Over the past few decades, I’ve had the unique pleasure of serving as “opening speaker” for a wide range of diverse keynote speakers. I’ve “opened” for both President Bushes… Secretary of State Henry Kissinger… General Colin Powell… Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev… and a wide range of other brilliant leaders.
Opening for Tommy Lasorda
One of my most enjoyable speaking experiences was serving as the “opener” a few times for the legendary Hall of Fame Baseball manager, Tommy Lasorda. What a character! What a dynamic, profound character at that…
For some context, Tommy Lasorda managed the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976 through 1996. He led the Dodgers to 10 National League championships, won two World Series and is the only baseball manager to guide a U.S. team to gold medal victory in the Olympics. He was inducted in Baseball’s Hall of Fame and was also highly respected as a baseball visionary as well as being beloved for his wit, wisdom and sense of humor.
Opening for Lasorda in Phoenix, Ariz., we had breakfast the morning before our speeches. At the time, I was coaching little league baseball back at Oregon Park in Kennesaw, Ga., and thought my time with Tommy might provide me some pearls of wisdom on ways I could be a better coach.
I told Tommy that when I return to Georgia, my team would be preparing to engage in a travel team tournament. I asked, “Tommy, any tips I should consider to motivate my boys?”
Oddly, he asked me to describe the state of our team’s uniforms.
I told him something to the effect of “Oh… we have stellar uniforms. Our parents did a great job of fund-raising and the uniforms are professional quality.” He then asked, “Tell me about the back of the uniforms…” A bit confused, I described the team’s uniforms as having each player’s name and number on the back of the shirt.
That’s when he perked up. He looked me in the eyes and said, “OK Coach… get the team mom to cut your player’s names off the backs of every uniform shirt. You must stress, over and over again, every player on your team needs to play for the name on the front of the shirt… not the name on the back.”
He continued to share with me that great teams are unselfish and exert all their energy “for” the team… not for their own personal glory. It turns out Manager Lasorda eliminated the names on a number of his Dodger team jerseys over the years to drive home that point. And Coach B did the same… and we won the championship.
Lasorda’s advice
After retiring from managing, he spent the last 24 years of his life serving the Dodgers as a vice-president in the club’s front office. When I visited him, there was a bold sign on the wall of his office that said, “Find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life…”
Tommy lived for baseball and loved the Dodgers. He claimed to bleed “Dodger blue” and when I called his telephone, the recorded message announced, “Hello… this is Tom Lasorda. I’m not here now but if you leave me a message, I’ll call you back… and remember, if you don’t pull for the Dodgers, you will NOT (emphasized) get into heaven.”
And so, what did I learn (or re-learn) from my time around “Skip” (the affectionate name players call their managers)?
- Great, successful people embrace kindness. “Kindness is not an activity. It’s a lifestyle.”
- Ignore your age. Stay young in head and heart. “I’m not old. I’ve just been young for a very long time.”
- Be humble. “Be gracious in victory and in defeat.”
- Be dedicated and committed to your team, or company, and your sport, or business. “Never cheat your organization or yourself. Can you look yourself in the mirror and be proud of yourself?”
- Don’t save anything for a “special occasion.” “Being alive is the most special of occasions.”
- “Trying” is not important in baseball, business and life. “Doing” and “achieving” is the key. “I don’t want guys who try… I want guys who do. Trying is noble but doing is the only key to success.”
- Ever a believer taking a risk was an important ingredient for success on the base path, in business and in life, he said, “You can’t steal second with your foot on first base.”
- Although he couldn’t remember where he heard this quote… he said it often, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.”
He was a profound leader, lovable manager and a good friend.
True to the sign on his office wall, because of his love for baseball, he never worked a day in his life.
I will always remember Tommy saying, “My wife told me, Tommy, I think you love baseball more than me. I said, ‘Honey, I guess that’s true, but hey, I love you more than football and hockey.’”
Two final Tommy Lasorda pearls of wisdom are:
“There are three kinds of people in this world: people who make it happen, people who watch what happens, and people who wonder what happened.”
“The key to successful managing is to keep those players who hate you away from those who are undecided.”
Play ball!
Ira Blumenthal is a business consultant, a Georgia resident, a best-selling author, a globally renowned public speaker, a university educator and a college Lacrosse coach. Ira welcomes inquiries and can be reached at Ira@Iraspeak.com. His web site is www.IraSpeak.com
