In the Case of McCourt, Lasorda Is Loyal to a Fault

You never know who might get fired next, so I rushed to Dodger Stadium on Monday to pick up the check Tom Lasorda still owed Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.

Lasorda had predicted a division title for the Dodgers but promised a $500 donation to the pediatric cancer ward if the Dodgers finished fourth. A month had gone by, but no check.

There was some speculation he’d have to print up some checks before writing one to Mattel, but it turns out that wasn’t correct. He didn’t want to pay for a stamp.

I was relieved, of course, to find him still in his office, and impressed when he handed me a personal check for $1,000 with “147” in the right corner, proving everyone wrong: It might’ve taken 78 years, but he’d previously written 146 checks.

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THE DODGERS should have a statue of Lasorda at the stadium entrance. It should be wired for sound to greet arriving fans. The statue’s mouth should always be open, of course, to make it more lifelike.

Lasorda has given the Dodgers 56 years of loyalty, and I know this because he’s always telling me so. It’s been an upbeat, tireless think-blue rant, the blarney overwhelming at times, but I’d put Lasorda right up there with other living L.A. icons such as John Wooden, Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin.

Wooden has written books packed with wisdom, but no one delivers blarney with such conviction as Lasorda, who was telling me Monday that most Dodger fans -- like himself -- consider Frank McCourt a great owner.

The right thing to do was to let Lasorda preach about McCourt’s greatness without interruption, and not make the same mistake as the Los Angeles Athletic Club, which chose to quibble recently over the award named in Wooden’s honor.

There are some arguments just not worth waging, especially when a win would make someone like Lasorda or Wooden the loser.

But I worry about Lasorda, and what he might really lose in the long run.

I saw how much the Dodgers ignored and then stung him under the stewardship of Bob Daly, exiling Lasorda to Japan -- marathon airplane trip after marathon airplane trip in his middle 70s, the good soldier still doing what he could to inspire, and maybe find an audience willing to listen to his old stories. As you can see, he had to go a long way to find that kind of audience.

I saw him return from the Olympics, where he’d led a group of young American players to a gold medal with his blarney, then get snubbed on the dugout steps by Dodger players with no feel for history or respect.

“I remember too,” Lasorda said, his eyes watering and growing red, a rare admission of something deeper there beneath all the bluster.

Happy days are here again for Lasorda, still the Dodger cheerleader in the minds of most, I’d imagine -- past blemishes aside. But now he’s hitched his legacy to McCourt, a certified disaster as a baseball owner to date.

It’s one thing to tell folks they have a better shot of getting into heaven rooting for the Dodgers, quite another to proclaim McCourt the savior.

“I love the guy,” Lasorda said, “and you can believe me as sure as I am sitting here and talking to you right now.”

“You keep talking like that,” I said, “and if McCourt continues to flounder, he could very well take your legacy down with him. No doubt Dodger fans want to hear Lasorda talking about better days ahead, but are you sure they want you promising McCourt will be the one who is going to deliver them?”

“I agree with everything he’s done,” Lasorda said. “Einstein once said an ounce of loyalty is worth more than a pound of knowledge.”

That would explain why he’s ignoring the facts.

“Hey, I believe the majority of Dodger fans think the same way as I do,” Lasorda said. “They believe he’s doing something to help this organization be successful.”

I said something about his being out to lunch, and as soon as I mentioned lunch Lasorda seemed to perk up. But I wanted to know whether he was supporting McCourt now because McCourt put him back on top of the Dodger mountain.

“Exactly,” he admitted. “I was hurt, and [respect] is what Frank gave me, and why I love the man.”

It’s a hard sell, though, telling fans McCourt is on the ball when evidence suggests otherwise. But I commended Lasorda on delivering his blarney with such passion, and he appeared surprised.

“I’m sincere,” he said. “Hook me to a lie detector. I’ll bet my lungs I’m telling the truth. I love Frank and Jamie McCourt. Set up a lie detector, and when I pass, you apologize to them for challenging my loyalty and love for them.”

I said I’d find a polygraph, and ask about pitching to Jack Clark and trading Paul Konerko. And if I do have to apologize, I’ll give the McCourts a call, and never get a return call.

“You’re really something,” Lasorda huffed. “I read those letters in the paper about you, and it’s not love. You know what, I might be the only friend you have.”

Who knew McCourt and I would have something in common?

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ONE OF our sportswriters was listening to sports-talk radio on 570, and you can see why he wants to remain nameless. He said Lasorda was talking about how he couldn’t mention the names of GM or managerial candidates.

The sportswriter then turned to 710, and Lasorda came on, naming Pat Gillick as his No. 1 GM choice and Jim Bowden No. 2 -- with Bobby Valentine to manage.

By the time he got to 1540, he probably had them hired.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at

t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.