Hall of Bloggers

Via The Corner, I came across the latest MLBlogs. Two of note: Tommy Lasorda and Brooks Robinson. Unlike politics, which really requires sustained attention to the back-and-forth on particular issues to avoid waddling in to a debate a day late and a few facts short (see Jim Lampley), a sporadic, dilettante-ish celebrity baseball blog can still be entertaining if it’s run by someone who can dispense good yarns and occasional dollops of insight.
Robinson’s blog is not off to an auspicious start, however. Here, for example, he goes on at some length responding to a reader inquiry for his thoughts on who is better with the glove – Scott Rolen or Eric Chavez – explaining why he isn’t going to say one guy is better than another. Which is a good-natured and gentlemanly thing for a baseball ‘insider’ to say, but it’s not going to make for interesting reading.
Then there’s Tommy, whose blog so far seems like the real unfiltered Lasorda. This post opens with an anecdote that captures the man pretty well:

My father had five sons, and one day he called a family meeting, sat us down, and told us he wanted to bring his brother’s son, Mario, to America. He told us to treat him as an equal because he was family. When Mario arrived, my father told Mario he could live with him so while he worked hard, he could save his money and eventually bring his own family to America too.
Mario was lazy; he did not work hard, he did not save any money and his trip to America was a failure. When he returned to Italy, he blamed his failure on my father instead of taking responsibility for his own actions.
I was so mad at Mario, I wanted to go to Italy, find him, and throw him into the Adriatic Sea for ruining my father’s name.
Later, my father sat us brothers down again and told us he wanted to bring his sister’s son to America. I immediately jumped up and shouted in protest that I did not want to bring any more relatives to America. I said I didn’t want to support any more lazy Greenhorns. My father, in broken English, told me to sit down and shut up. He said because Mario was bad should not deprive his sister’s son from coming to this country.
Well, he came to America and lived in my father’s house. He worked hard and raised a beautiful family with two sons of his own, who eventually became professors in Rome.

The emotion, the pride, the self-reliance, the protective family bonds – and also the chip on his shoulder, the impatience with his lazy cousin (who Tommy is willing to slam on the web these many years later) – it’s all there. And, of course, it’s all a segue into a lecture on preserving the special relationship of the Dodgers with their fans, as Lasorda keeps on bleeding Dodger blue.