Tommy LaSorda's Words To The W.I.S.E.

June 1, 2009: As good as any event is, it immediately gets ramped up several notches if Tommy LaSorda is there, and then gains more impact if LaSorda is there to speak. That was the case at the 15th annual Women in Sports and Events lunch on May 27 that honored three women of the year associated with sports: Kathy Carter, evp, Soccer United Marketing/Major League Soccer; Jacqueline Parkes, svp/CMO at Major League Baseball; and Jamie McCourt, CEO of Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc. LaSorda, who has been associated with the Dodgers for 55 years dating back to Brooklyn as a player, scout, coach, manager (winning two World Series) and executive, introduced McCourt. At first he read somewhat awkwardly off papers he brought with him to the podium. "My job is to introduce one of your winners, and I congratulate the other winners. She is a lady who is very unique. She has done an outstanding job reaching out to the fans, building ball fields, awarding scholarships.

But then LaSorda, a member of baseball's Hall of Fame, tossed the papers aside and started to talk about Jamie McCourt, her husband Frank, a Boston-based real estate developer, and how in 2004 the team was struggling when the McCourt's turned things around to make the Dodgers an important and profitable organization again. and the Dodgers from the heart. "Outside of these notes here - she is tremendous, she loves the Dodgers," LaSorda, who was the face of an MLB post-season marketing campaign for Fox and ESPN in 2006, told the crowd at the W.I.S.E. event at the Mariott Marquis in New York's Times Square. "When they came out from Boston to take over the Dodgers [in 2004] people thought it wasn't right." Drawing both laughs and semi-serious boos from the partisan New York audience, LaSorda said of Jamie McCourt, "She was instrumental in bringing Joe Torre to the Dodgers [after he parted ways as long-time manager of the Yankees] . . . Today you are honoring a wonderful lady, our lady, our boss our owner, the wonderful Jamie McCourt." McCourt took the stage and embraced LaSorda, who then sat in a chair behind her while she took her moment in the W.I.S.E. spotlight (unlike the two men, MLS commissioner Don Garber and Bob DuPuy, MLB president and COO, who introduced Carter and Parkes, respectively, and then left the stage). But LaSorda was part of the allure of the event, and McCourt began her speech acknowledging by saying "Tommy who is one of the most special men I've met in my life" and how she and LaSorda "really bleed Dodger blue."

Kathy Carter spoke about her love of soccer and how people thought she would not make it at William & Mary as a 5'5" goaltender. "People said I was too small to be a good goalkeeper. I said, yes, I am small [compared to other goalies]. But then they would say, You're nuts! And I would say, Yes, I am. . . I don't know which I believe more: I love to win or I hate to lose." Jacqueline Parkes talked about her love of baseball, which she attributed in part to her father, the late Dr. James Parkes, who was team physician for the New York Mets from 1971-94; and to other successes in her life, for many of which she thanked her mother, Margaret, who was in the audience.

LaSorda, who will represent the Dodgers at the MLB draft in Secaucus, N.J. June 9-11, spent a good part of the event speaking with everyone who wanted to say hello and share stories with him, proving to be as good an ambassador for baseball as there has been since the Dodgers left Brooklyn.

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