Okay, to be honest, I cannot really call Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda, but for the sake of comedy and self importance, I will. I have to tell you, I have met some famous people: George Wallace (after he came to Jesus and decided segregation now, segregation...maybe not forever), Alex Haley (who came to my 90% African American elementary school and told the story of Kunta Kinte about 3 years before Roots came out as a mini series), Lynn Swann of the Pittsburgh Steelers, John Candalaria and Jim Rooker of the Pirates, etc. I have always been able to maintain a certain level of cool. That all left me, however, on Tuesday the 17th of February, 2009.I ran inside to grab a cup of coffee at my local Starbucks (no surprise, so far) and nodded a hello to the people out on the patio. I went inside, bought my venti decaf and headed out to the car, nodding once again to the group on the patio. When I got to the car, I looked back to see that one of the men was wearing a Dodger's jersey. Now, just 2 days earlier, we had learned that the Dodgers and White Sox had built a Spring Training facility 8 blocks from our house. I told our youngest son, Thomas, that maybe we would get lucky and see a player or two.
Anyhow, I shut the car door and walked back over to the patio. "Hey Dodger fan," I said to the man in the jersey, "I hear the Dodgers are going to train down the street."
"Yeah, first game is March 1st, but the pitchers and catchers are down there, now. Are you a Dodgers fan?"
"No. I grew up a Pirates fan but have lived out of the country for a while and have sort of lost interest in baseball. My youngest likes baseball. I think he figures it is his patriotic birthright to like baseball, so he has some interest in it."
"So who was your favorite manager when you were growing up?" He asked.
"I would like to say it was a Pirates manager, but to tell you the truth, it was Lasorda."
The man and his wife and little boys were laughing and said, "good answer!"
"No, I'm not saying that because you are Dodger fans. I just liked the way he managed and took chances and was aggressive." (somewhere in the conversation, he said that they would be there for six weeks, as a family)
"So, are you with the team?" I asked.
He nodded to the old man across the table from him and said, "Well, yeah. I'm Tommy's assistant."
This is where I lost all sense of cool. "T T T T ommy La la la la la sor... Uh Mr. Lasorda, I didn't recognise you!"
The baseball legend replied "Hey! Thanks a lot!"
After I was done stammering, the assistant took my picture with Mr. Lasorda and I left. It doesn't end there. I took Katie and Thomas down to Dodgertown the next day and they got autographs. I spoke to Collin (the assistant) and he turned and said, "Hey Tommy, it's the guy from Starbucks!" So, obviously, I made an impression.
But I'm totally cool now. Maybe sometime I will tell you about when Don Mattingly told me, "Yeah. later!"
