Tom Lasorda is never going to be ranked with the all-time managerial greats, but those who are blaming him for the Dodger demise are looking in the wrong direction. It all starts at the top.

The erosion began the day Walter O’Malley died. What was a proud, winning baseball franchise has become a publicity-stuffed money-making machine offering a second-class product at first-class prices.

Say what you will of the old man, he understood the cardinal rule: Give ‘em a winner and they’ll show up. Put the winner in a pretty package and twice as many will show up. But, give ‘em a loser, treat ‘em condescendingly, and they’ll start to stay home.

They’re starting to stay home, Peter.

JACK TRACY

Sherman Oaks