Tommy Lasorda was an acquired taste I was unable to acquire as a young baseball reporter. Too much "us versus them" Dodgers schtick. Too much profanity even for a baseball scribe, although the creativity and theatrical touches weren't devoid of charm.
Decades later, when Lasorda was a presence at the Dodger Stadium press box and dining room, my Tommy experience was different.
This Tommy was great fun. Retired from managing, less suspicious of media outside his Dodgers circle and generation, he told memorable stories from his pitching days and Hall of Fame managerial career.
The World Series that begins Friday in Los Angeles is the first between the Yankees and Dodgers since Lasorda's team won the 1981 Fall Classic by rebounding from two losses in the Bronx to win the next four games.
Lasorda wasn't someone I expected Dave Stewart to celebrate his week when I asked him to revisit the Dodgers' resilient postseason run in 1981, but the former pitcher described him as critical to L.A. winning five elimination games in the playoffs and counterpunching its way to the World Series trophy.
Lasorda, said Stewart, provided invaluable ballast as L.A. weathered October storms.
"It needs to be said: Lasorda was unbelievably positive and motivational," he said, unprompted. "Never once did he display that we were in trouble. You don't know how meaningful it is to look at your leader and know that everything's going to be OK.
"He is the absolute best that I've ever been around when it comes to making sure that guys are motivated and ready to play. I played for some good managers. But when it comes to just motivation and pushing guys to be the best they could be every day, I never played for a manager like him."
Stewart said if the Padres had advanced to this year's World Series, he would have attended the games in San Diego.
He had a dugout seat for the franchise's four World Series games in 1998 as the team's pitching coach. He lived in San Diego for decades before moving to Phoenix a few years ago.
"I'm a huge fan of the Padres," he said. "I'm a huge fan of the manager. Mike Shildt, I consider him to be a friend. I look at his career in St. Lous and what happened in STL - and that (firing) shouldn't have happened. He has done a tremendous job."
Like his fellow Padres fans, it wasn't easy for Stewart to see the Padres lose Games 4 and 5 of the recent National League Division Series without scoring a single run.
"It's like somebody turned the hot water off and put the cold water on," he said.
Stewart enjoyed watching Yu Darvish, the 38-year-old master of spin who limited L.A. to three runs across 13 2/3 combined innings -- a performance that none of the other starting pitchers have come close to matching against L.A.
"I became a fan of Yu Darvish in that series," said Stewart, who won 20 games in four different seasons and was MVP of the 1989 World Series with the Oakland A's and a pair of League Championship Series. "I've always watched him. But I've never had the appreciation I had of him in that series. I'm a big Yu Darvish fan now."
Stewart's first taste of MLB's postseason was as a 24-year-old reliever in the '81 team's famously well-armed bullpen.
"They called us 'Canned Heat'," he said, mentioning fellow hard throwers Steve Howe, Terry Forster, Alejandro Pena and Tom Niedenfuer.
About that first taste. It was like vinegar.
The labor stoppage during the '81 postseason led MLB to add a "divisional" round ahead of the LCS, foreshadowing the format adapted in 1995.
In the first game of the new event, Stewart relieved Fernando Valenzuela and allowed a game-winning home run to Astros catcher Alan Ashby in the Astrodome.
He took the loss in Game 2 as well. "I pitched in only one more game; Lasorda got smart," Stewart cracked.
When the Dodgers rallied against Houston to the next three games at Dodgers Stadium, sending them into the League Championship Series, Stewart felt something of a reprieve. When L.A. overcame defeats in Games 2 and 3 against the Montreal Expos, he was headed to his first World Series.
The Game 1 venue only increased his excitement.
"Playing in old Yankee Stadium always felt different than playing in any other stadium because of the history and the monuments that were out in the outfield and knowing that Babe Ruth and Gehrig and Mantle and all of those guys played there," he said.
"Then," he added, "you add the fans. Very knowledgeable. Bu very, very rude and hostile fans."
Grateful that Lasorda still trusted him, Stewart entered two World Series games and threw 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
But he didn't appreciate getting plunked by a fan as he warmed up.
"One of the fans threw one of those square batteries and hit me in my back," he said. "I stepped off the mound for a minute and tried to seek out whoever it was. Obviously I wasn't going to go into the seats."
Stewart regrouped and succeeded.
So did the Dodgers, once again, although not until they got back to Dodger Stadium, where they won Games 3, 4 and 5, leading to the Game 6 victory clincher at Yankee Stadium and capping a postseason run that Stewart said deserves more acclaim than it has received.