TRUE STORY

I've told this story quite a few times but never wrote it down.  

HOW I BECAME A DODGER FAN

Having been born in Hollywood California in1946 baseball was not a focal point of my early childhood but in 1955 that was about to change.  I attended Catholic schools for the first 12 years and the first 8 years the instructors were NUNS.  

CATHOLIC NUNS WITH BLACK AND WHITE HABITS...WHO CARRIED WOODEN RULERS WITH A BRASS EDGE.....and were never shy about using it as a weapon.

In my recollection they were all named Sister Mary Margaret.

My mother volunteered to drive them around to certain functions because we had a station wagon so their presence extended beyond the school boundaries.....and needless to say I was always riding in the very back looking out the rear window.

One October morning in 1955, which would put me in the 3rd grade at the age of 9, Sister Mary Margaret wheeled a cart in the room with a small  black and white TV set on top and made the following announcement.  "Boys and girls, today we are going to watch my beloved New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers again in the 7th game of the World Series."

Sister Mary Margaret and I didn't see eye to eye on very many subjects so at that exact moment I was rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers without knowing anything about the team and very little about baseball. 

She proceeded to give us a history of how the Yankees had beaten the Dodgers every time they played in the World Series. I also liked the name Dodgers because one of our recess games was Dodgeball....and I assumed the team was named after the game we played....and since they were throwing a ball around it made perfect sense to me.

As you may or may not know the result of that game resulted in a very upset Sister Mary Margaret and a jubilant young Michael Timothy McAlevey.  For the first time the Dodgers beat the Yankees and won the World Series.  I'm pretty sure my reaction got me sent to the corner of the room because I did share cheering loudly when the final out was made.  Obviously Sister Mary Margaret was from the east coast and obviously she had grown up a Yankee fan but on that October day in 1955 her world was turned upside down and The Dodgers were now a central part of my sports awareness.

Anything that made her unhappy had to be a really good thing.

That might sound harsh but my NUN stories are legendary and they still rest in parts of my frontal lobe.

But this is a baseball story so let's get back to the Dodgers.

From that year on I started playing baseball in the street with my friends and in 1958 the Brooklyn Dodgers  moved to Los Angeles, California and at the age of 12  I signed up for my first and last year of  Little League.  The Dodgers in their first year finished  7th out of 8 teams....but in 1959, in my first year of Babe Ruth Baseball the LOS ANGELES DODGERS WON THE WORLD SERIES.  In that World Series the Dodgers lost the first game to the Chicago White Sox 11-0....but came back to win the series in 6 games.

The  one truly constant attraction for loving the Dodgers lies directly on the voice of Vin Scully.  I listened to him when I was 12 years old in my backyard swinging a bat.....and in 2016 I was standing in my living room swinging at bat in the last game in announced as he retired.

58 years listening to the Greatest Dodger of all time is truly one of best sports memories I will carry to my home plate....which hopefully isn't scheduled for any time soon.

The Dodgers vs Sister Mary Margaret's beloved Yankees in the 2024 World Series.....69 years after a day that made her weep and made me a lifetime Dodger fan.

GO DODGERS!