For the Love of the Dodgers

What if my dad would have been a Yankees fan like his brothers? I would have grown up rooting for a team that won more than any other. My life could have been different….nah….I’m happy that he passed down his love of the Dodgers. His brothers grew up in the 50’s fans of the Yankees…My dad always went for the underdogs which would have been Brooklyn then….the only championship they won was in 1955 before moving to LA. I remember when I was a small kid, my dad, watching a World Series with the Dodgers against a team in yellow and green uniforms…That would have been the 1974 world series against the Oakland A’s.

I started to watch baseball in 1977 and started to follow the Dodgers. Once in a while I would be lucky and catch them on Saturdays and Monday nights on the 3 channels we had then. I also would be able to listen on the radio when they played the Reds, Cardinals or Braves…. I never lived anywhere near California but that doesn’t matter. Ron Cey, Davey Lopes, Steve Garvey and Bill Russell were in that great infield. My favorite player was Ron Cey….I played 3rd base in little league just because of him. They made it to the World Series that year….I thought that happened every year…. They lost that year to the Yankees and Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs…I still don’t like that man. I liked the Dodger’s Reggie (Reggie Smith) much better…The next year they made it again….again they were beaten by the Yankees…helped by a terrible call when Reggie Jackson…see a pattern here?…intentionally stepped in front of the ball to deflect it…but it wasn’t called. I knew how my Dad felt in the fifties. They made it to the World Series again in 1981 and finally,…finally they won…not only did they win that year….they beat the Yankees…It was my happiest time being a Dodger fan. It even beat 1988 when Kirk Gibson hit his home run and they won.

After 88 they changed owners to Fox….which sucked because they didn’t know how to run a baseball team and was only interested in broadcasting rights. Then a carpet bagger named Frank McCourt bought the team in 2004. That was probably the worst day in Dodger history. The guy was/is a crook and would not spend on the team. He used the team as his personal piggy bank. I wanted to use him as a piñata and beat him until he sold the Dodgers to a real owner. MLB finally took the team away from the jerk…

Now in 2017 they finally made it back to the World Series. My son who really started to watch seriously for the first time this year saw them one game away from winning it all….He was disappointed but I’ve been here before…They will win it with the ownership and the front office they have…..

I love the new team Kershaw, Turner, Jansen, Bellinger, Seager etc… I do believe they will win it all…..

But…you never really forget your childhood heroes…

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The Roster of the 1977 Dodgers

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

27 thoughts on “For the Love of the Dodgers”

  1. Those were great Dodger teams in the 70’s and 80’s- luckily your father steered you to the Dodgers instead of The Evil Empire. Yankee fans just act entitled. It is hard to believe that the Dodgers had such a gap between World Series appearances. I don’t know if my Pirates will ever see another World Series. If I were made a deal that I could live until the Pirates win another World Series I’d take it- I’d probably live forever…. Ron Cey a good player to have as your favorite- The Penguin! My favorite Willie Stargell. It’s funny how as an adult you look at players differently than you did as a kid.

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    1. The Pirates had a great seventies team. I’ll never forget the We Are Family 79 team. Willie could hit it out of Grand Canyon… I remember that World Series so well. I liked watching Willie, Dave Parker and watching Kent Tekulve pitch…he looked so strange but was great. Dave was a mountain of a man….
      I really thought the Pirates had a great foundation a few years ago…I still dont understand the Cole trade.

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      1. I don’t understand the Cole trade either but I knew he’d go to Houston and do well. The Pirates should have gotten more for him. The Astros didn’t even give up a top prospect.

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      2. I thought they would get a king’s ransom for him…they should have…. I was hoping the Dodgers would have traded for him but their front office will not let go of a lot of prospects… I am glad though the Dodgers are once again building from the farm system… I didn’t like having that bloated payroll.

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    2. The Dodgers not making it to the World Series for all of those years I think had to do with two things… Fox owning the team and having no idea how to run one and McCourt. Pittsburgh must have been an exciting 70s sports town with the Steelers and Pirates…

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      1. It was great being a Pittsburgh sports fan in the 70’s- 4 Super Bowls 2 World Series. The Steelers have always stayed consistently competitive the PIrates- another story- although they are on a 5 game winning streak at the moment… The Dodgers under the O’Malley’s the best run team in baseball. Fox was clueless. I like to think of the Dodgers and the Steelers- The Dodgers didnt fire a manager from the early 50’s when Alston was hired until they Russell was fired in 98 the 45th year.. Steelers haven’t fired a head coach since the end of 1968. steady organizations

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      2. Yes I agree. I just read a book Their Life’s Work on the 70s Steelers …. great book and yes the Rooney’s and O’Malley’s knew the way on how to run a team. The trade of Piazza started the downfall for the Dodgers… I really thought the Pirates were back in 2012 or so…

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      3. That was a great book on the Steelers. I know Walter O’Malley is looked at as one of the great villains in baseball history but looking into the history of the move they gave him little choice in the matter. …. The Dodgers and the Orioles in the days of Earl- knew how to run a baseball team/ organization.

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      4. The 1970’s Steelers are legendary. Chuck Noll was an excellent coach. A lot of characters on that team… The Steelers-Raiders were always great games

        O’Malley’s name is still poison in Brooklyn after all of these years. You are right he had little choice. You mentioned the Orioles…what a great pitching staff they had in the 70s.. I’m happy the Dodgers are starting to get back to building their team. With Corey Seager, Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger it’s looking promising.

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      5. I was wondering what the Dodgers were doing several years ago when they were bringing in guys like Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez- it seemed like they were just throwing big money at ‘name’ players– now they are doing it through the farm system… the yankees are doing the same.

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      6. I think that was to win the fans back from the McCourt debacle…more like to show they would try to win. The fans stayed away from the stadium the last year of McCourt. They went from the broke McCourt era to spending crazy… They havent really made a big splash signing since they got Friedman from Tampa. I’m wondering if Kershaw will stay or how much he will command.
        Yes I hate to admit it but the Yankees are doing it right and they look setup for a long time. The Chapman trade by itself netted them a lot of talent from the Cubs.

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      7. I am sure you have heard the old classic joke- a dodger fan was told stalin- hitler and o’malley are all in the same room- you have a gun and two bullets who do you shoot— walter o’malley twice.

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      8. LOL yes I have! I heard it from an older guy from New York in the 1980s at work. Since you are a Pirates fan I have an odd question if you don’t mind. I don’t meet many Pirate fans…but I’ve always wondered why the Pirates traded Aramis Ramírez to the Cubs for basically nothing…It’s like they just gave him away. He was super for the Cubs from what I remember not looking at stats. Don’t know why that just stuck with me.

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      9. Here is the A Ramirez deal. The Pirates at the time of the trade were about NOT to meet their payroll.. they needed money fast to pay the players so they stupidly dumped A Ram to the Cubs for Hank Hill’s son Bobby and a worn out third baseman at the end of his career. Terrible trade. I remember I was at the Pittsburgh airport that morning- going to Texas to visit my friend Quinn- and I picked up a newspaper and saw that trade and couldn’t believe it- giving away a young upcoming star and getting nothing in return. the story about them about to miss payroll was not of course known at that time.. it was under past ownership- McClatchey was the head man at that point. Back then they would also draft according to how cheap they could sign someone- so if you look at some of those high picks who never made it there is the reason. No way to run a club.

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      10. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer. I watched him come up and just could not believe it. I don’t know why that stuck in my head…I guess because it was so one sided. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Pirates because of watching them in 1979…still love those caps with the stars. I want the Pirates to win because that would be great for baseball because they are a classic team. I would love to see that ballpark. I’m hoping one day I will get there. My wife is from West Virginia and we almost made it there a couple of years ago.

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      11. PNC is a wonderful ballpark to watch a game. You will love it. …. I remember back when it opened in 2001 someone on ESPN said “The Pirates playing in PNC Park is like a homeless man wearing a tuxedo.”… the Pirates were that bad of a team.

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      12. That is cold…funny but cold.
        It looks awesome on television. As much as I hate…I mean hate saying this…the Giants (Yes I’m a real Dodger fan) have a nice park also but my buddy went to both and he thought PNC was the best.

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      13. I haven’t been to the SF yet- was to see a game at Candlestick years ago but it got rained out. PNC is a jewel! They may have been putting lousy teams on the field in those years but they did the ballpark right!

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      14. The ballparks I go to are Great American Ballpark and Turner Field (I am going to try to see the new one this year) to see the Dodgers. They are around 250 miles away in each direction. I would trade the Titans for any MLB team in a heartbeat. I’m much more of a baseball fan. I will make it to PNC park.

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      15. I was going to ask you which ballpark was closer- Atlanta or Cincinnati from Nashville. How far is St. Louis? I am an hour away from PNC.

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      16. There is a 20 mile difference between the two… 20 more miles to Great American Ballpark… St. Louis is a little over 300 miles. I have thought about going there for a change. The baseball we do have is the Nashville Sounds which is an A’s farm team. Back in the early eighties they were a Yankee farm team… I remember seeing Don Mattingly. They have a new ballpark downtown and it’s pretty nice…not major league but beggars cannot be choosers… You are fortunate to be so close.

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      18. Fulton stadium and Turner are the ones I’ve seen. I’m going down for business this summer a few times. I’m going to get by there this summer. The company I work for has a corporate office there so I go there every couple of months.

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      20. Yes that is not the way to run a team. If the owners cannot put money back in they should not be approved to buy a team. I do understand it’s a business but it’s also part of the city.

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  2. Just found this blog – I live in Glasgow, but had relatives lived in Brooklyn and when I was a kid they’d bring me over souvenirs. One, a paperback book, ‘The Dodger Way to Play Baseball’ by Ray Campanis, I still have. In fact, when I set up a team in Manchester, England, and then later played for Glasgow Diamonds, I would refer to it.
    Dodgers are still my team … 🙂

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    1. It’s great meeting a fellow Dodgers fan! I grew up in Tennessee far away from LA but still love them and I still catch every game possible. When I grew up two things ruled my life…my love for the Dodgers and The Beatles… I found the Beatles in the 70s…a little late to the party but still there.
      I’ve seen that book before but never got a copy. That is a cool item to have from that time period.

      Will baseball draw a pretty good crowd over there? I’m sure soccer is the main game. That is awesome about your teams.

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