Once More Before I Die

Once more before I die. Yes, that is my wish. I am 75 now, and I have been alive for every single Dodger Championship, and I dearly want to see another. None of us, except those who take their own lives, choose when it is time to go. As Brooklynites would say We Wuz Robbed, in 2017, out played in 18 and missed some very good chances to advance in a couple other years.

In my life, the Dodgers have been a huge part of who I am. I grew up with them in LA, had my ear pressed against my transistor radio by my pillow listening to Vinny spin the tale of the game. I dreamed, as most boys do, of playing for my hometown team someday. Alas I was better in my head than I was on the field. My best year was my only year of little league when I was 11. We played a 9-game schedule. My team went 8-0-1. We had a perfect game thrown by a couple of our pitchers. We lost to the team that tied us during the season. That was devastating to me. I had done my best to help us win. With no fences on our fields, I hit only one homer, and I had to run like hell to get that. I batted .714. I only struck out twice in 21 at bats. But losing took any joy out of that.

I was living in a home for kids in Highland Park in those days. We went to maybe 4 or 5 games a year. Usually, we had seats down the RF line at the coliseum. Once, we sat in about the third row, right behind the LF screen. Missed a line drive hit by Neal by () that much! After that game, we waited by the tunnel for the players to come out. Talked to Jr. Gilliam for a couple of minutes. At the time, that was oh so cool. Everything I knew about the players, I got from the backs of their baseball cards, and I had a lot of them.

Another thing that happened was they built a new housing tract behind the home’s playground. 1959’s series MVP, Larry Sherry and his brother Norm moved in about 2 and 4 houses from the home. They were really great to the kids. That was the first real interaction I ever really had with a major leaguer. And that January, before they went to Vero, they let us kids shag balls for them on a field about a mile away. What a thrill that was.

When the home opened its new rec center, Norm, Larry and Tommy Davis came. I got a 10-minute batting instruction with him. I was in awe. At 14 I was sent to a foster home in Redondo Beach and ended up going to Mira Costa High School. One of the alums was Joe Moeller, who at the time was in the Dodger organization. He would get the call to the majors and although never a huge star, he was fun to watch. When I went out for the baseball team, he pitched batting practice to us a couple of times. Once, he brought Ron Bryant with him. Bryant was a lefty in the Giants system. Didn’t matter, I couldn’t touch either of them.

My foster parents at the time, were not sports fans at all, let alone baseball. So, for the next 3 years, I never went to a game. I did listen all the time and watched them whenever my foster dad was not at home, and they were on TV. Back then, they only broadcast 11 games a year. I do remember watching the game where Roseboro was attacked by Marichal in 65. But after that, following the team became more difficult since I joined the army after ” leaving the welfare system in Los Angeles.” They were going to transfer me to a big Catholic home for boys in downtown LA.

Having been already re-located to a temp home after they pulled me out of my previous home, I was dead set against changing High Schools again. I would have had to transfer from Narbonne to Belmont High in LA. So, on the day I was to take a bus and visit the Catholic home again, I simply walked away. I spent a little less than a month with my mom’s sister, in Torrance. And her mailman set me up with the Army recruiter, and in December of 65, I left for El Paso Texas and basic training.

From December 1965 until December 1974, I was in the Army and then lived in El Paso for a couple of months before I went back to California in December. While I was in the Army, if I came to LA on leave, my family and I would go to Dodger Stadium if we were there during the season. My girls loved going to the games. We usually sat in the LF Pavilion. It was a better view for them, and they loved those 1-dollar frozen malts.

We would also go to the AA games in El Paso. In 73, El Paso was still a Dodger farm team. In 74, they were an Angel farm team. Had some pretty good players too. Norm Sherry was their manager. I caught up with him before a game one time and we talked about when he lived in Highland Park. A few of his players would make it to the majors, including LHP Frank Panick. One who didn’t was actor Kurt Russell who was their second baseman before he got hurt and his baseball career was toast.

After I got out of the Army, it took me a while to find a career I could be happy with. In 1977, I started driving big rigs hauling containers out of the harbor. Usually if I went to a game, it would be on a Saturday or Sunday. I was too busy during the week driving during the day, and playing music at night. Sometimes a bunch of us would go. We had a bus trip one time, sat in the nosebleed seats and watched the Dodgers hit 7 homers and clobber the Reds.

As many of you know, I met Wes Parker in 1980 at a card show in Anaheim. I invited Wes to a show I was doing at George’s Round Up in Long Beach. What came out of that meeting was that Wes said he would find out what I needed to do in order to sing the Anthem at Dodger Stadium. He kept his word, and I made the tape they requested, and Wes, who was working on radio for the Dodgers doing Dodger talk, took the tape in. Around March of 81, I got a letter that had the date I would sing and instructions on where to go and when.

Included was a parking pass to the premium lot, right next to where the players park, 4 box seat tickets behind the visitors’ dugout, and a field pass. To say the least, I was excited. The season started and there were rumblings that the players were going to strike. And they did. So I was in limbo because the date I was to sing was in September. But they settled in August, and about a week later I got another letter from the Dodgers confirming my date.

I got there early as I could on the 9th. My girlfriend and I, with her brother and his girlfriend. About 40 minutes before game time, I had to go up to the elevator that takes you to field level. And remember, in 81, they still had those seats behind the screen that were eye level with the field. Also in those days, they set the microphone up in center field. Wes met me and took me to the dugout where I got to meet the players and some of the coaches. He gave me a ball that I had several players and coaches sign. Finally about 10 minutes before game time, the attendant walked me out to center field.

I met Fernando and Bobby Castillo coming in from the pen, shook Fernando’s hand, but forgot to get him to autograph the ball. The maintenance guy in CF set the mike up, and then I just waited for my introduction, and for the organist to start the music. There is about a 2 second delay between what you sing and what you hear, so you really can only concentrate on the organ music. All in all, it was three of the best minutes of my life.

They walked me back under the Pavilion, and into the tunnel that goes from the bullpen to the clubhouse. Met Rick Sutcliffe there and he signed the ball. Got back to my seat, and enjoyed the game. Ron Cey had his arm broken that night and he would be out until the playoffs. They ended up losing 6-3 to the Giants in 10, but Garvey hit a homer to tie it in the 9th.

Until I left LA in 1994, I would go to several games a year. I always sat in the Pavilion except a couple times when I went alone, and I splurged on a box seat or one up in the loge. I saw some good, and some bad baseball. I followed the team in the paper and on TV. I was in a friends living room when Gibby hit his homer in 88. Of course, after that, there was no World Series until 17.

From 94 to 2010 I had to follow the team on my satellite radio in my truck. I went to maybe three games over that span. I did catch a minor league game in Maryland once. But I was working so much, I usually was too tired to go anywhere.

I retired and moved here to Canon City in Colorado in November of 2010. And when I got my own place, I got a Roku and signed up for MLB.TV so I could watch the games. I started collecting cards again, mostly Dodgers and reprints of the best of Topps, including some Hall of Famers. I watch maybe 140 games a year. I will miss one now and then. But usually, if I do, I just come home and watch the highlights.

2020 no matter what anyone might think, was redemption for the team. It ended all the years of frustration, and the stench of the loss to the Astros. In 18, the Red Sox were clearly superior. When I go to California to visit my sis and her family, we usually will take in at least one or two games at Dodger Stadium. But lately, we have also been going out to Rancho. Met Mark and Jayne Cobb out there once. Met Watford, B&P and Patch at a sports bar in Orange County. I met Mark up in Denver one time too. I have gone to maybe 7 Dodger games at Coors since I have been here. It is a great place to watch a game.

But I am getting up there in years now. Last time we went to Dodger Stadium, my knees hurt for a week afterwards. Going down those stairs on the third deck took its toll. And the legroom is not all that great, so I actually have to turn a little sideways, so my knees do not hurt. So, I watch the games at home. Better seat anyway, and plus I get all the replays I want. But I really want to see this team win another title. That will be a great day, and I want to be healthy enough to enjoy it.