I Live for This!: Baseball's Last True Believer by Bill Plaschke Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of I Live for This!: Baseball's Last True Believer
Book Review: Best Biography Ever!
Summary: 5 Stars
Before reading this book I was in no way a fan of the Dodgers or Lasorda. After reading it I can't say that I am a big Dodger fan but do have respect for the team and their history. However, I am a converted Lasorda fan. Hearing the stories and the tools he used to not only motivate possibly less skilled players win the world series (and the olympics) but also people in everyday life. He continues to impact people's lives everday with his personal approach to life. He is a role model not only for managers and coaches of sports teams but of managers of people. My hope is he lives to be a million years old so he can continue to to have a positive impact on millions of people.Book Review: RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "TOMMY BASEBALL"- FROM NORRISTOWN TO THE HALL OF FAME TO OLYMPIC GOLD!"
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the biography of Hall Of Fame Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda. Unlike most biographies which are chronological; birth to youth to aged, this story starts with a "Foreword" in 1990, then to the present, and then the entire book consists of "flash-backs" from the present to the past, and then back to the present again. It's very much like some of today's annoying movies where the story continually flashes back and forth and you're never sure what dimension you're in. But once you get used to that, the story takes off like a speedster running out an inside the park home run!
Tommy who came from an Italian immigrant family in Norristown Pennsylvania never forgets where he came from. The story allows you to follow Tommy from having to steal his first baseball glove, to him sitting on the top of the world when he wins two world championships for the Dodgers. Combining an immeasurable desire to be a Major League ballplayer, with a "baseball wit" that would make a vaudeville comedian envious, and the willingness to throw more haymakers than the last five heavyweight champions combined, Tommy was not to be denied.
Lasorda throughout the book is giving speeches to anyone willing to listen, and even to people who don't. He gives speeches for large sums of money, and gives speeches for free to churches, firemen, the military, and other worthy causes. The honesty in this book is powerful! Tommy pledges undying allegiance and thanks to the people who helped him and always stood by him. People such as the O'Malley family, Al Campanis, his best friend and USC baseball legend Rod Dedeaux. He just as vehemently curses the ground that his enemies walked on, such as former Dodger manager Walt Alston. Tommy pulls absolutely no punches when it comes to someone whom he took in his heart and treated like a son, and then knifed him in the back, Bill Russell, former Dodger shortstop and short lived manager. I absolutely admire Tommy for his honesty and passion regarding Russell and the Dodgers, who turned their back on him after they were bought by Fox.
I was going to rate this a "4 star" until the book got near the home stretch. When the story rounds third heading for home, we come to the 2000 Olympic Baseball team with Tommy as the manager. The team was made up of nobodies, has beens, and never were's! Lasorda, waving the American Flag from the deepest reaches of his heart, not only made this band of unknowns believe, he led them to the Olympic Gold Medal, and along the way, beat the team that had never, ever, been beaten, the Cuban National Team! As tears streamed down Tommy's face, there was not one member of current Dodger management in attendance. But! Peter O'Malley the former Dodger owner had flown to Australia unannounced to support Tommy! And that's what Tommy was always all about! Loyalties, "I've got your back!! Baseball, America, and the Dodger's.
I'm happy to say that when the McCourt's bought the Dodgers in 2004, they called Tommy and said they couldn't imagine buying the Dodgers without Tommy as Frank McCourt's right hand man, his special assistant. Now everything is right with the world! The greatest country America, And America's pastime, has it's greatest goodwill ambassador back where he should be, with the Dodger's! A "FIVE-STAR-FINISH!"