Remembering in Chicago Too

Pick any Dodger, name any ball park, mention Tom Lasorda and you’ll get a story.

Take Tom Candiotti, the Dodger starter Saturday at Wrigley Field.

Candiotti broke into a big smile at the mention of his former manager and looked at the bullpen down the right-field line.

It was there a few years ago that he was the central figure in a bet waged between Lasorda and bullpen coach Mark Cresse. Lasorda had bet Cresse that if Candiotti threw Lasorda 10 knuckleballs, Lasorda could catch at least five of them.

Unknown to Cresse, Lasorda had called Candiotti into his office before going to the bullpen. “I want to make sure I win that bet,” Lasorda told Candiotti. “You know what I mean? If I don’t, you’ll be pitching in the bullpen and there will be no more pregame pasta for you.”

Candiotti figured Lasorda was kidding, but he took no chances.

With Lasorda wearing the full catcher’s gear down, Candiotti alternated his vicious-breaking knuckleballs with the softer variety, seeing to it that Lasorda caught every other one.

When Lasorda caught the last pitch to win the bet, he put on a demonstration usually reserved for pennant-clinching celebrations.

“With Tommy, everything was a big production,” Candiotti said.

But, added Candiotti, “if he hadn’t asked me to come see him beforehand, he’d have missed all 10 pitches.”

On the day Lasorda joined baseball’s Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, there were all sorts of memories of him floating around the Dodger clubhouse.

Manager Bill Russell and coach Mike Scioscia told the same story, of meeting Lasorda as 17-year-old prospects, forging an instant bond and gaining the strength, confidence and maturity from that bond to carry them all the way to the Dodgers.

“I might not have made it to the major leagues without him,” said Russell, who played 2,181 games for the Dodgers, the most by anybody since the team came to Los Angeles. “The Hall of Fame is for great baseball players, but I’m glad there’s a place there for someone like Tommy, who may not have been a great player but has done so much for the game, done so much for me and countless others, helping us get to the majors.

“He loved the game so much that he almost gave his life for it.”

Russell was referring to the heart attack Lasorda suffered last year that prompted his resignation after 20 years as Dodger manager.

Dodger first baseman Eric Karros felt the sting of Lasorda’s wit just before the start of the 1992 season. After a brief stay with the Dodgers at the end of the ’91 season, Karros was hoping to stick with the club the following year. But during the Freeway Series before opening day of ‘92, he was summoned to Lasorda’s office where the manager, in a solemn voice, told Karros he was going down.

“I was devastated,” Karros admitted.

But a moment later, Lasorda started laughing, assuring Karros he was just kidding.

Karros went on to become NL Rookie of the Year.

“He believed in me,” Karros said. “He gave me my chance. Nobody deserves this honor more. Nobody has meant more to the game over the last 30 or 40 years.”

Lasorda has meant more to catcher Mike Piazza than perhaps any other player.

Lasorda and Piazza’s father, Vince, were close friends, and Mike Piazza clearly remembers being a wide-eyed 8-year-old who was introduced to Lasorda, then the Dodger third-base coach.

The meeting changed Mike’s life. Lasorda had hooked another impressionable youngster. And launched another big-league career.