The Tommy Lasorda era could have started one year earlier. After the 1975 season, the Dodgers were prepared to replace Walter Alston, who had managed stars from Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella to Steve Garvey and Don Sutton.
“I was ready to make that change, with my dad’s support,” Peter O’Malley, then the Dodgers’ president and son of owner Walter O’Malley, told The Times Friday, after the team announced Lasorda had died at age 93.
Alston asked to manage one final season, and O’Malley agreed. Lasorda remained a Dodgers coach, and the Montreal Expos offered him their managerial job.