Playing Career
Tommy Lasorda signed with the Philadelphia Phillies as an undrafted free agent in 1945 and began his professional career with the Concord Weavers in 1945. He then missed the 1946 & 1947 seasons because of a stint in the United States Army. He served on active duty from October 1945 until spring 1947.
He returned to baseball in 1948 with the Schenectady Blue Jays of the Canadian-American League. On May 31, 1948, he struck out 25 Amsterdam Rugmakers in a 15-inning game setting a professional record (since broken), and drove in the winning run with a single. In his next two starts, he struck out 15 and 13, gaining the attention of the Dodgers, who drafted him from the Phillies chain and sent him to the Greenville Spinners in 1949. Lasorda also pitched for the Cristobal Mottas in the Canal Zone Baseball League in Panama from 1948 through 1950. Lasorda played for Almendares (Cuba) from 1950–52 and 1958–60, compiling a 16-13 record in four seasons, including 8-3 with a 1.89 ERA in 1958-59. The Mottas won the championship in '48 and Lasorda made his major league debut on August 5, 1954 for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Though he did not play, he won a World Series ring as a member of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers. He pitched for the Dodgers for two seasons, and then for the Kansas City Athletics for one season, after the Athletics purchased him from the Dodgers. He was later traded by Kansas City to the New York Yankees in 1956 and then sold back to the Dodgers in 1957.
He was sent to the Montreal Royals of the International League in 1950. Lasorda played for Almendares (Cuba) from 1950–52 and 1958–60, compiling a 16-13 record in four seasons, including 8-3 with a 1.89 ERA in 1958-59. He pitched for Montreal from 1950–54 and 1958–1960 and is the winningest pitcher in the history of the team (107–57). He led Montreal to four straight Governors' Cups from 1951 to 1954, and a fifth one in 1958. On June 24, 2006 he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. He played only in the minors for the Yankees and the Dodgers returned him to the Montreal team where he was voted the International League's Most Valuable Pitcher Award in 1958, when he won his fifth minor league championship. The Dodgers finally released him on July 9, 1960. To quote him, “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination."
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