Lasorda’s Legacy: Energy, Respect

Just the other day, I was thinking what an ideal Olympic baseball coach Tom Lasorda would make. Good with kids. Great storyteller. Salty language. (Most of them would love that.) Loves his country. Bleeds red, white and you-know-what. Speaks Spanish. Could scream at the Cuban players in their own tongue. (Most of them would love that.)

Mainly, I was thinking how mellow he could be. No more nonstop travel. No more seven-day work weeks. No more noon to midnight. No more 11 o’clock macaroni. No more jaw-to-jaw arguments with those #!%*!?*! umpires. No more ulcer-making, Maalox-taking, 13th-inning, bases-jammed jams.

Tommy, it’s time.

If you think you should hang up old No. 2, so do we.

Billy Russell deserves a crack at managing the Dodgers, just as Lasorda deserves an office with a window view of Chavez Ravine, anywhere Peter O’Malley puts him. Inasmuch as the Dodger record is a so-so 14-16 under Russell so far, there is no rush to lock Russell into a long-term deal. But give the guy until October, at least. Fair is fair.

After that, all of the principals--Lasorda included--should gather around a round table like knights, thrash it out, throw some names into the hopper--Russell’s included--and choose a man who conceivably could manage the Dodgers for the next 20 years.

Because that’s how they do things.

The Dodgers don’t change managers like clockwork. They change them with a sun dial.

I am sensitive to complaints that Lasorda is being squeezed out. My mother had heart trouble, and doctors begged her to slow down. She lived four more years. Without changing her ways, it could have been four more weeks.

There is only one hitch to managing a baseball team:

You cannot slow down.

Managers don’t even have a disabled list. Nobody ever gave Lasorda a day off because he looked tired, or because he got a cramp. These zillion-dollar ballplayers, they take a day off if their driver’s licenses expire.

Lasorda worked. The guy put out. Until he checked himself into a hospital on June 24, the only time I can remember Tommy looking sick was after he pitched to Jack Clark. He has the constitution of an ox. But, to quote Jimmy Stewart talking to John Wayne in an old cowboy movie, “Even an ox dies.” Which is why I say, Tommy, don’t overdo it. Relax. Retire. Recharge. You earned it.

Would the Dodgers be better off with someone else in the dugout? My definitive answer to that is . . . how would I know? I know people who adore Lasorda so, they can’t conceive of the Dodgers without him. I know other people who think Lasorda should manage baseball’s All-Star team . . . baseball’s 1981 All-Star team.

Me, I respect him.

I say this because I consider Tom Lasorda a friend, a Hall of Famer, a humanitarian . . . and, because I don’t want Frank Sinatra mad at me.

Here at the Olympics, one of the noteworthy developments has been the acknowledgment by certain individuals that they are in the twilight of their careers, that their flesh is indeed weaker than their spirit. Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Janet Evans, Mary Slaney, possibly Carl Lewis in the next 24 hours or so . . . each feels young and fit, but none can continue the previous pace.

Happens to the best of them.

Happened to Joe Montana . . . regrettably.

Happened to Magic Johnson . . . repeatedly.

Happened to Stefan Edberg and Pam Shriver, recently, at Wimbledon.

Happened to Larry Holmes . . . and to George Foreman, I hope.

A baseball manager isn’t an athlete, but he pushes himself like one. He reports in February and works through October, night and day. In the case of Lasorda, the months of November through January are not reserved for fishing and using a Clapper to turn off the TV. I often feel Tommy works harder in the winter than he does in the summer, because at least during baseball season, he can sit down.

If, in fact, Lasorda wakes up this morning, showers, shaves, shines his shoes and actually walks away from managing the Los Angeles Dodgers after all these years, I want him to remember the words of George Bernard Shaw, that youth is wasted on the young.

And, if he changes his mind and manages the Dodgers to the pennant?

Well, fairy tales can come true, they can happen to you, if you’re young at heart. Frank sang that.

* LASORDA STEPS DOWN

Tom Lasorda is expected to retire as manager today due to health concerns. A1

* MASTER MOTIVATOR

Lasorda was in his own league as a motivator. He would give a hug or a shout, depending on which was needed. C2