Classic rivalry

Crushing losses to Yankees helped prepare Dodgers for glory

By Tommy Lasorda, Special to SI.com

Steve Howe and Steve Yeager celebrate the last out of the 1981 World Series at Yankee Stadium. Walter Iooss Jr./SI

Growing up in Norristown, Pa., when the Yankees would come to town to play the Philadelphia Athletics, my four brothers and I, along with every other kid in our neighborhood, would cram against an old fence at Shibe Park at peer through a hole to catch a glimpse of the Bronx Bombers. My heroes were all Yankees. I wanted to play the game with the same determination and grit as guys like Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and, of course, the Babe.

I eventually played at Yankee Stadium with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954 and '55 as a pitcher and came out of the bullpen in exhibition games to face guys like Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. But when I returned to Yankee Stadium in October 1977, I returned in style. It was my first full season managing the Dodgers, and the two biggest teams in the history of baseball would meet in the Fall Classic.

It was an honor to represent the National League that year, an honor we earned as a team. Not one player set a major-league record that year. However, we set a record by having four players hit at least 30 home runs in a season. That feat had never been done before in history of baseball, not even by those storied Yankee teams.

For the first time since 1963, the Dodgers and Yankees would meet for the championship of the world. It started out being a tremendous Classic. The stands were full, the Yankee fans were living up to their reputation and the magic of October baseball was in the air. In my first World Series game, we were tied 3-3 going into the ninth inning in the Bronx. We ended up losing 4-3 in 12 innings but rebounded and won Game 2 behind a sparkling performance by Happy Hooton who held the mighty Yankees to just five hits in a 6-1 win.

After splitting a pair of games in New York, I honestly believed we were going to be the 1977 world champions. Confidence is the first step toward success, and I wanted my players to remain as confident going back to Los Angeles as they were when we started the season winning 21 of our first 25 games, giving us the third-best season-opening record in baseball. As manager, I knew my attitude would set the mood and I wanted our clubhouse to remain loose. Despite our positive outlook, Mike Torrez beat us 5-3 in game three. Doug Rau started Game 4 and got knocked around early, loading the bases. I went to take him out, and when I got to the mound we had an argument because he didn't want to come out. He said, "There's a left-hander coming up and I know I can get him out." I replied, "Oh yeah, well why then are the bases loaded with left-handed hitters?" I won the argument but we lost the game, 4-2, despite seven strong innings of relief from Rick Rhoden.

Going back to New York down 3-1 was tough, but we had gained confidence by dethroning the reigning world champion Cincinnati Reds during the regular season and beat the Phillies three in a row in Philadelphia to win the National League pennant. After Davey Lopes led off Game 5 with a triple, I knew our team was ready and we won that game, 10-4, to stay alive.

But Game 6 belonged to Reggie Jackson as he earned his nickname, Mr. October.

He had an unbelievable way of arising to the occasion. In six games he hit five home runs, drove in eight runs, scored 10 and hit .450. In that sixth game he put on one of the greatest displays of power in history, hitting three home runs on the only three swings he took. The first came off Hooton, the second off Sosa and the third, which still hasn't landed, off Charlie Hough's knuckleball. Although we lost the series, I was still proud of our team. As I told the team, next to winning the World Series, the best thing that can happen to a ballclub is losing the World Series.

Although I meant what I had said about losing, I still hated finishing second, and I was anxious all winter to start the 1978 season. As fate would have it, we found ourselves matched up against the Yankees again for the world championship. Along with the outstanding glove play of third baseman Graig Nettles, this series was marked by two events that stand out in my mind.

The fist came in Game 2 when we were winning 4-3 in the ninth. Bucky Dent was on second and Paul Blair was on first representing the go-ahead run. There was one out and Thurman Munson was due up with Reggie Jackson on deck. I brought in 21-year-old Bob Welch, a young fireballer we had just brought up to the big leagues in June to face one of the best clutch hitters in baseball. Munson lined out to right. Up came Jackson, who had already drove in the Yankees' first three runs. It was the greatest confrontation I have ever seen. The veteran vs. the youngster, the fastball thrower vs. the power hitter. Welch ran the count to 1-1 with two fastballs, and as the third pitch left his hand, another fastball -- I knew he wasn't going to throw a breaking ball -- I knew he wasn't going to back down. Reggie fouled off the third fastball for strike two. He fouled off two more pitches. Ball two was issued and Jackson fouled off another fastball. Then came ball three. With the count full, Jackson fouled off another three fastballs, and on the fourth full-count pitch he took a mighty swing and missed. Dodger Stadium erupted as the Dodgers won.

Heading into Game 4, we were still winning series 2-1. But then Reggie did something I will never forget; he interfered with a throw by sticking his hip out, deflecting the baseball into right field and allowing a run to score. Up 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees had runners on second and first. Lou Piniella lined a shot to our shortstop. The ball hit his glove in the air and fell to ground. He picked it up, stepped on second and threw to Steve Garvey at first to turn the inning-ending double play. That is when Jackson obstructed with the play, allowing Munson to score. I argued and argued and argued, and to this day I still think the first base umpire was wrong. He called it a throwing error and allowed the run to count. The Yankees went on to tie the game in the eighth inning and win it in the 10th.

We suffered a tremendous loss the next day in Game 5, 12-2, and the Pope died. The College of Cardinals elected a non-Italian Pope for the first time in 450 years. The Yankees went on to win Game 6 and the Series, making them the first team in World Series history to win four straight after falling behind 2-0. Again, I had to give them credit, but I still hated to lose.

From the end of the 1978 World Series, through 1979 and 1980, when I would lay my head on the pillow at night and say my prayers, I would say, "Dear Lord, if you see it in your heart to have the Dodgers play in another World Series, if you have any compassion you'll give me one more chance against the Yankees." Well, that October the Dodgers and Yankees would play for the world championship for the 11th time. In the 10 series meetings, the Yanks were 6-1 against the Brooklyn Dodgers and 2-1 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Yankees had been our postseason nemesis since 1941, and when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and played the Yankees in 1963 Fall Classic, it united the nation by bringing each coast together through the common love of our national pastime. It has been a tremendous rivalry that all baseball fans enjoy.

We started the series by losing the first two games. Going back to Los Angeles, I knew we would be victorious. We had beaten Houston in the first round after falling behind 2-0 in a best-of-five series and went on to beat the Expos for the National League pennant after starting that series with a 2-1 deficit. So being down 2-0 meant we had the Yankees right where we wanted them.

In 15 World Series games against the Dodgers as a member of the Yankees, Jackson batted .400 (22/55) with 8 home runs, 17 RBI and an .891 slugging average. John Iacono/SI

Game 3 turned the tide of the series as I started the 20 year-old left handed screwballer, Fernando Valenzuela. To start the season he pitched shutouts in five of his first seven games and finished the regular season with eight scoreless games. He gave up two runs in the second and two more in the third, but I never took him out, I just couldn't. As the joke went, Fernando didn't even know the meaning of the word "pressure" -- he didn't speak English! He was so good that season I used to tell people he was really a 3,000-year-old Inca chief sent to us from heaven by Walter O'Malley, who saw we needed help and convinced the Lord to send him back down to Blue Heaven on Earth. We took his one run lead into the ninth and won 5-4, making the series 2-1 Yankees.

After winning Game 4 we evened the series at 2-2, and going into Game 5 Ron Guidry and Jerry Reuss were to engage in a tremendous duel. Reuss came out on top, 2-1, after throwing a complete game five-hitter. There was one scary moment though, when Ron Cey had his helmet cracked by a Goose Gossage fastball. The Penguin got revenge though as he snapped a 1-1 tie in Game 6 with a single and then scored on a triple by Pedro Guerrero. In fact, our team got revenge on the Yankees that day by winning 9-2. We won four straight after losing the first two, just as the Yankees had done to us in 1978. We won the World Series!

Throwing my hands to the heavens at the end of Game 6 was a moment I will treasure forever. Hoisting the World Series trophy above our heads and screaming at the top of our lungs while being bathed in bubbly, we were finally the champions of the world. I was truly the happiest guy in the world, but it wasn't just beating the Yankees, it was doing it with Garvey and Lopes, Bill Russell, Cey and all the people I had been with for so long. We had finally tasted the fruits of victory, and as I had told Peter O'Malley, he better build a vineyard because the fruits of victory are oh so sweet.

After falling behind to the Expos in the playoffs that year, outfielder Dusty Baker handed me a note that said Romans 5: 3-5, "Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us." We suffered and endured losing two series to the Yankees in 1977 and '78, but we never lost our self-confidence, and we never lost hope. Over the course of the 1981 World Series we showed the character we developed through losing, the character of a true champion.

Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda managed the Dodgers from 1976-96, winning eight division titles, four National League pennants and two World Series championships. He was named NL Manager of the Year in 1983 and '88.