Tommy Lasorda loved the Dodgers so much, he became the Dodgers, the interlocking “L” and “A” forming the beginning of his name, and his loss creates a gaping hole in their culture.

Tommy Lasorda was born on the first day of fall, the season that matters most in baseball. Many years later he would make a lasting autumn imprint, but on that day, in 1927, the Brooklyn Dodgers ...