Retro Baseball

“Four or five us are in Cincinnati,” says Johnstone. “It’s Sunday morning. We can walk over to the Catholic church, which is a short walk over to stadium. Steve Garvey is there. Bill Russell. Burt Hooton I think was there. And myself. We’re in the Catholic church. We walk in and sit in the back.”

“One of the guys notices that John McNamara, the Reds manager, was sitting in the front pew up there on the right-hand side. We’re sitting back on the left. Before the Mass is over, Lasorda is watching him and says, ‘Russell, go see what he’s doing.’

“Russell says, ‘He was down there lighting a candle, skip.’

“Lasorda says, ‘Show me. Which one did he light?’

“Russell says, ‘The top spot, upper right.’” He pointed at McNamara’s chosen votive.

“Lasorda says, ‘You sure?’

“‘Yeah, skip!’

“Lasorda walks up and he blows it out.”

Johnstone continues, “Now, we go to the ballpark. The dugouts are pretty close in Cincinnati. You could hear each other. And by the second inning, Lasorda’s yelling at McNamara, ‘It isn’t going to work, John! It isn’t going to work!’”