PLAY BALL (baseball write off)
Apr 01 '03
The Bottom Line I love this area of Epinions. It enables our creative minds to really let loose.
Ah! Baseball! Spring training. The season is here for our favorite stars to get back in shape after a long winter’s respite.
You know, it’s funny. When I was a kid, I watched all the Brooklyn Dodgers’ games with my dad and never once did we ever think of spring training. For whatever reason, it was never mentioned before, during or after the games. One always assumed the players had the winter off. Things sure have changed during the years.
I can still hear my dad yelling at the TV during a Dodger’s game, “Come on, ya bums! Moider them joiks!” “Ya bums! If ya stood next to a barn, ya couldn’t hit it!” (etc.) No, I’m not making fun of my dad but honestly, back then, most of Brooklyn spoke that way.
Oh yes, we were from Brooklyn, NY. Greenpoint, to be exact! So many memories were forged in Brooklyn. It was on Monitor Street and I just turned 6. My mom and dad bought our first TV only a few months earlier – a small 13-inch black and white Du Mont.
While I enjoyed my afternoons of Mighty Mouse, Kookla, Fran & Ollie and Howdy Doody, the television belonged to my dad on weekends. That’s when we’d sit and for hours, watch his beloved BROOKLYN DODGERS. We never missed a game.
I can still hear him scream, “Go get ‘em, Pee Wee!” “Atta boy, Roy!” “There’s the Duke! The man of the hour!” etc.
Dad married mom in February of 1944 and by the end of February 1945, mom found herself in labor with my brother. Mom and their little boy welcomed dad home from the war in 1946, the year before I was born. With dad’s family responsibilities, the only baseball games he ever saw appeared on television. He never did get the chance to attend a game in person. But, that never stopped him from enjoying his Brooklyn Dodgers.
Yet, while he never attended a game, never visited Ebbets Field, he seemed like a walking encyclopedia filled with facts about the game and the stadium. For instance, in 1913, when Ebbets Field was first constructed, the playing field was much larger than in 1955. Due to the popularity of the game, seating arrangements kept growing thereby slowing shrinking the size of the field. But, I guess that’s the way it was with all major league fields back then.
One month before I was born in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play in a major league game.
During the Dodger’s reign in Ebbets Field, they only won the World Series once. That memorable day occurred in 1955! How my dad screamed that day. I’m sure the Dodgers heard him all the way from our small apartment.
Dad was amazed at the new Schaefer Beer sign that was erected near the scoreboard after WWII. He never tired pointing out its features. The H lit up every time a player got a HIT and, likewise, the E lit up when an ERROR occurred. Which reminds me. Every time the Dodgers made an error, dad made a fist, shook it at the television and screamed, “Ya no good bum! Whaddya think ya doin’!?”
Yep. I have so many great memories of dad and our baseball days. Unfortunately, they came to an end in September of 1957. I remember it well. Dad sat very quietly at the supper table. When mom asked why, he said in a distracted voice, “I can’t believe they’d leave Brooklyn. Da Bums are goin’ to California!” That was it! The beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, the team that inspired the greatest love/hate relationship, was abandoning their greatest fans and moving west. I knew dad wasn’t the only fan to feel the emptiness.
While dad never bothered with baseball after that, his saddest say was yet to come. A few years later, the newspaper headline read, EBBETS FIELD FALLS TO THE WRECKING BALL. It was that day, back in 1960, that, as for as my dad was concerned, baseball died. Although he never attended a game or sat in one of the precious stadium seats, a part of his childhood died. (I related to that feeling the day John Lennon died.)
Baseball was never the same for him. He’d watch his footballs games and an occasional baseball game – just to pass the time of day. In 1964, when Shea Stadium was built, we thought baseball might bring back some of the excitement of those wonder years. It didn’t. Too much changed during those years. Not only did baseball become more commercialized but the players seemed more interested in their higher salaries than the love of the game.
How I wonder if these Major League players ever possessed the same love emitted by those great players of my childhood. Did they ever think of the fun of the game when they were as small as my sons who so enjoyed their Little League games? If they were ever asked to take a huge pay cut for the sake of the economy, how many would continue to play – for the sake of the game? How many play just to hear their fans sing in a loud roar:
Take me out to the ballgame!”
************************************
Please read the other great writings from our fantastic participants:
Debbie26
chad8246
kld718
sleeper54
Susie-34668
jbduckling
Bryan_Carey
lisa_j
chaospump
quasar
pmills1210
thegeniusx
marinermoose22
aliventiasylum
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Donnie013
|
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Margaret Brennan
Location: Punta Gorda Isles, FL
Reviews written: 455
Trusted by: 288 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.