A celebration of champions, and a mirror of two Dodger teams

Derrel Thomas, Steve Howe, Steve Yeager and Steve Garvey celebrate after winning the 1981 World Series on Oct. 28, 1981 at Yankee Stadium. (Los Angeles Dodgers)

by Cary Osborne

There was the core group of All-Stars who defined longevity and excellence. A skipper in his fifth full season. A constellation of playoff-tested veterans and young up-and-comers, including a precocious pitcher from Mexico.

This was an unusual season, being that it was shortened and all. The Dodgers, not too distant from consecutive World Series losses, were once again one of baseball’s elite teams.

To get back to the Fall Classic, they came from behind in the National League Championship Series and advanced after a late home run in a winner-take-all game.

Then, in Game 6 of the World Series, they finally did it: World Series champions.

This is the team that will be on the field at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.

If it sounds like a parallel, it is.

The 1981 Dodger World Series championship team will be celebrated 40 years after their triumph and one year after the 2020 World Series champion Dodgers.

“We’re honored that we get to celebrate during the year that the Dodgers are the defending world champions themselves, because that’s an exclusive fraternity,” said ’81 champion Rick Monday, who also voiced every Dodger game in 2020 as a Dodger broadcaster. “Not everyone can say I was on a world championship team. So there’s a carryover from ’81 to 2020. And there’s a brotherhood in there that I think is a happy one.”

Nearly two dozen members of the 1981 squad will be honored during pregame ceremonies on Sunday, with team members also signing autographs in the Centerfield Plaza before Friday and Saturday’s games.

The run to a World Series title, though 40 years ago, lives clear in the minds of the figures involved and to the generation of fans who identify these Dodgers as their team. Now the ’81 team, with its sense of urgency — among other likenesses to the 2020 champs, becomes more familiar to a new generation of Dodger fans.

“Over time, the frustrations in ’77, ’78, and then the maturation and the experience plus the coming together and the relentless pursuit of this probably one last try, we were running out of time in terms of the ultimate accomplishment, and that was a World Series championship,” said ’81 champion Steve Garvey.

Garvey hugs pitcher Bob Welch after the Dodgers beat Montreal in the NLCS. (Los Angeles Dodgers)

The Dodgers lost in the 1977 and 1978 World Series before winning the prize in ’81 after a strike-shortened regular season. That ’81 team had the legendary “Infield,” consisting of All-Stars Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey, who played together for 8 ½ years. Tommy Lasorda, whose first full season as Dodger manager was 1977, was in his fifth full season at the helm. The Dodgers faced elimination against the Montreal Expos in the NLCS before coming back to force a winner-take-all game. And in that game, Monday’s late homer set up the win, with the decision going to Mexican sensation Fernando Valenzuela. The Dodgers beat the Yankees in six games to win the World Series.

The modern-day Dodgers lost in the 2017 and 2018 World Series before winning the prize in ’20 after a pandemic-caused shortened regular season. That ’20 team had All-Stars Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen, who played together for seven years. Dave Roberts, whose first season as Dodger manager was 2016, was in his fifth season at the helm. The Dodgers faced elimination against the Atlanta Braves before coming back to force a winner-take-all game. And in that game, Cody Bellinger’s late homer set up the win, with the decision going to Mexican sensation Julio Urías. The Dodgers beat the Rays in six games to win the World Series.

“The (2020) Dodgers played, if you look at the games, they played very measured baseball, a very exact baseball,” Monday said. “And when it looked like the lights had been turned off a couple of times during the postseason, the Dodgers refused to believe (it was over). That’s kind of the same way in ’81. We refused to believe down two games to none against the Astros (in the NL Division Series) that we were eliminated. We refused to believe down two games to one that we didn’t have a chance against the Montreal Expos. And then when we lost the first two games in New York, we refused to say, ‘Uh oh, here we go again.’ Those parallels in the competitive edge played a very, very loud example of the two teams.”

Members of the 1981 Dodgers each received a letter in Spring Training from Lasorda. The first paragraph had a generic opening paragraph. The second paragraph was tailored to the individual, and each player was challenged. Lasorda, recognizing the possibility of a last hurrah for this group, made the mission clear.

On Opening Day, Fernandomania launched. The Dodgers won nine of their first 10 games. A strike paused the season with the Dodgers in first place on June 11. Because of their first-half standing, the Dodgers advanced to the postseason, where they came back to beat the Astros in the NLDS, before beating the Expos and finally avenging the losses of ’77 and ’78 to the Yankees.

Stories of this team have filled books. Stories within this team will fill conversations this weekend.

Mark Cresse, the Dodger bullpen coach from 1977 to 1998, recalls the Monday magic in Montreal best.

“The fans (in Montreal) sang the song ‘Val-deri, Val-dera, Val-deri,’ and then there’d be 40,000 people going Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!’ They kept doing that and they were beating us,” Cresse said. “I’ll never forget after Monday hit that home run, a bunch of us, we were in the locker room, bottles of champagne, and we’re all singing that Val-deri song. It was a lot of fun because that team was really close.”

Rick Monday and Tommy Lasorda hug after beating Montreal in the NLCS. (Los Angeles Dodgers)

And then there are stories about Tommy.

Cresse, whose son, Brad, is Lasorda’s godson, recalled how inseparable he and Lasorda were. In the middle of a game, Lasorda would ring Cresse up from the dugout to the bullpen phone and make a request.

“Hey, don’t eat after the game. We’re going out to dinner,” Cresse recalled.

That was Lasorda’s gift, his ability to connect with people. And that helped build a team into a champion.

“Tommy’s role was as much of a psychologist as it was Xs and Os, although he was very good at that,” Garvey said. “Tommy, as much as any manager in history, was able to take each player and understand them — where they came from, their family, their likes, who they married to, did they have a girlfriend, were they single, were they Catholic, were they Jewish. He knew what it took to motivate them to be able to get on them when needed or to pull back when he thought they needed to have the pressure off.

“Tommy was the P.T. Barnum. Nobody orchestrated the three rings of entertainment, baseball and caricature more than Tommy.”

It will be bittersweet for many of the ’81 Dodgers on Sunday. But for some, Sunday will not only be a celebration or a reunion, it will be a tribute to Lasorda and the teammates who are no longer with us.

“Steve Yeager, who was more than a teammate, we talked in the parking lot for about a half an hour yesterday,” Monday said. “And we started talking about Sunday and seeing some guys that maybe we hadn’t seen in a while and missing some people that we haven’t been able to see because of their passing. It’s ironic that the last game that Tommy Lasorda saw was the Dodgers winning another World Championship.”

The 1981 Dodgers are honored at Los Angeles City Hall. (Los Angeles Dodgers)