How did you first become a Brooklyn Dodgers fan?

[Mongoose]

This should be interesting. I was born long after the team left Brooklyn, but my father and grandfather were fans. The Mets always seemed a bit like a consolation prize, and baseball in general seemed much more interesting when there were three teams in the biggest city in the nation, at least one of which seemed to win a pennant practically every year.

The legends usually seemed more colorful than the reality I grew up with. And with Jackie Robinson, Wilbert Robinson, Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Babe Herman and all the rest, there certainly were a lot of legends. The Yankees and Giants had their legends, too, which made the rivalries interesting. Back then the teams seemed more a part of the fabric of their communities.

I read "The Boys of Summer" when I was a kid, but I think it was Peter Golenbock's well known book "Bums" that sealed the deal. Those teams were colorful and interesting, something that will probably never be seen again in that same way.

I know there are people on this board who grew up with the team. I also know there are some on this board who also weren't born when the Dodgers were stolen. All these stories should be interesting.

How did you become a Brooklyn Dodgers fan?

[Meadowlark]

The Mets always seemed a bit like a consolation prize

The Mets are a consolation prize but as Stephen Stills said if you can't be with the one you love then love the one you're with.

[Mongoose]

I was hoping this thread would result in a series of interesting stories from the various people who used to post regularly in this forum - especially some of the old timers. I'm just now noticing that things have been awfully quiet around here for a while, not just on this thread, but in the Brooklyn forum as a whole.

If there are any Brooklyn fans left on this forum, your input here certainly would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[BornthedaythebumswontheWS]

I was hoping this thread would result in a series of interesting stories from the various people who used to post regularly in this forum - especially some of the old timers. I'm just now noticing that things have been awfully quiet around here for a while, not just on this thread, but in the Brooklyn forum as a whole.

If there are any Brooklyn fans left on this forum, your input here certainly would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Howdy! I'm still around. Since the day of my birth landed precisely on the *only* day the Bums ever won a World Series, (4 Oct. '55)--being one of their fans (posthumously) was natural for me.

[Squeeze Play]

Although I was born and raised in Brooklyn, my first baseball memory is of the 1944 World Series, when I was 8.

For some reason, the names of the Browns of that year stuck in my head – Don Gutteridge, Mark Christman, Chet Laabs, Mike Kreevich, Nels Potter, and my all-time favorite baseball name: Sig Jakucki.

The following year, I followed the drama of Hank Greenberg’s return from the war to lead his Tigers to a World Series victory over the Cubs.

So when 1946 began, I was a general baseball fan, but with no allegiance to any one team. My dad was not interested in sports, and I didn’t have an older brother. Thinking back, I know now that I was drawn to the Dodgers because of Jackie Robinson, and his heroic struggle for acceptance. I was initially a passionate Robinson fan, and when he was brought up to the Dodgers the following year, I naturally became a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.

I felt then -- and still believe now -- that rooting for Jackie and the Dodgers was rooting for America.

I attended many games at Ebbets Field, and can still recall the thrill of coming up the ramp and seeing the team's white home uniforms against that impossibly green grass. Each visit was a religious experience, and the pride I felt in Jackie's success and my love affair with the team was, without exaggeration, the defining experience of my youth.

That relationship was often characterized by heartache and despair, but it was also punctuated by one glorious moment of joy on October 4th, 1955.

[Let's Go Mets!]

I caught the last three years of the Dodgers in Brooklyn. I really had no choice, as my father, mother, and brother were all big Dodger fans. Like it or not, the televised games (WOR-TV Ch.9) were always on in my household.

Being Italian, Carl Furillo was my mother's personal favorite. I still remember her many trips from the kitchen into the TV room, just to watch his at bats. As soon as the Skoonj was done, she'd go back to making dinner. When he came to bat again, she'd be in front of the TV again. (Looking back, I bet this made my father happy!).

As for me, #14-Gil Hodges was the man! I loved him!! It wasn't long before I attended my first Dodger game--at Roosevelt Stadium on July 25, 1956 (yes, Penncentralpete was there too.) We sat down the right field line behind the Dodger bullpen. When Clem Labine got up to warm up, my brother leaned over the rail and swiped his warm up towel for a souvenier. The Dodgers went into the ninth tied with Cincinnati, and then the Duke suddenly ended it all, as he hit one of his eight career game winning walk off homers to win the game! I still have the Roosevelt Stadium ticket stub, and the 1955 Dodger World Championship pennant I bought at the game that night.

Then came 1957. What I remember most about that year were all the rumors that the Dodgers were going to move to Los Angeles. I never let them bother me however, because I knew it would never happen. Well, the rest is history, as a kind caring man, named Walter O'Malley changed things forever.