You don’t often get to meet a legend!
Tommy Lasorda and his Baseball Hall of Fame ring on my hand.
Several weeks ago I was a speaker at the California Academy of Cosmetic Surgery and had the pleasure to spend an evening with baseball legend and hall of famer Tommy Lasorda.
Tommy has been a pitcher, coach, manager and poster boy for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers for six decades. He was elected in to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.
He still maintains a very active speaking schedule and does not charge for speaking to military groups or children’s groups. This means he passes up $30,000 for each free talk, so he is obviously patriotic and compassionate.
Tommy is 88 years old (he says that God can’t find him) and has the energy of a 25 year old. He is an amazing speaker and held court for an hour of not stop jokes and funny stories. He told one story about Yogi Berra getting a large 4 foot grandfather clock as an award in NYC and Tommy and Yogi were walking out the revolving door of the hotel and a drunk slammed into Yogi and knocked the clock on the street shattering it to pieces. Yogi yelled at the guy “why don’t you watch where you are going” and the drunk fired back “why don’t you wear a wristwatch like everyone else”. There were another 50 jokes back to back. He is truly a character, buy enjoys shooting the breeze with people like he lives next door. As we went to dinner, every step of the way, someone recognized Tommy and shook hands or asked for a picture. He loves to oblige them and did. Rock on Tommy L!
Joe Niamtu, III DMD
Cosmetic Facial Surgery
Richmond, Virginia
