Baseball Is Our Game Tommy Lasorda Hailed as "baseball's greatest ambassador," Tommy Lasorda told a packed house at the University's second annual Hot Stove Dinner that "baseball is our game" and that "high school and college baseball coaches are the unsung heroes of our communities." The dinner in the Gengras Student Union cafeteria was held on Jan. 14. "They have to take young men and make sure they are outstanding students, as well as great athletes, and make sure that they are prepared for life," said Lasorda, who managed the Los Angeles Dodgers to eight National League West titles in his 20 years at their helm and led the U.S. baseball team to the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Australia. "You don't see college basketball coaches having to collect money to send their team on a road trip. You don't see college football coaches having to go out before a game to put the lines down on the field," said Lasorda, noting that he will travel anywhere around the country to help out college baseball programs but that he wouldn't set one foot outside his door for college basketball or football programs. Lasorda had the crowd in stitches when he told stories about some of his players, such as Steve Sax and Pedro Guerrero. In talking about his experiences at the Olympics, Lasorda said, "It was an honor and a privilege to take that team to the Olympics. Baseball is America's game; [the gold medal] should belong to us, not the Cubans, the South Koreans, or anyone else." In describing the team's dramatic victory over Cuba for the gold medal, he said, "They got beat because our team wanted it more than they did."

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