Ten-Minute Studies In Baseball, It’s History, And Other Sports: Baseball Memories- L. A. Dodgers And The World Series. Lecture 2.

Baseball is my sport. I really don’t watch much else as much as I watch baseball. To begin with my team has and will always be the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s simple enough to explain this choice of teams to be my team no matter what. I was born the year they beat the New York Yankees in the 1963 World Series; Dodgers had Sandy Koufax, Yankees didn’t. The Dodgers won in four games to the yankees winning none of them. So, I became a long suffering and constantly heart-broken Bum’s fan; yes, they are still the Bums of Brooklyn to me. To be a Dodgers fan is to take stock of the fact that they have been in eleven World Series since my birth and won only five of them. But one can take solice in that the New York Yankees with Mickey Mantle, Bobby Richardson, and Whitey Ford still lost to my Dodgers and the rifle arm of one Sandy Koufax; yes, Don Drysdale, Maury Wills as well of course. Sure, they won the 1963 World Series but what of the rest of their World Series record? In 1965 they played the Minnesota Twins of Harmon Killebrew and at least won that one; barely as if took playing an entire seven-game series. They would return to the World Series in 1966 and lose to the Baltimore Orioles of Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, and Frank Robinson, (His MVP Year, winning Triple Crown). They then had a period there they never got to the World Series till 1974 where they played the Oakland A’s of Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, Phil Garner, Jim Hunter and had no chance of beating them; Oakland A’s were too good a team to beat. Yes, those 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers had Don Sutton, Tommy John, Andy Messersmith, Steve Yeager, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey (My favorite player), Davy Lopes, Bill Russell, Bill Buckner-these were the Lose Angeles Dodgers I remember from my wasted Baseball youth. That was and still is my team of the 1970’s. This was my team in those years and in those years only two World Series during that time I think of what should have been if it hadn’t been for Mr. October and Billy Martin; who belongs in the Hall of Fame as a Manager. Of course the Dodgers of my Championship days was and will always be the Tommy Lasordal he had the right players at the right time and a little bit of Kirk Gibson luck; did I mention Clayton Kershaw yet?

My real trial, tribulation and wishful thinking as a Los Angeles Dodger began with the 1977-1978 World Series against the New York Yankees. Who were the New York Yankees of Billy Martin and the owner, the Boss, George Stienbrenner? It was Ron Guidry, Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter, Sparky Lyle, Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Chris Chambliss, Bucky Dent, Graig Nettles, Willie Randolph, Lou Piniella, Mickey Rivers. No wonder the Dodgers lost; and Reggie Jackson hitting his three homeruns in Game Six of the 1977 World Series didn’t help at all. The Dodgers didn’t have a chance; let alone the pitching to defeat this team. I remember watching those two World Series hoping to win but knowing that it was rather against the odds as the New York Yankees were too good. I remember the hope and belief that it was possible to win; the foolishness of youthful Dodger fans. I just remember feeling the loss of both World Series as being depressing and Yankee-Dodger history was as usual repeating itself. It was also about this time I was beginning to read up on Baseball History, Records, and just biographies. (I would discover Jimmy Dykes autobiography, “You Can’t Steal First Base.”, in 1979, and it’s very good). In fact I would sit in a bookstore and write out in a notebook all the NL-AL leaders, World Series winners, and certain awards; ah, the 1979 year in Anahiem, California. I was then living in Orlando, Florida by 1981 and once again the New York Yankees were in the World Series against my L. A. Bums. This Dodger team was a little different than the one that lost in 1977-1978; not a great lot but enough to beat them Yankees finally. Still had Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davy Lopes, Bill Russell, and Steve Yeager, bit now we had Dusty Baker, Jay Johnstone, Pedro Guerrerro, Rick Monday, Steve Sax, and of course the better pitching of Bob Welch, Burt Hooton, and of course Fernando Velanzuela. This was a team one thought could beat them Yankees you no longer had the great team of a few years ago; Thurman Munson, (Hall of Famer?), of course having died in the plane crash August 2nd, 1979). The Yankees had Tommy John at this point, (needs to be in the Hall of Fame). Goose Gossage and Ron Guidry was still there. They had a good team but even I felt there was something about this team that simply didn’t seem as threatening as the other Yankee teams. The fact is that the feel to me was that there was no way the New York Yankees were going to win it all despite winning the first two games and then losing the next four. The Los Angeles Dodgers not since 1965 had finally won the World Series; I did a little dance in my room. It was a great moment, not to happen again until 1988! And again with the managerial skill and personality of Tommy Lasorda. But these Oakland A’s were not the A’s of the 1970’s; they should have won more than they did in their three straight World Series appearances but they didn’t. Lost to the Dodger’s in 1988, won the against the San Fransisco Giants, and then lost again to the Cininnati Reds. But it was in 1988 that my Bum’s from Los Angeles beat the better team. The 1988 Oakland A’s had Don Baylor, Jose Conseco, Mark McGwire, Dennis Eckersly, Dave Parker, Dave Stewart, and yes it was a slightly better team. The Los Angeles Dodgers had Oral Hershiser and Kirk Gibson and a few other players of note but fact is we should have lost. Don’t get this Dodger Fan wrong, happy we won and happy that we didn’t get destroyed by the Oakland A’s. To be a Dodger Fan is to know defeat more often than a Championship. But we were not the better team; we just happen to have Oral Hershiser and Mr. Heroic moment, Kirk Gibson. A Dodger Fan has learned to be leary of winning in the regular season and crashing into the earth in the playoffs and World Series against the Houston Astros in 2017; and lost badly if you ask me. Another 100 win season of no use in the World Series any more than in the 2018 World Series against the Boston Red Sox where they simply lost rather quickly. Another good winning season was wasted with a quick and unpleasant World Series. And then there was the 2020 World Series during the Pandemic and playing only 60-Game Season. Sure, we beat the Tampa Bay Rays and sure it’s a World Series Title but I have never felt this was a true World Series Season; it didn’t feel like a real Championship. Yes, we had the great and certainly a Hall Of Famer, Clayton Kershaw, but it was a World Series that has never felt like a real win despite everything. Yes, we had Corey Seager, still didn’t feel like a real season let alone World Series. And what is the point of winning a 100-plus games for four straight years if you don’t get back into the World Series and keep losing in the playoffs! Oh, the trial and tribulation of being a Los Angeles Dodger Fan. It involves much hopeful hopelessness and really questioning one’s Baseball life choices. Oh, well, there is always next year, and Clayton Kershaw?