For much of his Major League Baseball career, 33-year manager Tony La Russa — who is scheduled to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown next Sunday — was considered by some to be a prima donna both on and off the field. Who knew he was also a great humanitarian, rescuing pets and helping senior citizens?

LONGTIME SKIPPER TONY LA RUSSA
TURNS OUT TO BE HALL OF FAMER
BOTH ON AND OFF THE DIAMOND

Devotes time in retirement to rescuing pets
that enrich the lives of senior citizens,
shut-ins and abused children

PEOPLE YOU THINK YOU DISLIKE
MAY SOMETIMES SURPRISE YOU
 
By David Maril
 
It’s funny how your impressions of people can change when you get to see different sides of their personalities.

For many years, I couldn’t stand Tony La Russa.

When I was covering baseball and La Russa was the manager of the Chicago White Sox, and later the Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinals, he seemed to be the inventor of the four-hour ballgame, making needless pitching changes and questioning umpires.

When he managed his first team, the Chicago White Sox, he gave the impression of being a “hotdog” and showboat.

Watching him manage against the Orioles in the 1983 American League Championship playoffs, I had the feeling he was as much responsible for Baltimore’s advancing into the World Series as the O’s then-skipper Joe Altobelli.

La Russa, inexperienced as a manager at the time, seemed to push all the wrong buttons and ran his team out of innings.

What really grabbed my attention, however, was, it seemed that La Russa took advantage of any excuse he could find to get onto the field and be noticed in nationally televised broadcasts.

This didn’t change over the years as he became very successful in Oakland and St. Louis.

You could always tell when he was ready to leave the dugout. Every time he’d take off his glasses, so he’d appear younger and more dynamic, he’d head out to the mound or to home plate.

It was annoying, seeing this know-it-all out on the field, who didn’t even seem to grasp how to properly wear a baseball cap, delaying games. Every hat he wore looked brand new and too stiff, as if just removed from a box and not folded, pressed or creased.

After the game, win or lose, La Russa always conveyed the impression he was the only one who really understood what had taken place.

Through his years with the White Sox, A’s and Cardinals however, he was credited with redefining the role of the bullpen closer and heralded as the master strategist of his time.

The third-winningest manager in baseball history, he’s been the subject of baseball books and documentaries, always quite comfortable with his designation as a managerial genius.

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Joseph Papp’s version of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Pen- zance” is currently playing at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia.

VICTORIAN-ERA BRITISH OPERETTA
IS A WINNER IN SUMMER OF 2014

Joseph Papp’s ‘modernized’ version
 
By Eddie Applefeld
 
Over the many years I have been attending shows at Toby’s Dinner Theatre, either in Columbia or the one at the Travel Plaza when it was open, I have never experienced a bad production.

There might have been a few shows I liked less than others, but that was a personal choice, not indicative of the actual perfor- mance.  That still holds true to this day after seeing their latest production, “The Pirates of Penzance” by Gilbert & Sullivan.

The story comes from the fifth collaboration between librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan as they worked their magic again to produce this comic opera.  And the production goes back many years, having celebrated its official New York premiere on December 31, 1879.

It opened three months later in London in April of 1880 and was the only Gilbert & Sullivan operetta that premiered in New York.

“Pirates” became an immediate New York hit. And the song that has become identified with the show — the “Major-General’s Song” — has been widely parodied almost since it was first heard.

The show had a return to New York exactly 100 years later, in 1980, when it was produced by Joseph Papp in Central Park and then on Broadway, where it ran for 787 performances, winning the Tony for that year’s Best Revival.   In 1921 the first complete recording of the score was produced under the direction of the great impresario Rupert D’Oyly Carte.

Toby’s is running the streamlined modernized version of the comic opera produced by Papp.

One interesting bit of trivia: It has been reported that Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote the music in reverse, something quite unusual in musical theater.  In other words, he penned the music of the second act before he composed the first.

Most songwriters like to begin at the beginning.  They claim it makes for an easier flow of musical ideas and set pieces.  But for whatever reason, it had no effect on the success of the final production.

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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday July 18

[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond.   Your weekday morning look  (with links)  at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Friday:

Len Bias, who died of a drug overdose in 1986, will be inducted into the University of Maryland athletics hall of fame in Oct.

•  LEN BIAS TO BE INDUCTED INTO U OF M HALL OF FAME

The University of Maryland basketball star who died of a cocaine overdose more than 28 years ago within days of being drafted by the Boston Celtics into the NBA, will be inducted into the university’s athletics hall of fame at an Oct. 3 ceremony.

Read More at:  WJZ-TV (Channel 13)

•  COLLEGE SPORTS NETWORK LAUNCHED BY SINCLAIR

The media conglomerate that owns WBFF Fox45-TV in Baltimore has launched the American Sports Network, which will include more than 50 colleges and universities.

Read More at:  Maryland Daily Record

•  SSA OVERHAULS EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM

The move follows a scathing report on the Social Security Administration’s failure to establish an adequate system for handling employee claims.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun

•  PANDORA JEWELRY MOVING HEADQUARTERS TO BALTIMORE

The Danish jeweler known for its charm bracelets said Thursday it will lease five floors at 250 West Pratt St. and move 250 employees from Columbia to the new downtown Baltimore location.

Read More at:  WBAL-Radio (1090AM)

•  MICROSOFT TO LAY OFF 18,000 EMPLOYEES

The cuts are the largest in the company’s history and include nearly 15 percent of its workforce.

Read More at:  Washington Post
 

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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Thursday July 17

 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
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Amanda Miller, a fourth-grade teacher in Glen Burnie, was one of four third-place winners in Padonia Ale House’s 13th annual “Voice of Baltimore” competition Monday night. (VoB File Photo/Alan Z. Forman)

MALE AND FEMALE VOCALISTS CHOSEN
FROM FIELD OF SEVENTEEN FINALISTS
 
Winning male and female vocalists were named “Voice of Baltimore 2014” Monday night from among 17 finalists in the 13th annual competition at Padonia Ale House, a popular sports-themed nightclub in Timonium.

Amanda Sauer was the female winner, and a singer billed as “BWG” was the winner in the men’s division.

Second-place winners were Andy Felicitas and a female singer billing herself as “Neek.”

The men’s third-place winner was Rob Spengler, with a three-way tie for third in the women’s division between Amanda Miller, Jenn Clancy and Sara Heilman.

The two first-place winners each received $300 and a five-hour recording session at the Sheffield Institute for the Recording Arts in Baltimore.

Second-place winners got $150 each, and third-place winners received $50, for a total of $1,000 in cash awards. The women’s third-place prize money was split three ways.

The annual event benefits the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the lives of abused, neglected and at-risk children and ending the cycle of abuse by raising awareness and prevention of child abuse. The charity’s publicity director, Paul Mittermeier, served as MC for the seven-week competition.

Debi Fowler, a Padonia Ale House official, has organized the competition since its inception 13 years ago.

[Full disclosure:  Voice of Baltimore, the website, is a co-sponsor of this annual charitable event.]
 
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Popular scratch-offs — such as the Maryland Lottery’s Baltimore Orioles offering — promise big prizes and inflated payoffs to hopeful gamblers, but at what odds?

IS MARYLAND’S LOTTERY
‘THE’ FINANCIAL ANSWER
TO ECONOMIC AILMENTS
PLAGUING THE STATE?

MARYLAND LOTTERY:
LET YOURSELF LOSE
 
By David Maril
 
We all have our dreams about the lottery and all the big revenues and jumbo payoffs so many local politicians are promoting. Isn’t it remarkable how so many have suddenly embraced gambling as the financial solution to economic ailments that plague the state?

Me? I don’t buy lottery tickets or go to casinos. Still, I have gotten to the point of a skeptical acceptance.

If you are not a player or participant, it becomes a fascinating study of human nature every time a potential lottery dollar-payoff-figure rises into the hundreds of millions.

Lottery talk becomes an interesting diversion.

We all love to fantasize about how our lives would change by winning $400 million. Hey, even a puny $1 million would mean a drastic change for most people.

Few of us however acknowledge that the odds of winning the millions-of-dollars mega jackpots are extremely remote. I think I’d have a better chance of being called in by the Orioles to pinch-hit in the ninth inning of the seventh game of this year’s World Series and delivering a walk-off bases loaded world championship-clinching home run.

Still, millions of consumers spend every dollar they have available to buy as many chances as possible for a shot at a giant prize.

You hear people swear that “after” they win they’ll never report for another day of work.

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