THE DODGERS
I was born in Tucson, Arizona. I was raised in San Diego, California. I was a huge baseball fan. The Tucson Cowboys and the San Diego Padres were both farm teams of the Cleveland Indians. I loved Luke Easter, Minnie Minoso and Al Rosen of the Indians because they had played AAA minor league ball for the Padres.
As a boy it seemed to me that Cleveland had a very good team but every year the New York yankees [Purposely uncapitalized] would win the American League at the expense of the Indians. Then the yankees would go on to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Every year I would end up rooting for Brooklyn to beat the Yankees. However the Dodgers never won no matter how hard I rooted for them. Over many years that resulted in me ever increasingly hating the yankees and rooting for the Dodgers.I ended up am diehard Dodger fan.
I could not believe my good fortune when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. By then I was an adult and lived in the LA area. I fondly remember the Drysdale/ Koufax years.
I named my family’s dog Dodger. My four daughters became rabid Dodger fans. To this day my eldest daughter can remember the starting lineup That included Steve Garvey, Ron Cey Bill Russell and Maury Lopes et. al. I remember the year that 4 Dodgers hit 30 or more home runs. That was the first year any big league team had ever done that.
One year the Dodgers beat the yankees at yankee Stadium the first two games of the World Series. My whole family watched the games. We were so excited. We felt that at las the Dodgers were finally going to win the championship. Then the yankees swept the next four games including two at Dodger Stadium to win the World Series.
When I got home from work that day all my daughters were crying. One of them asked me “Why did God let the yankees win?” That made me realize that I was carrying the whole sports thing way to far. I said a few things with the intention of easing my kids pain. I have no idea what I said. I do remember I did not succeed in comforting them. Nevertheless I still to this day hate the yankees. I root for the Dodgers and for whomever the yankees are playing.
George Caywood 