Tommy Lasorda, long time manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was one of those colorful figures in baseball. He was also one of the few who believed in the inspirational value of the pep talk. Sometimes it worked. And then, sometimes it didn't.

In 1985 Lasorda welcomed his Dodgers to Florida for spring training and immediately launched into a pep talk with a "patriotic" theme.

Tommy said to his troops, "If the president of the United States informed me I had to take twenty-five guys to Nicaragua to fight for the United States, I'd take you twenty-five guys who are going to play for me." There was dead silence in the locker room.

Then Orel Hershiser, the mild-mannered, much admired right-hand pitcher, spoke up. "You better make that twenty-four, skipper," Hershiser said, "And one consc…