Never forget the day Tommy Lasorda got into a fight with the Phanatic

Never forget when Tommy Lasorda fought the Phanatic

By Gemma Kaneko

August 28, 2015

"We gotta mark that down," the Phillies broadcast noted 27 years ago today. "The quickest Tommy Lasorda moved in 1988 was after the Phillie Phanatic on Aug. 28."

Well, we did mark it down. We even wanted to get a tattoo of the event, but the people who love us convinced us that might be going a little too far. Still, even sans back piece, we can't wait to remind you of the amazing day when Lasorda got into a knock-down, drag-out fight with the Phanatic.

On Aug. 28, the Dodgers were in the City of Brotherly Love to face the Phillies, but their then-manager, Lasorda, was feeling distinctly less than brotherly when he saw the Phanatic's new toy:

phanaticdummy

Notice a resemblance to anyone in particular? We assume Lasorda did, just as we assume he chose the most rational way to respond to it:

lasordafight

If you want to watch the entire altercation (and you definitely do, as it involves Lasorda sneakily luring the Phanatic into the fight and then stealing his mannequin look-a-like), just click play on the video at the top of the post.

But, almost three decades have passed -- everyone involved is over this, right? Well, in 2005, Lasorda wrote "I hate the Phillie Phanatic" on his blog. OK, but years and years have gone by since then, too. Surely, at long last, all wounds have healed?

Not so much. In an interview on the Comcast Network in May, Lasorda confirmed that his grudge is still very much alive:

"I was always upset about him always taking my shirt and putting it on some dummy and then running over it. I didn't particularly like that, and I told him. I said, 'I don't want you to do that anymore.' The next time I saw him he still put my shirt on, so I went after him and I bopped him down a little bit. And I said, 'If there weren't all these people here I'd really rip ya.'"