Lasorda Going To Cooperstown Ex-Dodgers Manager, Fox, Wells Enshrined

Tommy Lasorda isn’t returning to baseball. He’s headed into the Hall of Fame instead.

And so, at long last, is Nellie Fox.

Lasorda was elected along with Fox, a durable second baseman for the Chicago White Sox, and Negro Leaguer Willie Wells Sr. by the hall’s veterans committee on Wednesday.

Lasorda has always said he bleeds Dodger blue, so it was fitting he got word of the committee’s vote while watching his beloved Dodgers play Montreal in Vero Beach, Fla.

“I cried,” Lasorda said. “They were tears of joy. When they announced it at the game, I got chills. I couldn’t believe it.”

Lasorda, one of only four managers in history to guide the same team for at least 20 years, retired in 1996 following 47 seasons in the Dodgers’ organization.

Charismatic and ever ready to trumpet his love for baseball, Lasorda had hinted at a possible comeback, leading to speculation he would be passed over by the 15-member committee.

However, Lasorda, 69, recently said he had no intention of managing again, and the committee took his word.

“We told him that if he managed again, we’d tear down the statue,” joked committee chairman Joe Brown.

Lasorda, the 14th manager to make it to Cooperstown, won two World Series titles with Los Angeles. He said it was a mistake to think he was considering a return.

“Wanting to manage and asking to manage is a little bit different,” Lasorda said. “That’s what the misunderstanding was. I didn’t go out and solicit. Heck, I gave up the best managing job in the world.”

Does that mean his managing days are over?

“Now that I’m in the Hall of Fame,” he said. “That’s it.”

Lasorda, Fox and Wells will be inducted on Aug. 3 in Cooperstown, N.Y., along with knuckleballer Phil Niekro, who was voted in by the Baseball Writers Association of America in January.

Lasorda’s climb to the Dodgers’ dugout took him through Spokane from 1969-71. His star-laden 1970 team won the Pacific Coast League pennant. He compiled a 234-201 record with the Indians.

He becomes the fourth former Spokane baseball figure to be elected to the Hall of Fame. The others are former Cleveland pitching star Stan Coveleski, National League first baseman George Kelly and relief pitching great Hoyt Wilhelm.

Lasorda has never strayed far from the spotlight. He could be seen charging from the dugout to embrace a winning pitcher, or as a television pitchman endorsing a favorite diet drink. Above all, he has always been an ambassador for baseball, enraptured by the game since his boyhood in Norristown, Pa.

“Today is really the icing on the cake,” said Lasorda, who recently returned from a promotional tour of Japan. “… This way I can spread the word of baseball which I’ve always done, and now as a Hall of Famer makes it even nicer.”

While Lasorda’s election was a mild surprise, Fox’s was expected.

The scrappy second baseman, who died of cancer in 1975, finished two votes shy of election - the slimmest margin in history - in 1985 balloting by the BBWAA.

He was named on 74.68 percent of the total ballots that year, just below the 75 percent needed for induction. Last year, Fox reached the percentage for criteria, but got one less vote than Jim Bunning.

And because rules state the 15-member committee can elect only one former major leaguer, Bunning was immortalized while Fox’s family was forced to wait another year.

“It’s great news,” said his wife, Joanne Fox. “It’s wonderful news.

“I told my daughters to go down to the store and get your daddy’s favorite little cheddar fishes and his favorite Crown Royal. There hasn’t been any of that in the house in 15-20 years. … Nellie’s here too.”

Fox was a 12-time All-Star who batted more than .300 six times and .288 during a 19-year career - 14 with the White Sox. In 1959, he and shortstop Luis Aparicio helped lead the Go Go Sox to their first pennant in 40 seasons, the last Chicago team to make the World Series. Fox was A.L. MVP that year.

Fox still holds the record for playing 798 straight games at second base, and he struck out only 216 times in 9,232 at-bats, the third-best percentage (.023) in modern history.

The veterans committee - made up of former players, executives and media members - reviewed candidates in four areas: former major leaguers; a composite ballot of Negro Leaguers, umpires, executives and managers; 19th century players and personnel; and Negro Leaguers.

Among the other players getting considerable consideration were Larry Doby, the first black to play in the A.L., and Dom DiMaggio of Boston. From the executive-managers category, former commissioner Bowie Kuhn and former A.L. president Lee MacPhail were considered.

Wells, a slick-fielding shortstop nicknamed “Devil,” played for nine teams during his 20 years in the Negro Leagues. He ranks first in leagues history in doubles and finished his career with a .331 average.