To The Brooklyn Dodgers

Nine years before I was born, you moved to LA, but in our house, the move was always yesterday. When we talk to others about the Dodgers, we say, “Which Dodgers? LA or Brooklyn?” Brooklyn is the real one.

The Dodgers Uniform, Framed

A wool Dodgers uniform hangs in my dad’s office, the one memento from his time in the minors. If the Major League team was “Dem Bums,” how scrappy were the guys in the minors? Dad has a BA in mechanical engineering, an MBA and a PhD in economics. I think of him as anything but scrappy. I picture him in the dugout, lifting the catcher’s mask to the top of his head, laughing with the other players. It’s a blurry movie at best.

The uniform was buried in an antique steamer truck in the den. Every now and then, Mom and I would dig something out of the trunk and the uniform was on top of everything. Heavy grey wool. I can still feel the weight of it, lifting it out. On Halloween, one of the five of us would wear it as a costume, Dad watching us fade down the street.

My dad, my grandmother Marion and my Aunt Sue: 1952

At some point, he knew he needed a plan other than baseball, another way out of the Brooklyn projects. He stumbled his way into college at King’s Point, picked a major because his friend suggested it. Later, stationed in New Orleans, he chose Tulane for grad school because it was the first school on the trolley stop and chose the MBA program because it was the first air conditioned building he came to. His life wasn’t so much planned, but rather just a continued willingness to give it a shot. “Why the hell not?”  Why not move to Switzerland? Why not move to Dallas? Why not have 3 kids? Why not have two more?

I wonder if he missed it, if he would have preferred a chance in the majors, playing in Ebbet’s Field, his dad watching him from the stands the way he and his dad watched year after year. I knew if he had, I wouldn’t be here.

He would say no, no regrets. He knew deep down he knew the odds. He knew it’s a short-lived career. He could see the writing on the locker room wall.

Besides, they moved to LA. What? Are ya kiddin me?