Allegations Have Effect on Lasorda

Frank Sinatra called. So did Don Klosterman and many others. His son, Tom Lasorda Jr., stayed up well into the night to talk to him. Peter O’Malley invited father and son to dinner.

But when Tom Lasorda was alone, he cried. The man who preaches Dodger Blue said he has seldom been bluer.

“I was broken-hearted, as low as I’ve felt in a long time,” Lasorda said in his office here Friday afternoon. “The day Jack Clark hit the home run I felt pretty low, but this affected me even more.”

Lasorda was reacting to the media reports spawned by a Sports Illustrated article on gambling that linked the Dodger manager with Joe DeCarlo, a reputed associate of the late Mickey Cohen, a bookmaker and an organized crime figure.

DeCarlo was a friend, Lasorda said, but he said he knew nothing of DeCarlo’s alleged criminal ties, which included a conviction for mail theft 38 years ago.

“People know me, people know I didn’t do anything wrong,” Lasorda said.

But that didn’t make the headlines go away.

“When it brings tears out of you, when you cry because of the fact something like this had to happen to you, it’s really tough,” Lasorda said.

“This is going to make me leery of people, and that’s something I don’t want to happen to me. I enjoy going around the country, that’s the way I am.

“Many people told me today: ‘Don’t change. Stay the way you are.’ ”

Lasorda’s son, who arrived here Wednesday night, said he thought the published account of Lasorda’s relationship with DeCarlo was awful.

“To put my dad in a bad light over something like this, that’s ridiculous,” Tom Lasorda Jr. said.

Lasorda’s son said that he also knew DeCarlo well and that DeCarlo was “a very good friend.”

Sinatra’s message to Lasorda?

“He said, ‘You know you haven’t done anything,’ ” Lasorda said, relating the conversation. “Everybody knows you haven’t done anything wrong. Someone is just trying to sensationalize a story, and they’ve done that to me.”

Sinatra’s name has been linked on a number of occasions with organized crime figures.

Lasorda said it was difficult to walk into the clubhouse for his daily meeting with his players before Thursday’s workout.

“Sure, they can see it when I feel bad and I come in and they don’t hear all that enthusiasm,” Lasorda said. “Everybody notices it, everybody notices the effect of it.

“But I feel I can’t let my feelings interfere with the people that I love. . . . I feel when I walk into the clubhouse, I’ve got to put on a new face, a winning face.”

By the end of the workout, Lasorda appeared to be in better spirits, although his eyes again filled with tears while talking to reporters late Thursday afternoon.

There was a lighter moment: During a little hitting game Dodger regulars were playing during the workout, Lasorda shouted to batting-practice pitcher Mark Cresse: “What do you have, a bet on this game?”

Mike Marshall, who was waiting to hit, immediately turned to reporters. “You guys didn’t hear that,” he said with a smile. “That’s off the record.”

For the fourth time this spring--twice in Los Angeles, twice here--the Dodgers drained fluid from the left knee of shortstop Mariano Duncan. Trainer Bill Buhler said the fluid collects in a bursa sac above the joint and doesn’t bother the joint itself. “It’s nothing that will keep him out of a ballgame,” Buhler said, adding that Duncan was excused from Thursday’s workout to give a slight tear in the sac time to heal.

Duncan remains the Dodgers’ only unsigned player. Vice President Al Campanis said the Dodgers had waited to find out what the St. Louis Cardinals would do with Vince Coleman, 1985’s National League Rookie of the Year. The Cardinals, after failing to reach agreement on a new contract with Coleman, renewed his contract for a raise of $90,000 to $150,000. This was $15,000 less than originally reported and $250,000 less than Coleman was seeking.

“We want to be fair with (Duncan),” Campanis said. “Personally, I love this kid. We’ll make an offer, but it will depend on the position we’re put in. I’m sure the Cardinals would have preferred to sign Coleman (to a new contract).”

The Dodgers have until Monday to sign Duncan before his contract is automatically renewed. Duncan earned $60,000 last season.

Bill Madlock was treated for a minor case of phlebitis in his right leg, Buhler said. The trainer added: “But it’s on the surface, and the doctor said it’s nothing to be alarmed about. There are no main arteries to be concerned about. The doctor feels that, with medication, in a couple of days he should be fine.”