My first introduction to baseball, as I listened to my father and his family cheering the Dodgers. Sitting with my father watching the games on tv, I listened as he pointed out some of the greatest players to ever play the game.........Hodges, Robinson, Campanella, Snyder, Reese, Gilliam, Furillo........everyone a role model in his own way.
I remember my first trip to Ebbets Field. I thought they were the best seats in the house, even though they were in the outfield and we had a girder blocking some of our view. We watched Koufax in one of his first games ever, drawing some boos, as he pitched a pretty bad game. My father said he would become a great pitcher, no matter what the crowd thought.
I remember Dodger home games at Rosevelt Stadium in N.J., and also going to the Polo Grounds and booing the Giants whenever they played the Dodgers. While waiting in line at the Polo Grounds, we would also glare across the East River at Yankee Stadium, home of our ultimate rivals.
I remember Sundays at my grandparent's house arguing with my mother's family, who were all Giants fans. My father and I, the only Dodger fans present would put up a fight, win or lose Borrowing the car keys from our parents, we could listen to the game on the car radio. We would toss a ball around as we listened to the game.....
(every car trunk came equiped with bats, balls, and gloves). I remember collecting baseball cards, and sorting them into shoe boxes. We never knew what was better though......sorting by team, or by number printed on the back. I would trade anything for a Dodger card. I once traded a Willie Mays card for a Clem Lebine and Rodger Craig, and would trade any American League card for a National League card. I traded away Mantle, Berra, Ford, Richardson....and yes I did once trade away Maris and Mantle cards in the early 60's during the home run race. The American League seemed to be the same year after year. Around the NY Metro area all you heard was Yankees. Back then we hated them, but today I have to admit they have had some great talent year after year Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, Richardson, Tresh, Skowron, and Kubek made then front runners almost every year. They were always strong right up the middle; pitching, catching, and center. Howard came up and filled in where Berra left off. The year the Dodgers moved to California was a bad memory. The Giants followed soon after, leaving both families feeling abandoned. When this happened I started to notice how good some of the other players actually were that played for other teams. Mays now always looked awesome, especially when he faced your favorite pitchers........and boy could he field, and run bases. Blink an eye fielding a single and you'd find him standing on 2nd...........unless he got all of the ball! Many sodas, beers, and popcorn were dropped when he ran the bases. He was awesome in his own way, and became more potent when the Giants brought up McCovey. What Mays didn't do,Bid Mac did......every pitcher's nightmare.....and if they scored a couple runs, you then had to hit against Juan Marichel. His kick was so high you thought he would fall over in stride. Marichel would also be remembered for a sad day in baseball, when bats were used for something besides hitting baseballs. The Dodgers and Giants always did have a fierce rivalry. Back in Dodgertown, my father's pick as a rookie was the hottest and most feared pitcher in all of baseball. Give Koufax one run, and he'd take it to the bank. His curve looked like it fell off a tabletop. Hitters looked like they were swinging at air. If you got by Koufax, you then faced Drysdale. He was mean and didn't like anyone trying to hit him. He was also the Dodger's "enforcer" and played the role to the limit. Roseboro held his ground behind the plate and Wills showed the leagues what speed meant on the bases. Now mind you, about this time, we had the early Mets back home. We had some of the most colorful names in baseball........."Cho Cho" Coleman, Marv Throneberry, Frank Thomas, and Jay Hook are just a few. The rest of the league looked invincible. In St. Louis, Musial had a style of his own. Niekro was in his prime, always with the knuckleball, Mc Carver was behind the plate....and the Cards had Gibson! Talk about smoke! He had to be one of the hardest throwers in the game. The ultimate was watching him pair up against Koufax. You somehow knew the final score would be 1-0. Back in NY, Casey Stengel was managing the Mets. We once hated him when he managed the Yankees, but now he was ours, and was a very colorful and a great manager. The Mets brought back Snyder, Neal, Hodges and yes Mays too a few years later. We cheered Nolan Ryan in his rookie season and his fast ball was alive, but also a bit wild but fast! Seaver made the team stronger while Koosman brought more depth. Cleon Jones gave us a better outfield, while Ron Hunt bottled up the middle. Gil Hodges retired and became manager, one of the best even though the early years. Back around the league, you also found the Braves. Their last years in Milwaukee when they beat the Yankees in the late 50's. They had Hank Aaron, Lou Burdette, Warren Spaughn and Eddie Matthews. Moving to Atlanta, Aaron was one of the most feared hitters in baseball. We would cringe when ever he came to bat. The Cubs still had Wrigley field in Chicago. They also had Ernie Banks and Ron Santo. They beat up on the Mets too. I remember a picture of Casey standing on the top stair of the dugout, his hands in the air, saying...."why me!" His Stengelize talk before every game sometimes was the highlite of the game. Pittsbugh had Roberto Clemente. Fielding, throwing, running and hitting found all his strong points. I never thought I'd see a batter swing at a pitchout and hit it, to protect a runner, until I saw him do it. You never knew where to pitch him. He swung at anything he could get his bat on. Adding more power to their line-up was Willie Stargell, who was always hard to pitch to. Down in Houston, they just opened an indoor stadium with artificial turf too! Come on now! Do they really think that will catch on? Baseball under a roof with no Clouds and no sun? Not even a slight breeze to help or stop the hitters? It'll never work! We had our problems with the Phillies too. One Sunday we sat and watched Jim Bunning pitch a perfect game against us on a Father's Day. Sparky Anderson meanwhile was in Cincinatti, building the Big Red Machine. We watched Pete Rose in his rookie season. Johnny Bench came up also, one of the best catchers of all time. The Reds had one of the most solid teams ever. Rose, Bench, Foster, Concepcion were some of the many, and they all showed you the basic ways to win. I lost track of baseball after 1966. In 1969 I was in the service and came home between assignments to find the Mets in the playoffs. Hodges was managing. Pitchers were Seaver, Koosman, Matlock, Gentry, and Ryan. They beat out the Cubs in the last week. I was home and watched them beat out Aaron and the Braves to move into the World Series. Now the Orioles! What's this? The Mets predict 4in a row? Baseball is really back in NY now. Too bad we weren't playing the Yankees! With my military leave at home over, off I flew to San Francisco with nothing but baseball on my mind. Once the series started, all radios and tv's were tuned in. The Mets lost the first game and were the laughing stock of the league.......4 straight? Right........but they didn't say which 4! They proceded to come out on top in each of the next 4 games taking the series 4 games to 1. I remember the hush in the crowd during a turning point in one game. The Mets argued that the batter was hit by a pitch and they were ruled against......until Hodges came out of the dugout holding the baseball that they say bounced off his foot into their dugout. He argued that the smudge of polish on the ball came off the batter's shoe when he was hit. Next you heard was the umpire yelling...."take your base!" Way to go Gil! Mets sat back and smiled as the Orioles ranted and raved all over the field.....One of the best rhubarbs I have seen ever. Then the last catch being made in the ninth and it was history. The Mets were World Champs. I followed baseball for a few years after that. Cincinatti ruled for a few years as did Pittsburgh. The Dodgers continued to rule the West, while San Francisco came on strong a few years. The rivalry between the 2 is still there, though not as fierce it seems. The catcher's throat guard was developed right after an incident involving Steve Yeager of the Dodgers. A bat broke and splintered, and......well, if you remember it like me, you held your breath as he laid there on home plate. I remember the Yankees, Oakland and Kansas City having quite a few good years. I have to admit to actually pulling for the Yankes in a couple World Series. Reggie was great.....wasn't he? Since then, baseball has sort of lost something. I don't know what it is. The baseball strikes that brought seasons to a halt, the demand for astronomical salaries. Maybe the fact that I aged and the players are now younger than me. I do know that if I held most of those baseball cards that I traded I would be sitting pretty right now. I think someone once said, "if I knew then what I know now." Yea...right! I'd still trade!.....and 73 home runs!......wow!
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