10 best MLB All-Star moments

Tommy Lasorda hit by Vlad Guerrero’s bat in 2001 All-Star Game

So maybe we’re picking fun at one of the more indelible figures of the past generation of baseball icons. But if anyone can take it, it’s Tommy Lasorda. Some people like to refer to Lasorda as “Tommy Lasagna”—an ode to his Italian heritage and the fact he…looks Italian, especially in the belly.

The former Dodgers skipper had the honor of coaching third base for the National League in one of the more memorable All-Star Games in baseball history (it had a few other memorable moments which we’ll get to later).

While those other moments were more sentimental tear-jerking in nature, this one was at least mildly hilarious. I mean how often do you see a third base coach flat on his butt and have the pleasure of laughing about it?

It’s generally not a laughing matter. But given the more advanced in age Lasorda was perfectly fine and able, himself, to laugh about it, made it one of the lighter and indelible moments in All-Star Game history.

It’s not ironic, but a tidbit worth mentioning that the bat’s owner was Vladimir Guerrero—he being the exact kind of player Lasorda would have loved to manage when he was writing out lineup cards for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Of course in 2001, Guerrero was also one of the big boppers in the National League—the kind of player you just assume will hit the ball farther than his broken off bat would ever fly. Not this time, though, as he swung through the ball and still managed to lose pieces of his hitting lumber.

The result was one of the funniest and best moments in a Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Next: Probably the most touching moment in ASG history