I hope this isn’t in the category of a zombie thread yet. I didn’t see that there were requests for my story.
Circa 1996: My college friend who was a missionary kid born in Tokyo and who spoke native Japanese had a small TV show on NHK (think PBS), interviewing interesting Americans so that Japanese people could listen and read along and improve their English.
Shortly previously, Hideo Nomo had hit the USA and especially Japan, giving Lasorda an opportunity to charge TV crews for interviews.
We showed up at Dodger Stadium in the winter, with the park bereft of fans and hangers-on. We lugged the equipment to the spot, but then Tommy showed up and demanded money to appear.
My friend tried phoning Japan (using the only cell phone I think I’d seen at that time), but it was the middle of the night in Japan, and he reached no one.
The Dodger publicity office finally (apparently) told Tommy that “all was arranged” (meaning “throw him a few hundred dollars later and he’ll probably just forget this”), and he did the interview, complete with “the sticks that stay together are harder to be broken” speech, and his wondering if he could conduct baseball camps in Japan for money. His appeal to teamwork caused eye-rolling in the crew, and nearly in the onscreen talent.
Even months later, the host of the show said, “I have forgiveness issues with Tommy Lasorda.” I gather he had not been fully informed of the situation by the publicity department, but his graspiness did not endear him to the people on the scene at all…