...

>> I wish you hadn't brought all that stuff up.
>> You're making me feel old again.

Sorry, Bob! But, those were some of the best times of my life!

>> The funny part was that I was a devout Dodger
>> fan but one who never got to Ebbets Field.

Sorry to hear that. I used to take the train from Long Island to Jamaica Station, where my grandfather would meet me for the trip to Ebbets Field. Then he'd put me back on the train to Lindenhurst after the game. Did that with some frequency during the summers of 1952-57. Can you imagine a parent letting a six-year-old do something like that these days?? Sometimes, my Dad would take us to a game, too (he was a Yankee fan squished between a Dodger season ticket holder father and a Dodger fanatic son. )

>> Those were the days of Reese, Snider, Hodges, Robinson,
>> Newcombe, Gilliam, Campanella and the rest of the crew.

Oh, yeah, and Furillo, Amoros, Cox, Labine and Erskine (was there for his 1956 no hitter against the hated Giants). The most amazing thing I ever saw in person, though, was by a visitor: Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves hit four home runs and a double in a single game. The double hit the fence about two feet below being a fifth home run.

>> When the Dodgers moved out west, I just felt
>> totally betrayed and lost interest in baseball.

I was crushed, too, though I remained an avid Dodger fan and followed them to Southern California in 1969. After we moved to the Bay Area in 1985, I went to almost every Dodger-Giant game from then until 1994. After the strike, I swore I would never go to another game -- and haven't. In fact, I don't even watch on TV anymore. None of that, however, changes my affection for the Brooklyn Dodgers and my childhood heroes.

----- jim o\-S