Before pressing play, be advised, Tommy Lasorda speaks in curse words. He is the embodiment of a person who uses them as verbs, adjectives, and sometimes nouns. Viewer discretion is advised.
While I don't want to merely focus on sports figures who lose it, no trash talk revue would be complete without Tommy Lasorda.
Lasorda, who was the legendary manager of the Dodgers from 1976 to 1991, was never afraid of a reporter and their microphone. It seemed the more that were around, the louder and more raucous he would get.
And throughout any given season, Lasorda was accused of having his players throw at another, or having his starting pitchers throw too long, and of course, he had run-ins with at least half a dozen team mascots in his career, including a absolute beat-down of the Philadelphia Phillies mascot, the Philly Phanatic.
In the clip above, Lasorda had just faced the Padres, who at the time in 1982 were a joke of a team, and actually had two players, Kurt Bevacqua and Joe Lefebvre, who couldn't find work with any other teams in the league, and joined the Padres organization, which was owned by famed McDonald's owner, Ray Kroc, but who couldn't place a winning team on the field due to his inability to get a great front office and player development staff together. Instead, he relied on the current infrastructure, who clearly didn't want to compete in baseball. At the time, the Padres were actually due to sell and relocate to Washington DC, and the rumor is that the front office staff, who had carefully tanked the Padres for several years prior to Kroc's ownership, felt they needed to undermine him. Again, another story for another time.
But Lefebvre and Bevacqua, despite their lowly standing in the major leagues, were quite talented, if not for the fact that they had been misused as players their whole careers. Both players could start defensively at upwards of five positions, and Lefebvre was a league-average hitter against right handed pitching, but dipped tremendously against lefties. Bevacqua was a worse defensively, but was well above the league average in that light, and in big games he became a much better bat. Bevacqua for his career batted .236. In his World Series apperances, that stretch five games in 1984, he hit .412. Bevacqua was clutch, for sure.
However, Bevacqua had a penchant for starting trouble. He'd been in fist fights with George Brett, in-game, he started several brawls on the various teams he was on, and his personality would soak into other players', and that is likely where the trouble started on June 30, 1982.
Dodgers relief pitcher, Tom Niedenfuer was exactly the type of guy that re-inforced Lasorda's opinions about relief pitchers. He was a very effective closer. But if he had one mistake in a game, mentally he couldn't recover, and it would be anyone's guess what he would throw next. Such was the case on the night of the 30th. Niedenfuer, who had already giving up a home run to Broadrick Perkins, to lead off the ninth. Facing the low-end of the Padres batting order, it would be safe to assume Niedenfuer was steaming mad, and with Lefebvre up to bat, apparently the choice was clear: hit him with the pitch.
Niedenfuer did, and later that night was fined 500 dollars by the league for the intentional pitch.
Various reporters asked the Padres lineup for comment on the fine, and they likely knew that Bevacqua would be a great person to ask, as he was never shy of a fight.
As the clip shows, Bevacqua delivered into the drama, which then cause those same reporters to get comment from Lasorda, the next day, about what Bevacqua said, knowing they'd get a reaction.
And so goes history, a crowd of instigators, always looking to drum something up, especially between two cantakerous types.
For his part, you can tell how little emotion Lasorda has in the subject, because he still remains polite in his interactions directed to the reporters, while giving a massive tirade of f and c words that would make sailors feel like victims.
Lasorda was never afraid to punch, be it physically or verbally. To this day he's still in the front office of the Dodgers organization at the age of 90. Lefebvre has gone onto player development roles with several MLB clubs, but Bevacqua has stayed in San Diego, where he maintains local celebrity status for his crushing performance in the 1984 World Series, and he uses his status to raise money for a hospital that focuses on adult care for those with developmental disabilities.
So, what seemed like a wild weekend in July of 1982, wound up not so bad for all involved.
It just goes to prove, that no matter how sideways it may seem, it can always get back to rightside up.
As far as Lasorda goes, he's proven one more thing: curse words can be used in a number of ways, grammatically, and by limiting our own structure, we lose out on the flourishes he graced every news outlet that night, from the Los Angeles Times, to The Wichita Eagle, to the Boston Herald. It's either that, or he's the old man yelling for you to get off his lawn, and he should probably be taking medication.
In the end, it's a fielder's choice!
