Tommy Lasorda’s daughter looks back at Dodgers’ 1981 World Series battles with Yankees

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Tommy Lasorda managed the Dodgers to two World Series titles in four appearances. Three of those series were against the Yankees.

Now as the Boys in Blue once again face the Bronx Bombers for the championship, Lasorda’s daughter Laura is looking back on her father’s World Series struggles and triumphs.

Lasorda, who spent 20 years as Dodgers skipper, died in 2021 at age 93.

Laura Lasorda says the losses in 1977 and ’78 to the Yankees pushed her father to work harder.

“I think it hurt to lose and I think that it propelled him even more. … He never wanted to lose. But that was crushing. That was the power that got them through ’81.”

Redemption in 1981 wasn’t easy. The Dodgers dropped the first two games, but then caught a spark when Fernando Valenzuela pitched a complete-game win in Game 3. Lasorda’s team would rattle off three more wins to take the first of his two world championships. His second came against the Oakland A’s in 1988.

“I think that I can remember just how proud he was. I remember my mother saying you can do this.”

“I think she probably said to him I knew you could do it, we knew you could do it and you did it.”