Fanfare : Man, 85, Fulfills a Lifelong Dream, Gets to Join Tom Lasorda in the Dugout

An 85-year-old man who has always wanted to sit in the dugout with Los Angeles Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda got that dream fulfilled Saturday with the help of his great-granddaughter.

“It was one of the finest things I’ve ever had in my life,” said Emanuel Ponce of Los Angeles, who was driven to the game by his great-granddaughter Julie Tarin, 20, of Huntington Beach.

Ponce said he got to talk briefly with Lasorda and also with shortstop Bill Russell and pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.

“Fernando told me in Spanish that it looks like the Dodgers are going to win it all, including the World Series,” said Ponce exuberantly.

‘Very Kind Man’

“I had a great time talking with Mr. Lasorda. He’s a very kind man,” Ponce said in a telephone interview after he returned from Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds.

Ponce predicted that the St. Louis Cardinals, who won the National League’s Eastern Division Saturday, will beat the Dodgers in Game 1 on Wednesday but lose the best-of-seven series for the league championship.

Friends and relatives said there are only two things Ponce does with religious consistency: visit the grave of his wife, who died six years ago, and listen to Dodger baseball games.

“He knows baseball better’n he knows the Bible,” said daughter Virginia Sims of Huntington Beach.

It Was Only Natural

So it was only natural for his great-granddaughter to write to Lasorda asking for permission to have Ponce sit in the dugout before Saturday’s game.

When Lasorda wrote back granting permission, Ponce’s whole family, which includes seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren in Southern California, was ecstatic.

“He does everything for us,” Sims said. “Whenever we need anything, he always gives it to us. Love, money or anything. But he just sits in a little humble house in Los Angeles listening to the ballgames.”

Tarin’s letter, in part, said: “My great-grandfather is getting up in years and his dream has been to sit in the Dodger dugout.”

Family members said Ponce’s love of baseball has grown since his childhood days in Jerome, Ariz., an old mining town.

Tarin said she wrote to the Dodgers seeking permission for her great-grandfather “because I love him.”