"You could hit me over the head with a fucking two-by-four and you don't knock a tear out of me," he says. Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders. The father and the son had that in common. The complex also features Brooke Shields on its list of tenants. He's dead.". The Australian beach volleyball gold medalist reflects on how legalizing gay marriage changed her life and outlook. Not a single Los Angeles writer, seeing the diaphanous beauty on the field, talking to his father, Mister Baseball, had seen fit to explore it. "Maybe," Baker says, "his ballpark was his sanctuary.". We are strolling through the night in Dodgertown, toward the fantasy-camp barbecue. He starts to whistle. But baseballs culture has progressed since Lasordas days, said Dave Pallone, a former M.L.B. He says, "He's dead." There was a plague, and it was gutting the arts world in my city, and it needed to be cured, and quickly. He'd never say anything about anybody that way. Lasorda was entitled to his personal life, and his opinions and the privacy of his feelings, yet at a time when it would have helped so many of us to understand more about the real Tommy, Jr., that never happened, and I'm really sad about that. I wonder if he even listened. Former major league umpire Dave Pallone, who revealed his own homosexuality in an autobiography two years ago, knows the father well, and also knew his son. He had a new set of friendswhom he regaled, in his best raconteurial fashion, with tales of the past. ", "Please," says his Oscar Wilde. He posed the foot next to a gray boot on the gray carpet. No way. I know what he died of. I remember when he died. The Dodgers official statement on Lasordas death included moving tributes by Hall of Fam broadcaster Viny Scully, Mark Walter, the teams owner and chairman, and Stan Kasten, whos president and CEO of the franchise. Tommy Lasorda, who spent seven decades in the Dodgers organization - first as a player in Brooklyn and then in Los Angeles as a two-time World Series winning manager - has died. The Dodgers confirmed Jo Lasorda passed away Monday night at the home in Fullerton she and Tommy shared for most of their 70-year marriage. "Talking to college baseball coaches, and a buddy told me nine nuns had been evicted from their home. His haunt was the Rose Tattoo, a gay club with male strippers, long closed now. This year, through no fault of Tom Lasorda's, his fielders have forgotten how to field, in a game in which defense has to be an immutable; and if this is anyone's fault, it's that of the men who stock the farm system. Over the course of his marriages, the radio talent had five children - Chance, Cannon, Larry King Jr., Andy, and Chaia. In 1981, she interviewed Tommy for a short-lived underground paper called No Mag. Years later, at some charity event, not in an interview, Lasorda admitted that Tommy Jr was gay and had died of AIDS and he apologized for his homophobia, wrote veteran journalist and former editor Karen Ocamb, the winner of both GLAAD and NLGJA awards. Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda died Thursday at the age of 93. "Tommy used to tell us incredible stuff about how he used to beeverything he'd donedrugs, sleeping with women, sleeping with men," says Magno. That was enough. Your quality of life can be good, I say. The Stacks is Deadspin's living archive of great journalism, curated by Bronx Banter's Alex Belth. Tommy Lasorda, arguably one of the greatest managers in MLB history, died on January 7, 2021, as first reported by the Los Angeles Dodgers. I knew him to be a gay man, and I knew a lot of people who knew him as a gay man. No cause of death was given. He loved the players. In black and gray. I have a lot of empathy for what he's going through. Still, in recent years, several players, like Kevin Pillar and Yunel Escobar, and the broadcaster Thom Brennaman had to apologize for their use of homophobic slurs. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. As long as he's healthy, I say. They spent the days poolside at a private home up behind the perfect pink stucco of the Beverly Hills Hotel, Tommy lacquering himself with a tan that was the stuff of legend. He was on the field during BP. Tommy moved out of his West Hollywood place into a new condo in Santa Monica, on a quiet, neat street a few blocks from the beachan avenue of trimmed lawns and stunning gardens displayed beneath the emerald canopies of old and stalwart trees. He's dead. Was I simply in denial? On Friday morning, the Dodgers released a statement saying Lasorda suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at his California home and was transported to the hospital with resuscitation in progress. He died on Thursday night at 10:57 p.m. PT. When Penelope Spheeris heard that Tommy Lasorda died on Thursday at 93, she knew many people would be touched by the sad news, particularly in Los Angeles. We are happy he got to see that wish fulfilled. That's every individual's right.". The lights for the baseball field in Caledonia, Miss. Tommy had a chemabrasion performed on his face, in which an acid bath removes four of the skin's six layers. Once he hit a cat. That's not the truth.". But what if Tommy Sr., one of the most highly visible men in all of professional sports in those days, had simply acknowledged his son's sexuality and his cause of death? The doctor put out a report of how he died. This apparent contradiction surfaces regularly in the tale of Tommy Lasorda. Trailblazer Layshia Clarendon focused on a WNBA return while helping trans and nonbinary people, Trans disc golfer Natalie Ryan files discrimination suit against pro tour, Vermont sports body stands up for trans-inclusion during dispute with Christian high school. Tommy with a stuffed fox. He was a good man. Lasorda was 93, and tributes to the iconic manager have been pouring in, beginning with that of his beloved Dodgers. Penelope Spheeris met him at Club Zero. "My son wasn't gay," he says evenly, no anger. On Twitter, all major sports outlets and Dodgers fans shared statements on Lasordas death. I kept my problems to myself. Everything he owns, his parents gave him. Pallone, who used to see Tommy Jr. at games, didnt feel like it was his place to broach the subject. I don't mind at all, but I dress quitewell, I wouldn't say it's FLAMBOYANT because it's not intentional. Tommy Lasorda, a baseball Hall of Famer who spent seven decades in the Dodgers organization, died on Thursday, January 7, at the age of 93. It was such a struggle between the two of them to try and balance keeping Sr.s. The Hall of Fame manager, who captained the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976 to 1996 led the franchise to 1,599 regular-season wins, four National League pennants, and two World Series titles. Tommy Lasorda was the son of Italian immigrants. I didn't think it'd be like that. Tommy had that good self-esteemwhere you figure that [his] parents did something right.". I liked Lasorda a lot, for most of my life, until some years ago, I heard the back-story about him and his son, and my attitude progressively changed. UPDATED, 6:05 PM: Los Angeles Dodgers legen But in the late seventies, it was a raucous, outrageous and joyous neighborhood, free of the pall that afflicted hetero Los Angeles, thronged as it was with people who'd lemminged their way out west until there was no more land, fugitives from back east. Tommy Lasordas classic rivalry with the Phillie Phanatic Baseball was meant to be fun for everyone (1988)pic.twitter.com/oI3fnTePki, IB THE GAMBLER (@incarceratedbob) January 8, 2021. He told Spheeris they were a turn-on. No cause of death was given. "I had him for thirty-three years. I don't think he appreciated what he had.". "I don't know," he says. His clubhouse became a haunt for show-business personalities, usually of distinctly outsized demeanorSinatra, Ricklesand he himself became the beacon of a new mythology, leader of the team that played in a ballpark on a hill on a road called Elysian, perched above the downtown, high and imperious. So, I believed his father, because at that time a manly, combative man like Lasorda could not have possibly had a gay son, and one who died of AIDS. I never brought them with me. And he stops looking around the room and looks me in the eye. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 1997. The word does not seem to be connected to anything. I ask him if he read in the same paper that his son had died of AIDS. On the other hand, as a father, I was torn. He couldn't do anything. I don't know how I was allowed to just be ME, but I think it was because I was so strongly ME that I don't think they thought they could ever STOP IT PENELOPE: Do you feel like you should be careful in the public eye? The first time I saw Tommy Jr. was a decade earlier. He was young, and because his father was his father, I did not connect the cause of death with AIDS. On this February weekend, Dodgertown is crowded with clearly affluent, often out-of-shape white men, each of whom has parted with $4,000 to come to Dodgers fantasy camp. He walks down the hallway, clicking them off, talking out loud but to himself. He said, in that voice, 'I'm sure you've read that I'm dying. Pallone, who became a motivational speaker giving presentations on diversity to companies, schools and teams, said he had brought up Lasordas story in his talks. Tom Lasorda floats on an ever-flowing current of conversation. Back in November, he was hospitalized in Orange County, California, and placed in intensive care. [But] then how do I feel, hunh? He was young, and because his father was his father, I did not connect the cause of death with AIDS. . The story is that you dont close doors on your family, Pallone said. Of the game. His father regularly called him from the road. The younger Lasorda died in June 1991, and the Los Angeles Times listed the cause of death from pneumonia and severe dehydration. That would have been too much. No vaccine. The most prominent: Billy Bean, who became M.L.B.s first ambassador of inclusion after his playing days. There's a new generation of coaches today, like San Diego Loyal coach Landon Donovan, who pulled his team off the field after one of his players was subjected to a homophobic slur. It speaks of a way of living. Jo Lasorda was. Tommy Lasorda received many tributes after the news of his death spread on Friday. As the Los Angeles Times reported, Lasorda was among the few remaining links to the teams Brooklyn roots, and had spent 71 seasons with the Dodgers. I think the least you can do, when you go out and play in front of a million people and sweat and pull muscles and bleed and do that as a living, when that person passes away, is be there. "And to accept the fact he's not with them and what the real reason is. Garvey was the only major league baseball player at Wiggins's service. They said, 'We prayed for a miracle, and God sent you to us.'". With some of his exceptionally beautiful women friends. Tommy Lasorda, the irrepressible baseball lifer who managed the Los Angeles Dodgers to four National League pennants and two World Series championships in a Hall of Fame career that spanned. He died of pneumonia.". RIP Tommy.. Tommy Lasorda died Jan. 7 at age 93. The city has long been her home, and it is also where Lasorda became a baseball icon, leading the Dodgers to two World Series titles during his Hall of Fame career. In 1980, at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Cindy Stevens and Tommy Lasorda shared a class in color theory. Champagne in a flute, cigarette in a long holder, graceful and vampish at the same time: This was Tommy at the Rose Tattoo. I would really hate to state anything like that. To mention one of her many job titles, Jo was a . Read his obituary here and tributes from friends, fans, Hollywood and the baseball world here. At school, they shared cigarettes in the hallway. Sitting in a grocery cart. ", "If nothing else, his father should be proud that he repented," Alex Magno says. In time, became friends. Ultimately, I wrote the piece confident that it would advance the cause. In recent days, others have also been discussing and learning about another part of Lasordas story his relationship with his son and what it said about society and baseball culture at the time. People have lived for ten years with the right medication and some luck. Out reprints an infamous Lasorda Sr. quote from the time: My son wasnt gay. It seemed quite plausible that he did have a gay son who may have died of AIDS. 70 Years in the same work uniform. Tom Lasorda, Jr., known as Spunky, died of complications from AIDS on June 3, 1991 at the age of 33. In the piano. While his father was the Dodgers manager, Tommy Jr. befriended Glenn Burke, an outfielder on the team, which strained Burkes relationship with his boss. He came out publicly soon after and wrote a book titled Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball. He said attitudes in the sport slowly began changing as more people come out publicly. And he'd do anything to keep it going. He was a good player, a smart manager, and a fine ambassador for . "Some of the guys kidded me. A close friend who was with Tommy the day before his death vehemently disagrees. Tommy studied portraits of Dietrich and Garbo to see how the makeup was done. However, cardiac arrest is not also a "heart . To display for all of the world to see a part of his son he didn't want seen? Knowing Tommy Lasorda got to see the Dodgers win one more championship.. pic.twitter.com/9Szmed3ALO, Blake Harris (@BlakeHarrisTBLA) January 8, 2021, It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Tommy Lasorda, Dodgers fan account Pantone 294 tweeted. PENELOPE: O.K., but you understand, when somebody looks at a picture of you, they're going to say, this guy's awfully feminine. Without it. Official reports in the media of the time said Spunky died of "pneumonia and severe. Two decades later? He was 93 years old. In 1976, he was anointed the second manager in the Los Angeles Dodgers' nineteen-year history. Jo hails from Greenville, South Carolina. He would spend a lot of his time at Dodgers games or on the road with the team. "I could say 'God, why was I dealt this blow? "He's dead." Then he posed it next to a red shoe on the gray carpet. I don't consider myself a backward-looking person by nature but I've always been fascinated with, Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. Jacob Billington is Dead : Death, Obituary, Cause of Death, Memorial, Funeral 360NG totally feeling remorsed to announce the death of a loved one 'Jacob Billington '. Sadly, Burke died of AIDS in 1995 at the age of 41. However, cardiac arrest is not also a heart attack, a mix-up commonly made, according to the American Heart Association. And an outrageous kid from Fullerton, ready to take the world by storm, found himself dropped smack into the soupof a thousand other outrageous kids, from Appleton, and Omaha, and Scranton. Tommy was forever bugging the editors of Interview to feature him, but they wouldn't. Tom Lasorda Jr.'s, death certificate reads: IMMEDIATE CAUSE: A) PNEUMONITIS 2 WEEKS. When Tommy Jr. died, Lasorda, his wife and their daughter were at his side, a family spokesman told The Los Angeles Times at the time. Legendary Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda has died at the age of 93. . The city has long been her home, and. The Dodgers saw the white-hot burn and made it into a minor-league manager. From the first, Lasorda understood that he had to invent a new identity for this team, the team that Walter O'Malley had yanked out of blue-collar-loyal Brooklyn-borough America and dropped into a city whose only real industry was manufacturing the soulless stuff of celluloid fantasy. Starting 9 shared a famous quote of Lasorda, There are 3 types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happens., The big Dodger in the sky gave Tommy Lasorda a call yesterday. The pylons at Los Angeles International Airport were illuminated in Dodger Blue.. TOMMY : I like all people. . His managing style was by instinct, not by the book, and his instincts were good enough to pay off more often than not. I read that in a paper. He won two World . Garvey attended the memorial service for Alan Wiggins, his former teammate on the San Diego Padres, who died of an AIDS-related illness last year, after a seven-year career in the majors. She would go on to direct the punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization and, years later, Wayne's World. I meanbut he was incredible. Tommy Lasorda, arguably one of the greatest managers in MLB history, died on January 7, 2021, as first reported by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He could really hold his own in a group of strangers. Nikola Joki is your 2023 NBA MVP right? It's funny that Tommy cites Magic, isn't it? I say that I thought a step forward had been taken by Magic Johnson's disclosure of his own HIV infection, that that's why some people in Los Angeles expected him to "Hey," he says. Lasorda was enraged when it was widely reported that his son had died . I showed him life. In his last years, friends say, everything quieted down, markedly so. Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. In the late seventies, Tommy left Fullerton, moving only an hour northwest in distancethough he might as well have been crossing the border between two sovereign nationsto West Hollywood, a pocket of gay America unlike any other, a community bound by the shared knowledge that those within it had been drawn by its double distinction: to be among gays, and to be in Hollywood. The cause of his death is still unknown at this time. His reply: I guess you mean to a woman?. But he could never say that to his dad obviously., She added later: I dont want to be mad at Tommy Lasorda Sr. Jo Lasorda died at 8:59 p.m. Monday, according to the team. He told me he liked going because he could flirt with the guys, she said, laughing. He turned me on to Linda Clifford. Tommy would call to tell Eugene he was going to buy him a gift. I don't know how they had the sense to be that way. While Tommy was leading the Dodgers, Jo, a Southerner in southern California, was an active member of the community and led the fundraising for the Thomas Lasorda Jr. Field House in Yorba Linda . Tom Lasorda, Jr., known as "Spunky," died of complications from AIDS on June 3, 1991 at the age of 33. Lasorda's son, Tom Jr., died in 1991. He was gay.". In blue. It also helped launch a new career. In the 2010 documentary Out: The Glenn Burke Story, his former Athletics teammate Claudell Washington said Manager Billy Martin introduced Burke to his new team with a homophobic slur. "He's dead. Tommy with long hair. "Are you kidding?" As for the father, there's no question about the nature of the demon he's been prey to for the past two years. He was 93.. Getty Perhaps, some members of her family still live there. When you get used to the easy life, it's hard to go out there. I ask him why he doesn't slow down. To say he wasn't gay would be like saying Quentin Crisp isn't gay. That was all. Tommy Jr. reportedly died of AIDS in 1991. Three to one. Outsports has reached out to Ocamb and the current editor of the Blade requesting more information about this claim. Official reports in the media of the time said Spunky died of pneumonia and severe dehydration, and focus more on how his father would deal with managing his baseball team than with the fact that his only son was gay. Its telling that Lasorda was the only major living figure in Burkes career who was not interviewed. "Everyone should know that there is this Tom [senior] who really loved his son and was always there for him. Hall of Fame Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda died on Thursday night, the team announced in a statement on Friday. No way. BestsellerThe Barista Express grinds, foams milk, and produces the silkiest espresso at the perfect temperature. His father had taught him that. When you got to meet him, you got to know everything about him. Spunky Lasorda later died of AIDS and his father shamefully never acknowledged that his son was gay. "We don't want to be sexual beings. [But] just because a man doesn't have a date doesn't mean he isn't gay! From 1965 to 1972, Lasorda's teamsin Pocatello, Ogden, Spokane, then Albuquerquefinished second, first, first, first, second, first, third and first. daughter Laura, and a granddaughter. She cried. I made him a little more sophisticated. But on the other side of that coin, Tommy was very generous person outside of the baseball field. However, at the time of his death, her father, Tommy Lasorda, was estimated to have a net worth of around $15 million. Because of his faith, Dodger Blue achieves things, more things than you can imagine. His spirit has flagged considerably, but his days, in season and out, are as full of Dodger Blue banquet appearances as ever, with impromptu Dodgers pep rallies in airport concourses from Nashville to Seattle. Tommy Lasorda & His Wife Have Been Married for Almost 70 Years The Lasorda marriage is a very long-lasting one. Two World Series Rings. He was a complete and total case. The way you get rid of a fear is by attacking itCan you imagine if the Dodgers, who are somewhat conservative, could stand up and say, 'We understand this is a problem that needs to be addressedWe broke down the barriers from the beginning with Jackie Robinson. "Gay," of course, is not a word that describes sexual habits. We should all do things to help, yes, but at the same time, this is a child who someone's lost. Even more so, as society changed, and our community became more accepted and as HIV became a manageable disease, and those who fought the battle and lost their lives during the early days of the AIDS pandemic have rightly been called heroes, Lasorda never wavered. Both strutted an impossibly simplistic view of the worldthe father with his gospel of fierce optimism and blind obeisance to a baseball mythology, and the son with a slavery to fashion that he carried to the point of religion. Tommy, Stevens recalls, often did not do his homework. But now the voice shifts tone and the words become more weighted; he frames each one with a new meaning. This is something he wanted. Often in the early eighties, when fashion photographer Eugene Pinkowski's phone would ring, it would be Tommy. When a person experiences cardiac arrest, it typically results in death if cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, isnt immediately performed followed by a defibrillator, which is used to shock the heart and restore a normal heart rhythm within a few minutes.. Tommy loved the world of the Dodgers. Tommy is smiling at us from a hundred pictures. They met at a punk rock club. You shouldn't judge. In the mid-1980s, Tommy's style of life changed. In the last two years of his life, Tommy's illness took its toll on his looks. The two were married on April 14, 1950 a 70-year union. Drank everything he wanted. Who's written the best piece about this?". The producers made multiple efforts to get Lasorda to talk, but were rebuffed. Lasorda was more than the tough manager who won World Series titles in 1981 and 1988. There had to be acceptance from his mom and dad. In his office at Dodger Stadium, the father kept a photograph of Tommy on his desk. Did I have a right to go against a father's wishes? Nor did he ever speak to Lasorda about his son after Tommy Jr.s death. He didn't pretend. Tommy Lasorda serving as an honorary coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2011. "I found him totally fascinating. By putting a face to a scourge at a time when the scourge was so faceless? If there were others who were young and lithe and handsome and androgynous, none were as outre as Tommy. Unlike practitioners of Crystal Cathedral pulpitry, Lasorda the tent-preacher believes in what he says, which, of course, makes all the difference in the world. They were very much alike. (Campanis was fired in 1987 for racist comments he made about Black people in a television interview.) I had new respect for his father. Tommy said I was his favorite player because we used to talk music all the time. Two blocks away, on Santa Monica Boulevard, at A Different Light, atop the shelves given over to books on how to manage to stay alive for another few weeks, sit a dozen clear bottles, each filled with amber fluid and a ragsymbolic Molotovs, labeled with the name of a man or a woman or a government agency that is setting back the common cause, reinforcing the stereotypes, driving the social stigmata even deeper into West Hollywood's already weakened flesh. There was a long, very well-written article in GQ in October of 1992 about their son, Tommy Jr. Based on . PENELOPE: Do you think the press would be mean to you if they had the chance? He was 93. umpire who said he was fired in 1988 for being gay. It's a well-worn voice. They lived in the same modest home in Fullerton, Calif., for most of that time and had two children: a daughter, Laura, and a son, Tom Jr. His son died in 1991. Mr. Lasorda, who suffered a heart attack soon after his retirement, was married to his wife, Jo, for 70 years. The two were married on April 14, 1950 -- a 70-year union. 1950 a 70-year union. Then the skin is scrubbed to remove yet another layer. His son, Thomas Jr. died in 1991. It may have been that he simply grew weary of the scene. . This is not Tommy Lasorda Jr.'s, routine nighttime activity. Thats what I dont like. As a for-profit goliath, fed by young men who learn homophobia at an early age, governed by men who were themselves raised in a primitive society, Big Sport's seeds of gender-preference bias have been sown very, very deeply, and uprooting them is going to take more than a story or two and more than a handful of men who come out every few years. I got seven or eight dozen balls [signed by Hall of Fame players], we auctioned them, and we built them a home. He wearied of it. Tommy Lasorda Jr Cause of Death - We grieve with the group of Tommy Lasorda Jr, we see how unsettling they could be at this moment, so we are sending our contemplations and supplications to the influenced ones. The baseball great was full of life throughout his 93 remarkable years. Sometimes Tommy had Pinkowski take pictures of them. He was 93. It is generally used to erase scars or wrinkles. He said, 'I want to thank you, because you made me look good.'". By January 2021, Jo Lasorda was at least 85 years old. Tommy insisted he passed of cancer, while many indicate it was related to AIDS. "He was a teammate, we always got along well, he gave me one hundred percent effort, played right next to me. Well, I am. "He was a good, sensitive kid," says Dusty Baker, now a coach with the San Francisco Giants. "You don't realize the enjoyment I got with those nuns in that convent. It may have been that he grew up. Tommy Lasorda. For this generation of young kids, that's a real lesson in authenticity and integrity that is far superior to the dark days of the past where humiliation and denial cloaked honesty. "I'll lay you three to one Magic plays again. Son of major league baseball's Tommy Lasorda. He was really noble about it. I had to adhere to what Penelope Spheeris had referred to: values. While he was on the team, it was known that Burke was gay, and that Lasorda didn't like him because of his sexuality. He was a quiet tenant, a thoroughly pleasant man. You can't force people to face what they don't want to face without hurting them. to one of the greatest Dodgers of ALL-TIME pic.twitter.com/jCvzfaxhK3, We mourn the passing of Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda. A heart attack (or myocardial infarction) refers to death of heart muscle tissue due to the loss of blood supply. Why can't we break down the barriers with the AIDS epidemic?'". Lasorda's death was caused by a sudden cardiopulmonary. "Gay was the thing to be back when he first came to L.A. Tommy used to tell his friends he had been gay. "There are a lot of opinions about Tom junior, about how [his father] handled his relationship with his son," says Steve Garvey, who more than anyone was the onfield embodiment of Dodger Blue. The surface self-assurance remained. Tommy Lasorda Jr. Tommy Jr. was openly gay, but his father was in denial of his son's sexuality. A few sprouts, some fruit, a potato. LOS ANGELES, CA - 1989: Manager Tommy Lasorda #2 and Reggie Smith #8 of the Los Angeles Dodgers take batting practice before a game at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California. Lasorda Jr., who was known by many as Spunky, was also gay and died of AIDS complications in 1991, though his father publicly denied his son's sexuality and the cause of his death. The wife of the Hall of Famer has died at the age of 91. I know it sounds weird, but he had kind of a glow around him.. A heart attack is quite serious, sometimes fatal. On death certificates issued by the state of California, there are three lines to list the deceased's cause of death, and after each is a space labeled TIME INTERVAL BETWEEN ONSET AND DEATH. Tommy Lasorda, 93. If I coulda seen God and God said to me 'I'm going to give you a son for thirty-three years and take him away after thirty-three years,' I'd have said 'Give him to me.'".