02995cam a2200361 i 4500 385811589 TxAuBib 20190724120000.0 181011s2019||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2018043599 9781328715531 26.00 1328715531 26.00 eng rda TxAuBib rda Turbow, Jason. They bled blue [BOOK] : Fernandomania, strike-season mayhem, and the weirdest championship baseball had ever seen: the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers / Jason Turbow. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. xiv, 370 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references and index. Prologue -- The manager -- Snatched -- Eighty-One -- Mania -- Buried -- Struck -- La-La -- Second act -- Houston-ho! -- Tundra -- Doodle Dandy -- Aftermath. In the Halberstam tradition of capturing a season through its unforgettable figures, They Bled Blue is a sprawling, mad tale of excess and exuberance, the likes of which could only have occurred in that place, at that time. That it culminated in an unlikely World Series win-during a campaign split by the longest player strike in baseball history-is not even the most interesting thing about this team. The Dodgers were led by the garrulous Tommy Lasorda-part manager, part cheerleader-who unyieldingly proclaimed devotion to the franchise through monologues about bleeding Dodger blue and worshiping the “Big Dodger in the Sky,” and whose office hosted a regular stream of Hollywood celebrities. Steve Garvey, the All-American, All-Star first baseman, had anchored the most durable infield in major league history, and, along with Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey, was glaringly aware that 1981 would represent the end of their run together. The season's real story, however, was one that nobody expected at the outset: a chubby lefthander nearly straight out of Mexico, twenty years old with a wild delivery and a screwball as his flippin' out pitch. The Dodgers had been trying for decades to find a Hispanic star to activate the local Mexican population; Fernando Valenzuela was the first to succeed, and it didn't take long for Fernandomania to sweep far beyond the boundaries of Chavez Ravine. Provided by publisher. 20190724. Lasorda, Tommy. Valenzuela, Fernando 1960- Los Angeles Dodgers (Baseball team) History 20th century. Fernandomania ( Society for American Baseball Research.) World Series (Baseball) 1981. Pitchers (Baseball) Mexico Biography. Baseball managers United States Biography. Biographies.