Tommy Lasorda

Staff Photo by John Rawlston
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda visits with former Minnesota Twins and Chattanooga Lookouts manager Cal Ermer in the press box at AT&T Field prior to the Lookouts game against the Carolina Mudcats on Wednesday.

Chattanooga Lookouts owner Frank Burke would like to extend the new partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he has an influential voice in his corner.

Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who now works as a special advisor to team owner Frank McCourt, visited AT&T Field on Wednesday and liked what he saw. The Lookouts are working with a new parent club for the first time since 1988, when they were beginning a 21-year relationship with the Cincinnati Reds.

The Dodgers had been partnered with the Jacksonville Suns for eight seasons before changing Southern League locations last September.

"When we get an affiliate, we don't believe in divorce," Lasorda said. "We stay a long time with them, and I think that's what is going to happen here. This is a great place with a beautiful ballpark and nice people, and I was happy to hear when we did acquire coming to Chattanooga."

The Dodgers and Lookouts signed a two-year player development agreement that runs through the 2010 season. Burke would prefer to go into next spring with an extension and said the Dodgers have agreed to discuss the future in September.

"All indications right now are that the Dodgers are real happy here, and we're real happy to have them," Burke said. "We'll have to see what happens at the end of this season."

Before Wednesday's game, which Chattanooga won 9-3 over Carolina, the 82-year-old Lasorda visited with 85-year-old Cal Ermer in the AT&T press box. Ermer managed the Lookouts from 1952-57 and the Minnesota Twins in 1967-68.

Though he suffers from Alzheimer's, Ermer watches almost every Lookouts game from the press box, which was named for him last year.

"You're above the ground, and that's what counts," Lasorda told Ermer. "You were tough on that ball field, and you're tough right now. I've got 18 more years to go, because I want to be 100. I'm going to eat a lot of pasta."