Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images
Few people in baseball knew Tom Lasorda better than the chronicler Jaime Jarrín , who remembered with emotion the man with whom he shared in baseball for more than six decades in the organization of the Dodgers .
“This is (was) a sad day indeed, although we already sensed that the fatal day would arrive at any moment due to the severity of Tom in the last weeks ”, said Jaime Jarrín. “I feel heartbroken, I feel sad.”
Lasorda passed away on Thursday, January 7 at his home as a result of cardiac arrest just a few days after leaving Hospital. He was 93 years old.
Jarrín, member of the Hall of the Cooperstown fame, he recalled meeting Lasorda in the late 1960s 50 at the Memorial Coliseum, where the Dodgers they played temporarily. The longevity of both with the team is only comparable to that of Vin Scully , the chronicler of the team in English who retired a few years ago years.
“Tom Lasorda has been an invaluable treasure for the Dodgers and for baseball in general. I don’t think there has been such a prominent baseball ambassador as Tom Lasorda, “said Jarrín, who revealed that Tommy continually invited him to lunch or dinner.
Related : Tom Lasorda singing with mariachi in the Dodgers locker room
“Many times, when the team had lost a difficult game in cities like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Atlanta or New York, at 1 or 1: 30 in the early morning there was a knock on my door in the hotel room and it was Tom Lasorda, who took me out of my room to walk with him because he said no I could sleep after a very painful defeat , and that’s how we roamed the streets ”, Jarrín said.
“I don’t think there has ever been a person who has loved baseball, the Dodgers and the fans, and particularly with the Latino prospects Lasorda was very special. I spend countless hours outside of their regular hours for them, “added the chronicler, who said Lasorda was trying to make himself understood with his” rough “Spanish.
To date, I’ve had 62 seasons of great moments and memories, but the memories that I have where Tommy was present, are amongst my most treasured. I will miss my dear friend. pic.twitter.com/9bWVHiIUaT
– Jaime Jarrín (@JaimeJarrin) January 8, 2021
Jarrín recalled that Lasorda had a predilection for winter baseball in the Republic Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and who in his youth launched in Cuba: “He was a character that will never be repeated.”
“Lasorda’s love for the Dodgers It was incredible, to the point of asking that in his epitaph in the cemetery they put the schedule of the Los Angeles Dodgers games to that the fans could see when the team was playing at home, ”revealed Jarrín, who last fall recounted the first World Series conquest for the Dodgers since 1988, when Lasorda led the team to glory.
“He rubbed shoulders with presidents, with the most brilliant Hollywood figures, as well as with the waiter, with the bus boy, with the dishwasher of any restaurant, of places that you prefer laugh enormously, because to eat, no one like Tom Lasorda , “concluded the Ecuador-born chronicler, one of the most distinguished Hispanics in sports.
READ MORE:
“Tommy always believed in me”: Fernando Valenzuela remembers his manager Lasorda
A talk with Vin Scully, the Dodgers’ dearest man: “I’m an ordinary man”
