Tommy Lasorda has a blog. Yesterday he offered some "Fatherly Advice":

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 same principle is at work at Dodger Stadium. I do not want Frank McCourt to deprive families of the $2 True Blue Tuesday promotion because of two bad guys who ran across the outfield, and one bad sports columnist who unfairly criticizes the McCourt’s.

If you've read Tommy's memoirs or talked to him in person, you know that this is classic Tommy Lasorda. I'm delighted to welcome Tommy to the wonderful world of blogging, and I look forward to many posts with his insight into Dodger baseball and life in general. Check it out when you can, and a big thanks to Brant at SWLiP for the heads-up.

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