Congratulations to Tony LaRussa, Richard Meier and Angela Lansbury.  All three were honored today by the Ellis Island / Statue of Liberty Foundation.  LaRussa received the Family Heritage Award, Meier for The Arts / Architecture, and Lansbury with the B.C. Forbes Peopling of America Award.

I was honored by the Foundation in 2006 with the Family Heritage Award.  It was one of the great honors I have ever received as they presented me with a framed manifest of the ship my father was on when he came to America and landed at Ellis Island.  My father was my hero.  He taught me more about life than anyone I have ever known.  He drove a truck in a stone quarry in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and during the winter his feet would be frozen by the time he came home.  We would take his boots off for him and rub his feet before he put them in the oven.

Like today’s honorees, and like hundreds of millions of my fellow Americans, I come from a family of immigrants.  My father loved Italy, but he came here for a new life, for a better opportunity, and to pursue the American Dream.  While everybody has a different idea of what that dream is, collectively it is the very essence of our national values.  Hard work, self-confidence, faith in a better tomorrow and the strength of family were all tenets while honoring and preserving their respective heritage.

The guts it must have taken to pack everything you own, leave everything you know, and travel around the world to a place that you have only heard of is truly amazing.

Every night I thank god that my father did not miss that boat.  However, if he had missed it, I would have been Pope Thomas XXVI.

All kidding aside, I am proud to be on the Board of Directors of the Foundation, and honored to have been a part of the ceremony today.

Congratulations again to Tony, Richard and Angela.

Ron Roenicke of the Brewers is one of 15 guys who played for me to manage in the big leagues.  Here is the complete list:

Mike Scioscia

Bobby Valentine

Johnny Oates

Davey Lopes

Dusty Baker

Glen Hoffman

Jerry Royster

Ron Washington

Ron Roenicke

Bill Russell

Kirk Gibson

Juan Samuel

Phil Garner

Tony LaRussa

Willie Randolph

In 1957, in order for the Dodgers to acquire Los Angeles, Mr. O’Malley had to make a trade with the Cubs because they controlled Los Angeles as a minor league territory.  He couldn’t move the Dodgers until he had the rights, so he traded Ft. Worth. 

I played for the Los Angeles Angels in 1957, which was the triple-A club for the Dodgers in the Pacific Coast League.  Interestingly enough, Sparky Anderson was my teammate that year.

Our training staff today is the best in baseball. They give tirelessly of themselves to make sure the players are healthy and well taken care of. I thank them for their service and commitment.

When I played we had one trainer who carried a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and by the seventh inning he drank half of it!

March 3 is special to me.  On this day in 1997 I was having breakfast at Dodgertown inVero Beach.  I had just retired from managing the year before and was getting used to life outside of the dugout. 

As I was going about the normal spring training day, talking to players, signing autographs for fans and looking forward to Opening Day, the PR director, Derrick Hall, told me that I have an important phone call.

He took me to the press box at Hollman Stadium and gave me the phone.  It was Ted Williams.

“Tommy,” he said in his blustery voice.  “I thought I was the only guy inCooperstownwho loved you, but it turns out that everybody loves you.”

“Congratulations, Tommy.  You are being inducted into the Hall of Fame.”

When he said that to me I started to cry.  I never thought I would be in the Hall of Fame, even though I gave everything I had to the Dodgers and baseball.  And to get the call from Ted, a man who I idolized and respected so much, made it one of the most important and memorable days in my life.

Thank you Ted for making that call to me.