the tommy lasorda managerial tree

with the brewers' firing of manager (and former dodger) ron roenicke the other day (he was replaced by another former dodger, craig counsell), i decided to finally finish pulling this post together.  in football, i used to hear a lot about the bill walsh coaching tree - all of the people who coached under bill walsh who went on to become head coaches themselves.  that tree is then expanded to include coaches under those head coaches who became head coaches, and so on.  my take on the tommy lasorda managerial tree is in regards to his players - not coaches, and this post will just look at the first tier of major league managers who spent some time playing under one thomas charles lasorda.

here's the man himself on a 2004 upper deck sp authentic card

that notes his managerial triumph in the 1982 all-star game in montreal while using a photo from about 20 years later.  incidentally, he had four future big league managers playing under him on that '82 all-star roster - dusty baker, tony pena, pete rose, and ray knight.

i'm focusing on his dodger players, however, and when tommy took over the dodgers late in the 1976 season, he had three future major league managers on his roster at that time:

dusty baker

davey lopes

and bill russell

who replaced lasorda during the 1996 season.

over the next 20-years, lasorda managed another 9 future managers.

johnny oates

ron washington

mike scioscia

ron roenicke

phil garner

 glenn hoffman

who took over for russell in 1998

kirk gibson

willie randolph

and juan samuel

this list does not include players such as bobby valentine, whom tommy managed in the minor leagues, nor does it include players such as joe ferguson, tommy john, gary carter, rick dempsey, mike marshall, or steve yeager who played in the majors under tommy and later managed in the minor leagues.

with the firings of kirk gibson last year and roenicke this year, scioscia is the only active manager to have played under lasorda. however, it is yet conceivable that this tree sprouts some new branches in the future, as such former "lasorda" dodgers and minor league managers bobby mitchell, brett butler, and tim wallach are currently working for big league teams as an instructor (mitchell) or big league coaches (butler and wallach).

and, in case you are wondering, bill russell's managerial tree's first tier consists solely of chip hale.

here's to more lasorda style hugs in the dugout!

i saw the saenz - a few more from the flea market

here are a few more cards i picked up at that flea market last weekend.  just dodgers this time.

2005 topps total olmedo saenz

i think this is a silver parallel.  i couldn't leave olmedo the tomato in the dime box.  in fact, i would guess that this is one of about three olmedo saenz as a dodger cards i have in my collection.

here's a 2010 topps card your mom threw out 1956 jackie robinson.

original back, to boot!

even though i already have at least two copies of this card, i couldn't leave o-pee-chee behind.   i only wish there were more than just this 1985 o-pee-chee rick honeycutt.

here's a nice orel hershiser card from 1993 score.

and a 1996 ud collector's choice chad fonville arizona fall league card

i probably have about a dozen of the chan ho park afl card, but i don't think i had a chad until now.

here are a couple of 1999 ud collector's choice (or is it just ud choice?) - charles johnson

and ellis burks

the reason i bought a giant card is that i am pretty sure that cj is making an appearance there in the upper left hand corner.  giant cards are better when dodgers are present.

i like this 2004 upper deck sp authentic shawn green card

because of the dodger stadium image in the background.

that works for me better than upper deck's use of a '3' in place of a 'g' on this 2005 ud trilogy card

still, i always enjoy adding a jeff kent card to the collection.  especially for a dime.  from a flea market that i didn't know existed. that i only noticed because i was driving by at the right time.  or is that the ri3ht time.

autographs of the little known

whether meant to be checklist filler or prospecting investments, i have never really been a fan of bowman's attempts at providing cards of players in single a.  by the time it all started in the early '90's, i was losing touch with the dodgers' farm system and didn't know who the top prospects were in aaa, let alone rookie ball.  anyway, upper deck seemed to do the same sort of thing in the 2000's, and as a result, i have some cards of players whom i do not know.  and not just cards, but relics and autos, too.  like this 2003 upper deck spx andrew brown jersey and auto card.

i was surprised to learn a few months ago that brown actually made it to the majors with the indians and a's later in the decade.  also surprised to learn that he was twice traded for milton bradley - first from the dodgers to the indians, and then from the padres to the a's.  once again, i was surprised to find that he was still pitching professionally in 2010.  nothing against brown, he was just never really on my dodger radar.

at least brown eventually pitched in the bigs.  not so for orlando rodriguez, whom upper deck had sign at least 999 stickers for their 2004 sp authentic release

rodriguez made it as high as aaa in 2005 and was most recently pitching in the mexican league in 2010.  he may have been injured along the way, as he apparently didn't pitch in 2004.  hopefully signing all those stickers wasn't the problem.

and then, there were the scout autos.  i know there was lots of consternation about these cards when they were distributed in 2008 bowman.  i mean, who are more little known than scouts?  still, i sought this one out. 

ralph avila has been a scout for the dodgers since 1970, and was the first scout to make a presence in the dominican.  he signed pedro and ramon martinez, raul mondesi, and others for the dodgers, and helped establish the baseball academy system that most teams use today.  sometimes it's good to know about the little known.