Tommy Lasorda spent his life prophesying his death. His most famous sayings, the wisecracks that he repeated until they became Dodgers lore, were all about mortality: the flesh and the divine.

If you were to slit his wrists, Lasorda said a million times, he would bleed Dodger blue. Examine his heart, which doctors did after he suffered coronaries in 1996 and 2012, and you’ll find “Dodgers” tattooed on it. He put his faith, of course, in the Big Dodger in the Sky. And he cautioned everyone—me included, the one time I interviewed him—that if you don’t love the Dodgers, there’s a good chance you won’t get to heaven.