Lasorda Leaves Dodgers Bench Health Concerns Force L.A. Skipper To Retire, Accept Front-Office Position

Tom Lasorda, who began bleeding Dodger blue when the team still played in Brooklyn, left the job he loved and lived for 20 years when he retired Monday as Los Angeles manager.

Choking back tears at one point and respinning old baseball yarns at another, the 68-year-old Lasorda said health concerns and the desire to spend more time with his family convinced him to leave the dugout and become a team vice president.

Lasorda underwent angioplasty June 26 after it was determined he had a heart attack. He said he was cleared medically to return to the dugout, but realized it made sense to retire.

“For me to get into a uniform again - as excitable as I am - I could not go down there without being the way I am,” Lasorda, his voice shaking, said at a Dodger Stadium news conference. “I decided it’s best for me and the organization to step down. … That’s quite a decision.

“It was a heckuva run,” he said.

During his two decades, there were a total of 185 managerial changes in the major leagues. Lasorda became just the fourth big league manager to last into his 20th season - joining Connie Mack, John McGraw and Walter Alston. It was Alston’s retirement after 23 years that opened the job for Lasorda.

Lasorda, who’s spent 47 years with the Dodgers system as a player, scout, coach and manager, led Los Angeles to the World Series championship in 1981 and again in 1988 - a memorable five-game victory over the heavily favored Oakland Athletics highlighted by the limping Kirk Gibson’s dramatic pinch-hit homer to win the opening game.

The Dodgers also reached the World Series under Lasorda in 1977 and 1978, and won N.L. West titles in 1983, 1985 and 1995.

Bill Russell, who played shortstop under Lasorda in the late 1970s and early ‘80s and later had him as his mentor, will remain the interim manager through this season. During Lasorda’s absence, Russell had a 14-16 record.

Russell and Lasorda were also together in Spokane, where Lasorda managed the Indians of the Pacific Coast League in 1969-71. Spokane won the PCL pennant in 1970.

The decision to step down as manager of the Dodgers was completely his, Lasorda said. He said as recently as Friday, after receiving medical clearance from his doctors to go back to work, he intended to return to the dugout.

Lasorda changed his mind, however, after talking with owner Peter O’Malley and executive vice president Fred Claire.

“Peter gave me all the confidence in the world,” Lasorda said. “Peter told me, ‘You’re the manager. If you want to go down there and put on that uniform, you’re the manager.”’

Said O’Malley: “I think it’s fair to say the last three days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - he was wrestling with it. Even though he didn’t say it, I could tell he and (wife) Jo were wrestling with it.

“As much as he had said after he was hospitalized he was going to manage again, I could tell he was wrestling with it. And perhaps family and close friends were saying, ‘Hey, Tommy, wait a second. Think about this a little bit more.’ And I think he did.”

Lasorda, who professes to “bleed Dodger blue,” grew teary-eyed as he thanked O’Malley for hiring him 20 years earlier.

A few minutes later, though, Lasorda’s eyes lit up as he talked about becoming a vice president, noting with a grin he always secretly envied the guys in suits.

“I always used to look up at Fred and Al (Campanis) and those guys who were vice presidents, and now I’m a vice president of the Dodgers,” Lasorda said, his voice rising. “That’s an honor and a privilege. And I’m going to do the best job I possibly can for the Dodgers because I love this organization.

“I’ve been with them for 47 years and I’m hoping that maybe 50 years from now I’ll die a Dodger.”

Graphic: Lasorda retires