Lasorda pasta sauce is striking out; new products in bullpen.

Sales of Tommy Lasorda's pasta sauces have apparently fallen through the floor and officials at the baseball icon's food business say the company is looking to diversify into new products.

According to one source, grocery store sales of the four brands of Tommy Lasorda's Pasta Sauce have

Officers of the Paramount-based company would not reveal specific sales or profit/loss figures but admitted the sauces have not been a big seller and said Lasorda Foods Inc. will soon be diversifying into new Italian food products and running baseball camps. They would not say the company will drop the pasta sauce or would soon be going out of business.

Company officials would not comment officially but claimed a primary reason for the lack of success is the so-called "slotting fees" charged by supermarket chains to get a new product on a shelf.

Two independent industry experts agreed with Lasorda officials that slotting fees, which some argue are illegal, make it very difficult for a small food manufacturer to get new products on store shelves. But a spokesman for the Food Marketing Institute, a national trade group for supermarket companies, said slotting fees cannot be blamed for the failure of a new product.

Regardless of the reason, however, Lasorda sauces have not sold. According to A.C. Nielsen Marketing in Northbrook, Ill., sales of the four flavors in grocery stores nationwide tallied $171,000 for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 12.

Sales for 1991 are not available but, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Lasorda Foods had $1.4 million in total sales in 1990.

"I can't say how that figure ($171,000) compares to 1991 but our information is that sales have been tracking downward at a 78 percent rate," said Nielsen spokesman Ray Wisbrock.

Lasorda Foods Executive Vice President Dennis Atsaves said the Nielsen figures are inaccurate and a good part of the company's sales of the pasta sauce are made at discount chains like Wal-Mart, Pace food warehouses and Price Club stores.

However, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart in Arkansas said the company discontinued selling pasta and pasta sauces about a month ago. A spokeswoman for Pace, which is based in Denver, said the stores do not carry Lasorda pasta sauces. "It's not compatible with our product line," said the spokeswoman.