I have been aware of former Major League pitcher Lary Sorensen for some time now. What I was not aware of was the heart of the man behind the wickedly deceptive sinker. Recently, when reading an article profiling Sorensen at the Baseball Hall of Fame’s website, my interest was piqued as I read that his life is one that points to the healing and redemptive power of the Almighty God. What I could find and read about his life, left me wanting to know more, to zoom in the microscope on the work of the Lord in his life. So I contacted Sorensen, who graciously agreed to grant me an interview.
At the agreed upon time, I called, and before waiting long, I was greeted by the smooth, resonant voice of Lary Sorensen. My first impression was of the warmth and joy that our e-mails leading up to the call had led me to anticipate. We talked for a bit, getting to know each other, and it became apparent that he is a man who loves God and who loves his family, and I knew that I had come to the right place. And before I knew it, we were talking baseball.
DC: What pitches did you throw?
LS: I threw a sinker. I threw 88-90 mph. I had a slider too, and a change-up that I threw just often enough to make hitters think I had one. But, the sinker was what I threw about 70% of the time.
DC: When you were growing up, who were your favorite players to watch?
LS: I grew up in Detroit, so Al Kaline was my idol. And I got to meet him and spend some time with him, and he was classy in every way. He got to the majors in a hurry and handled it well. He was a gentleman in every fashion. He always said the right things and did the right things. It was one of the few times in life that I was speechless. I was standing by the batting cage, and I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and a handsome gentleman said: “Hi Lary, I’m Al Kaline.” For a moment I was speechless, then all I said was, “I know” (laughs).
DC: You can give me the long version, short version, or something in between. Tell me the story of you and God.
LS: I was raised in a Christian family. I went to parochial school at Trinity Lutheran school. I was pretty well-raised with a belief in the Trinity and God. My family was close friends with my teachers and pastor, so they were always around my family. I sang in the choir in school, and in Christmas musicals.
I went to a public high school. I went from a private school of 300 students with 30 in my eighth grade class to a public high school with 2,400 students and 550 in my class. I may have been sheltered, and I branched out when I hit the big school, and things started going sideways. We were always into sports. I have a sister two years ahead of me; she was “all-everything.” But, in high school, I got on a different path and got away from God.
I got a scholarship to the University of Michigan, and there I began to drift further, and was hypocritical. I went to baseball chapel on Sundays, but I was doing other things all week. So, I was raised the right way. I was in church every Sunday; my family was God-fearing, but in the real world, I developed some bad habits. There were plenty of “Dear God” prison prayers; you think with all that time on your hands, and you swear you’ll repent. But I didn’t change, and alcoholism had a lot to do with that.
In Winston-Salem in 2013, I lived in a condo by myself. I had a mailman who, for eighteen months, tried to convince me to come to church. I had been a singer when I was in school. I had competed singing all around the state, so I went with him to his church’s Easter presentation in 2013. They had live animals in the production, and I thought, “Any church that has sheep pooping on their stage for their Easter production can’t be that bad.” It was the music really that I enjoyed, and I came back the next morning.
It was by happenstance that I sat near a gentleman who had played baseball at Wake Forest that I was able to talk to. I also met Ron Wellman there, the athletic director at Wake Forest. The music minister was also in that Bible study class. In those days I was still drinking some, but I began attending Calvary Baptist Church. It was in those days I met my wife.
DC: So, when was it that you became a Christian? When did you put your faith in God and trust Jesus as your Savior?
LS: I really believe that I became a Christian when I was young, but as I grew I let the world catch up to my human self. What brought me back was really the music at Calvary. I started listening to the words instead of just singing notes. Larry White, the music minister and a dear friend, was showing me that there was more to life than what I had been doing. It was at the end of 2013 and into 2014 that I was realizing that I needed to change my ways.
DC: How did you come to meet and ultimately marry your bride, Elaine?
LS: We met through an online dating service. Neither of us was looking for commitment. We just wanted to enjoy life. She was totally non-drinking. She was really into sports, huge Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates fan. We went to a baseball game early on, and she asked me, “Do they sell programs?” I answered, “Yes, why?” She said, “I like to keep a scorecard when I watch games.” I was like, “Will you marry me?” (we both laugh) So, we have common interests. When I broadcast, she keeps score in the press box with me. She’s my spotter, my statistician. We enjoy sports together.
She has been a guiding light. She was a nurse, and she has a huge heart. She was an RN for 32 years. She’s been helping sick people her whole life. I was a sick person. She knew what I was going through. She lived about 30 minutes away, and she had to be at work at 7 A.M. So, she would get up at four or five in the morning. She knew I was suffering with alcoholism. I had the sweats and the shakes, and she knew I couldn’t sleep, so she would come give me a cold compress and hold me until she had to leave to get to work.
God knew this man needed help. He sent me the mailman, the church, Elaine; I joined the choir. Alcohol had consumed me to the point that my physical self was a mess. My doctor still says that I’m a miracle of modern medicine, that I’ve survived the things I’ve done to my body. My body has bounced back, my physical being as well as emotional.
DC: As happens with many men who struggle with addiction, you suffered a high personal cost. In your case what were those losses?
LS: The obvious easy one is my family, the ones you hurt most are the ones you want to hurt the least. My counsellor said “What’s the most important thing in your life?” I said, “My kids.” He said, “No, they’re not. You’re in prison because the vodka bottle is the most important thing in your life.” I lost my marriage, the house, the cars. There were the repo’s. I’m getting to the point where I’m getting back the respect of my kids, reproving myself to my community, to myself. I’m not depending on alcohol, but on God. Talk about direction and how God works; last weekend I got calls from people having problems, and I realize that I need to remember who to call on when I need help. You start thinking you can handle things by yourself. When your personality and your profession dictate that you be confident, you get an overblown sense of self. I had two goals in life. I wanted to play baseball professionally and I wanted (longtime Detroit Tigers broadcaster) Ernie Harwell’s job. By the time I was forty, I’d done both. I began to think, “I did this,” instead of God.
DC: How has God restored and healed your life?
LS: Family is the big thing, because I hurt a lot of people. I lost the trust of a lot of people. They don’t feel like they’ve got to watch me every minute. They have confidence that I can handle problems that come up. You asked about my favorite scripture. Psalm 118:24, “This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” I think of the 12 steps. Every day is a new day. Win the day, one day at a time. Everything will take care of itself. God will take care of the day, as long as I believe in Him.
DC: Every man, to some degree, wrestles with the prospect that his own faults, mistakes, and sins will harm his children in some way. As an experienced father, how have you learned to deal with that fear?
LS: I’ve been blessed by God with extremely talented children. I have a daughter who’s 36, and a son who’s 33. My daughter is the director of a trans-gender addiction counseling center in Philadelphia, that saves lives and helps people on the streets. She’s done that her whole life. I don’t know what spurred her in that direction, whether or not it was from what she had seen in me. She was the one people would call. When kids were getting ready to kill themselves they would call her. My son played pro ball, and is now an attorney in New York. They both were able to keep on a good road; That’s a blessing.
My ego got in the way of their lives. It was a sad state of affairs, but it happened. My parole officer told me that I was going to work at McDonald’s for 90 days. “I’m going to humble you,” he said. I said, “better people than you have tried and failed.”
In Winston-Salem, I met Stan Cotten who has broadcasted for Wake Forest for 23 years, and been my partner for five, and he’s a very strong Christian. He and a few others had an aura of peace and contentment that I knew I wanted. I wanted to know that it was going to be alright when bad things happened. I always thought I had to make things right, that I had to do things on my own. That’s not how it works. Those guys from my Bible fellowship had that feeling of inner peace, and I wanted that.
DC: When did you first marry? When were your children born?
LS: I married my first wife in ’79. We were married for 24 years. Our daughter was born three years in, in ’82, and our son in ’86.
DC: What was that like, living life on the road with a family? You always hear ballplayers talk about it and how hard it is.
LS: It’s incredibly difficult, and you see it in all professions. It’s so hard being away being away from home two weeks a month, six weeks for spring training. I ‘ll never forget, my daughter was twelve or thirteen, and I came home and discipline was needed. She said, “Who do you think you are? Mom runs this house.”
I worked for ESPN for four years, so I was on the road again. I worked Tuesday and Friday nights, so I would fly out Monday and back in on Wednesday, fly out again Thursday and be home on Saturday. That was my summer. I was home one day a week for four years, and then I would be home 24-7 once October first came around. It was each end of the spectrum.
DC: What were the most valuable lessons you learned from your own upbringing, and from your father?
LS: My father was very old school, intelligent but he had little formal education. He was always there, but quiet. He had a hard time expressing love. He was like a lot of men from that generation, always there, always at school, in the stands, but quiet. He had high standards. One night in a basketball game I scored 32 points. After the game we were celebrating, and he said, “If you’d made that layup, you’d have made the school record.” My mother was loving and outgoing, as I am. I take after my mother more. My father was a strict authoritarian. He would take off from work to watch me play, then go back to work late at night, and not be home when I got home, but I knew he was there.
I went to New York this past weekend to be with my son, and he had to work Friday. When he opened his door and came in, the look on his face when he saw his son melted my heart. I saw love and caring. I know that my grandson is getting an open display of love. I am comfortable in my heart that my grandson is being raised in a loving, caring family.
DC: I’m sure you’re always being asked about this, but in the ’78 All-Star Game, you were brought in to pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning. Larry Bowa singled, then you proceeded to retire the next nine hitters, and not just any hitters. You sat down Reggie Smith, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Greg Luzinski, Steve Garvey, Ted Simmons, Dave Winfield, and Bowa the second time around. Here we sit almost 40 years later. Does it seem real yet? Do you ever think about those three innings and ask yourself: “Did I do that?” Can you take us through your memory of that game?
LS: (laughs) I was walking on air that day; it’s such a blur now. I was 22 years old. I had Rod Carew on first, Frank White at second, George Brett at third. It was just mindboggling (still laughing). I threw to Carlton Fisk and Jim Sundberg. In that situation, the athlete in you takes over. There was not a lot of thinking going on, and it worked out extremely well. I think back on that game a lot, and I’ve seen the video of that day. It was surreal, no question about that. It was a once in a lifetime thing.
DC: Once in several lifetimes.
LS: (laughs) Yes. What’s neat about the project I’m working on with the baseball assistance team is that I got to visit seven major league camps this spring. I got to visit with Rod Carew, Larry Bowa, Jim Rice and others, and we have those memories now that we can relive together. We shared some magnificent games and events together.
About the Baseball Assistance Team, l was living in Grand Rapids, just out of prison, and my son was in the Midwest League for the Detroit Tigers. He was promoted to Wakeland, to high A. I was still drinking, and I slipped and fell on some ice. I tore ligaments and tendons in my left shoulder. I had no insurance and no money. I couldn’t use my left arm. It got to the point that I had to use my right hand to move my left arm. My sister took me to the doctor, who told me that I needed surgery. I moved to Winston-Salem to be around my sister. Sam McDowell knew that I had a problem, and the Baseball Assistance Team paid to have my shoulder fixed. Sam helped me. There was a time when I relapsed, but that was a big part of my start in 2011.
DC: Okay, that’s awesome. I have always read about how great McDowell was, and how alcoholism cut his career short, but I never knew what ultimately became of him. So, he did get his life together?
LS: Sam is sober, and he’s a counselor. Well, he just retired and his son took over at the Baseball Assistance Team. He first insisted that I go to meetings, and make recovery a part of my plan. I did relapse, and it hurts me as I think back, that I misplaced his trust. I still call him every year on my anniversary day. The funding for the Baseball Assistance Team comes from Major League Baseball. They paid for my surgery. They are funded by players, umpires, field personnel, and a lot of other people. Sam was a big reason that I’m still on this planet. He’s saved a lot of lives. God put him in my life at the right time.
DC: Who would you say was the toughest hitter you ever faced?
LS: Jim Rice. He had great numbers against me, and did significant damage in meaningful situations. That’s how I measure it. A lot of guys hit me, with singles or doubles, but the guys that drove in runs are who I remember. Jim Rice immediately pops into my mind. I was doing radio in Detroit, and for my last show, the producer managed to get Jim Rice on air with us. He said, “I’m just so glad you’re back in Major League Baseball. Now I’ll know where to send the limo for the homerun contest.” (We both laugh.) There are a handful of guys: Ripken, Yount, Molitor, Brett. George Brett’s another guy in the Jim Rice category.
DC: No shame in getting hit by those guys.
LS: (laughs) No. I don’t remember all that well the guys that I got out. I was with Butch Wynegar the other night at a minor league game in Palm Beach, and neither of us could remember how he did against me.
DC: Alright, fun facts! What do we not know about Lary Sorensen?
LS: I love to sing. Singing in the church choir rejuvenated my life. I got to the point where, I looked forward to choir practice on Wednesday nights. I would rather have missed church on Sunday morning than choir practice. It was a couple of hours of communication with God. It was a personal experience, especially early on when I struggled so badly. Larry White was a great friend. He saw that I was in need. Music was filling a void. My love of music took me back to my roots. I’m so thankful for my postman, Rick Gfeller.
DC: You played for Milwaukee from ’77-’80, St. Louis in ’81, Cleveland from ’82-’83, Oakland in ’84, the Chicago Cubs in ’85, Montreal in ’87, and San Francisco in ’88. Which team or teams do you remember having particularly strong team chemistry?
LS: Milwaukee, we had a great group there with a young core. It hurt to get traded. St. Louis felt very comfortable. Jim Kaat was there, Bruce Sutter, who is a great friend, Gene Tenace. I knew they were a championship team. In ’81 we had the best record over the whole year, but didn’t make the playoffs, due to the strike. I thought I’d be there for a while. Whitey (Herzog) needed an outfielder. I was part of a deal that brought Lonnie Smith to St. Louis, where he had a great year.
DC: That struck me, that you just missed the post-season a few times in your career. You missed St. Louis’ world series win by one year, the Cubs NL East title by one year, and San Francisco’s NL championship by one year. Has that ever been difficult to handle?
LS: It has been a great disappointment, because my team never played in a post-season game. I would give up my all-star game to have played in a post-season. The fact that I was so close in so many places tells me two things: 1) It shows just how difficult it is to make the post-season, and 2) It re-emphasizes that it’s a team sport. It’s an individual war inside a team battle. With pitching, once you let go of that ball you have no control. It’s out of your hands.
DC: Are you currently broadcasting games for Wake Forest University and the Winston-Salem Dash?
LS: I don’t do the Dash anymore; I don’t do TV anymore. I’ll do 20 games this year for Wake Forest, the ACC network. I branched out into football. I thought it might be over when I moved to Florida, but I commute now. Ron Wellman, the Wake Forest Athletic Director, remembered me. We started talking and I broadcast their games. He talked to a lot of people about broadcasting for football, and he came to me. That’s been a blessing too. My wife and I love to do it together. I do a lot of public speaking about addiction and alcoholism. A project that I’m a part of now is working with PitchLogic.com. Engineers have figured out how to put a microchip inside a baseball. You sync it to your phone and it can tell you all kinds of things, like pitch speed, different types of spin, body mechanics, and a lot of other things.
DC: What advice do you have for us who may be reading this, for single men, for husbands, for fathers? What landmines do we need to watch out for? What are some things we need to make sure that we do?
LS: Leave your pride at door. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t be afraid of people that want to help. I would walk two and half miles to a meeting because I wouldn’t ask for a ride, but someone at church offered and said, “Don’t rob me of this blessing.” So, we all have ways we can help. It’s about finding our gifts and extending help. That group of people at my church’s Bible class, when I had financial difficulties, turns out a retired CFO of a bank was in my Bible study class. God put so many resources in one area when I was struggling as badly as a human being can. All of a sudden, these people reached out. Larry White, my choir director, there were times I’d been drinking when I came to choir practice. He never turned me away or expressed displeasure. He would call me the next day and take me to lunch and to a hospital visit. He would show me that there was something more to do. I can’t thank those people enough. It used to be when you Googled my name, my mugshot would come up before my bubblegum card, but now my bubblegum card comes up first again.
And, with that, we concluded the interview, and my call with Lary Sorensen came to a close.Every one of us knows what it is to cry out, “Wretched man that I am!Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).But, as chapter 7 leads into chapter 8, (thank You, Lord) the answer is given!“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a).And chapter 8 begins to teach us how to live the life that the Almighty God has called us to in Ephesians 2:10.And Lary’s story is an ongoing testimony to the redeeming love of God and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.Thank you, Lary Sorensen, for your time, your willingness, and your openness.