Tommy Lasorda Facing Backlash Over Comments

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Outside of mentioning Los Angeles Dodgers partial owner Magic Johnson by name and a picture with slugger Matt Kemp, the whole Donald Sterling-V. Stiviano ordeal had absolutely nothing to with the world of baseball.

Until now.

“I don’t wish [Stiviano] any bad luck,” Lasorda said earlier this week, “but I hope she gets hit with a car.”

Ummm…yikes?

A lot of people have spoken out against the Hall of Fame manager-turned “special advisor” to team chairman Mark Walter saying he was out of line, but none as loudly as Terry Cannon, the head of the famed Baseball Reliquary.

“Even if Lasorda’s remarks could be viewed as offhanded or partially facetious, the idea that a Dodger executive could call for someone whom he doesn’t like to be run over by a car is detestable, and makes any reasonable person question the mental faculties of anyone who would make such a statement publicly,” Cannon wrote in a piece that ran in Thursday’s Los Angeles Daily News.  “Even more disturbing, Lasorda’s comments were made while he was in Florida to accept an honorary doctorate from Northwood University in West Palm Beach, and to dispense pearls of wisdom to that school’s graduating class. What a wonderful sentiment to convey to our next generation: if your friend’s acquaintance or lover says something negative about your friend, well, let’s just hope that person gets hit by a car.”

But Cannon wasn’t done.

“With Lasorda’s latest remarks,” Cannon continued, “Magic needs to step to the plate again with the same sense of indignation and urgency he did with Sterling. Magic needs to immediately terminate Lasorda’s position as Special Advisor to the Dodgers, thus letting the community and Dodger fans understand that the organization will not tolerate such offensive and indefensible opinions.”

Yikes.

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