Don't Break Humpty!

Dodgers Icon Shares Love Of Baseball and Scouting

Rita Burgueno, senior district executive for Urban Emphasis for the Los Angeles Area Council, has been a "huge" fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team since she attended her first home game at age 3. One of her prized possessions is a bobble-head doll signed by former Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda. "There are just no words to describe Tommy," says Burgueno. "He's a legend. He just has all of this emotion that I've never seen in another coach."

On Aug. 11, 2005, two days before the fourth Annual Los Angeles Dodgers Scouting Egg Drop, Lasorda spoke with Scouting magazine's Associate Editor Kathy Vilim DaGroomes. Life Scouts John Gutierrez, 16, and Joshua Vasquez, 13, both lifelong Dodger fans who are members of Los Angeles Troop 780, were also on hand with a question each for Lasorda.

SCOUTING MAGAZINE: Tommy, where were you a Scout, and what kind of Scout were you?
TOMMY LASORDA: I was a Boy Scout. I was about 14 years old—back in Norristown, Pa., located about 15 miles west of Philadelphia—and I wanted to be a Scout real bad. And I felt that if I could join the Boy Scouts, it would get me an opportunity to learn a lot about a lot of things—and I did. And I was [a Scout]. And I'm grateful that I was.

SCOUTING: How did Scouting affect your baseball playing and coaching careers?
LASORDA: Two things helped me: "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." And, "a Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent." If you pay attention to the Scout Oath and the Scout Law, then you'll live a good life. And I tried to live by that—by the Scout Oath and Scout Law. Here I am, I'll be 78 next month, and I still remember that. So what an impression it made on me and on my life.

SCOUTING: About a million Scout leaders subscribe to Scouting magazine. If you were addressing those adult leaders of our Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Venturers, what would you want to communicate to them?
LASORDA: First of all, I'd tell them how proud I am of them to be doing what they are doing. They have a very, very big responsibility, and I'll tell you why. They're supposed to take these youngsters under their wing, to use that expression, and they are supposed to teach them the Scout Oath, the Scout Law, and the way of growing up to [each] be someone productive.

If you were to take all the Eagle Scouts that I have corresponded with [many Eagle Scouts have written to Lasorda to seek a letter of recognition for reaching that rank], you'll know that when they're grown, they are going to be outstanding people, because to reach the level of an Eagle Scout, there has to be something very, very special in a young man's life. And the Scout [leaders] are the ones who teach them; they are the ones who bring them into the fold; they are the ones who make them believe in themselves. [Scout leaders] do such a great job for not only the Boy Scouts, but for America; because when these Scouts leave the Scout leader and they are on their own, what they have learned through Scouting will play a very, very important part in their life.

SCOUTING: What were some of the best things about the years you were coaching and playing baseball?
LASORDA: Well, when you manage a team for 20 years, you've had a lot of great thrills, you've had a lot of sad times, and you've had a lot of good times, but you know, you have so many different things that you were very, very proud of. I was proud of the fact that I was able to be manager of nine National League Rookies of the Year. No team in baseball has had that many Rookies of the Year; I was proud of that. I was proud of [Orel] Hershiser breaking Don Drysdale's record of 58 and two-thirds scoreless innings. I was proud of four of my players doing something that had never been done in baseball before—they each hit 30 or more home runs [in the 1977 season]: Dusty Baker hit 30, Ron Cey hit 30, Reggie Smith hit 32, and Steve Garvey hit 33. I was proud of that. And I was very, very proud of being the manager of the Dodgers; getting that position was a very, very important part of my life.

SCOUT JOHN GUTIERREZ What inspired you to be in baseball?
LASORDA: Well, I loved baseball, and I followed baseball when I was kid. I knew everybody's name, all their middle names, all their batting averages; and they were my heroes, and I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be a major league baseball player, and that's what I dreamed of.

I used to go to bed and dream; I used to dream that I was pitching in Yankee Stadium, pitching for the New York Yankees; and then my mother would wake me up. She'd shake me and say, "Wake up, Tommy; it's time to go to school." I didn't want to leave that dream. I'm saying, Why did she wake me up? I didn't want to be woken up. I wanted to stay with that dream, because it was so real. So being a baseball player, that's all I ever wanted to be, and that's what I became. The upbringing that my parents gave, led me; the Boy Scouts led me; the years I spent in the United States Army led me—all of those helped me to be a much better person.

SCOUTING: This has been a difficult summer for Scouting. ... You are [known as] the motivator par excellence. What encouragement would you offer to a group of Scouts [and Scouters]...about the things that have happened this summer?
LASORDA: Well, first of all, I'd have to tell them that we all go through tough times. Tough times never last, but tough people do. You have to be tough through tough times. ...

In everybody's lifetime, there comes a time when one door will close on you, and if you are so concerned with the door that closes, you'll never find the one that's open. ...

We must wake up every morning and look for the open door. ...

You have to continue in life. You have to realize how tough a situation it is; you just hope and pray that it doesn't happen to you, and now you go forward and do the best you can every day of your life.

SCOUT JOSHUA VASQUEZ: When did you first find out that you liked baseball?
LASORDA: I can't remember the exact date, but when I was, maybe, in first grade, I guess about 5 or 6 years old, that's when I knew I wanted to be a baseball player, and then I followed my dreams. You see, you can be anything you want to be in this country. All you've got to do is want it; all you've got to do is believe in yourself. Self-confidence is without a doubt the first step to success: If you believe in yourself, you'll be able to achieve anything that you want to, if you pay the price. The price of success can only come through the avenue of hard work. You set your goals, and you go after them with all the drive, determination, and desire that you have within you. But you've got to pay the price, and you've got to want it—you've got to want it more than anything else to reach those goals, and you've learned that in Scouting.

SCOUTING: Do you think America needs Scouting more than ever right now?
LASORDA: I don't know whether or not it needs Scouting more now than ever; I think we've always needed Scouting. I think it develops character; it develops knowledge; it prepares young men for the way of life. When they leave the Scouting ranks and go out into our world—I mean the world, your world, my world, the world of their parents...if [they] are not fully prepared, like many, [they] fall by the wayside.

But Scouts, when they go out into the world, they are fully prepared, because they have learned the things that are very important, things that will make their life very important, things that will carry them through tough times and good times; and we need the Boy Scouts of America. We need all young men to become Boy Scouts, because it will do them a world of good, it will teach them a lot of good things, and when they leave, they will be a lot better off; they will be a lot better prepared to enter the hard work of life.