Ramblings of a Baseball Fan

With most sports, like football and basketball, you have to pay attention to the whole game, so as not to miss any of the action. Not so with baseball, at least for me. I find I can have the game on the radio or television and listen to it while I am doing other things. I just check in occasionally to get an update. And, a baseball game is a good place to go with friends to have a few beers and a good conversation. I do believe it is our “National Pastime.”

I identify with the sport’s history and its place in the American culture. It is not a “major” city for me if it does not have a Major League Baseball team. Not a day goes by during the baseball season that I don’t check the box score of my favorite team. I often wear a cap these days and it usually has the Rockies logo on it. I am wearing one right now.

I played little league for a couple of years while growing up and enjoyed it. At first I played shortstop and third base. Someone gave me a small booklet published by 7-Up about how to react to a ball hit to you, by position, in any situation; one out, two outs, no runners, runners on first and third, etc. I memorized the entire pamphlet. I believe I still remember how to play ‘em.

I tried out for the Montebello High School team, but was cut because I was not good enough. I must say however, that that team was very good. Our school had an enrollment of 3500 and won the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section High School Baseball Championship my senior year, having come in second place the year before.

Professional baseball came to California with the arrival of the Dodgers from Brooklyn, NY in 1958. So, I switched my baseball allegiance from the Milwaukee Braves (my first little league team was named the Braves) to our new home 9.

I can remember attending a game that first year with my second little league team, the Cadets, in the cavernous Los Angeles Coliseum. Our coach suggested I study the catchers, as that was the position I had moved to.

The Dodgers were an easy team to follow. They soon started playing winning baseball and had many good players. Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Willie Davis, Wally Moon (and his moon shot home runs), Duke Snider, Johnny Padres, Gil Hodges, Don Drysdale and the incomparable Sandy Koufax were the stars. I remember listening to the games on the radio. I enjoyed it most when the Dodgers were at bat, but when Sandy pitched, I liked to keep track of how many strikeouts he was going to get that evening.

In 1961 the Los Angeles Angels were created. My father and brother followed them, but they never caught my interest.

In 1964 and 1965 I had the opportunity to work as an usher for both the Dodgers and Angels at Dodger Stadium. Here is the story of that experience.

In 1973 I moved to Portland,Oregon and, since nearby Seattle was between the Pilots of 1969 and the Mariners starting in 1977, I continued to follow the Dodgers.

1974-1976 I lived in Omaha, Nebraska and sort of followed the St Louis Cardinals. This was due to the fact that many of the business people I worked with were fans of theirs because, prior to the Dodgers moving to L.A. in 1958, the Cardinal’s were the farthest west of all professional teams. I have run into old-time Cardinal fans in such unsuspected places as Colorado, Montana and Idaho for the same reason.

1976-1979 I moved to Boston. VERY serious baseball town! Fenway Park is dirty, antiquated, small, hard-to-get to and reeks with ambience, in short, a wonderful place to see a ball game. And, the team management somehow arranges to have Red Sox history experts sprinkled liberally throughout the stadium, ever willing to share the sacred lore with anyone from out-of-town. The Red Sox are still my favorite American League team but, now that they have won the World Series a couple of times, many of their fans have become as obnoxious as the Yankee fans always were.

1979-1991 Back to the Northwest and the Seattle Mariners. They were bad most of the time I was there. Of one particularly ineffective pitcher we used to say, “no Nunez is good Nunez.” One advantage of the poor team and their low attendance, was that we could drive up to the Kingdome most rainy nights, park very close to the gate and smuggle in a couple of 6 packs of beer down the sleeves of our coats. The stadium was warm and dry and we would sit all alone in the outfield, openly drinking the beer and eating peanuts. No one would bother us, they were happy to have us there. After I left Seattle the Mariners got good for a while, but have since slipped back to the bottom of the pack.

1993-Present. Now in Denver and they get the Rockies. I am a Rockies fan, although they, like the Mariners before them, make it hard sometimes. With the exception of 2007, when they got to the World Series and a few other times when the team has crept up to respectability, being a Rockies fan has not been easy. Every time I get down on the team, I remember what a fellow fan and sufferer once said, “I am a fan, that means I support them good or bad.”

Me too, sort of.

We usually get down to 8-10 games a year where I enjoy the 7th inning stretch and never miss singing Take me out to the ball game.

I have been fortunate to have visited many major league stadiums across the country; The Seattle Kingdome, St Louis Busch Stadium, The Houston Astrodome, Old New York Yankee Stadium, the original Texas Ranger Stadium and some place, I forget where, the Anaheim Angels used to play, all of which no longer exist. I have also been to the new Seattle and Texas stadiums as well as Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Boston’s Fenway Park, Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium and of course Dodger Stadium. Additionally, I have seen professional baseball games in Honolulu, Cancun, Mexico and Maracay,Venezuela.

For a number of years my son and I would drive from Boulder to Tucson in March for Spring Training with the Rockies. When Tim got married and got a life, I went out there with Cindy for a few more years, but she has limited time off work now, so it has been a number of years since we have gone. Additionally, now the Rockies are in Phoenix, it does not have the same appeal as did Tucson.

As I read what I have written above, I realize that baseball has always had a significant hold on my psyche, maybe more than I thought. Well I suppose that is OK because, win or lose, I am a baseball fan.

Working as an Usher at Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium

I was looking for a part-time job while attending East Los Angeles Junior College in 1964. I had a friend who was working as an usher for baseball games at Dodger Stadium in downtown Los Angeles and I asked him if he could help me do the same. He agreed, so I went down and applied and was accepted. I had to join a union and the rules were that the most senior members of that union had first preference in working the games. That meant if I showed up for a game that had a low attendance, I might not have work that day, because only a limited number of ushers would be needed. If not selected, I had the option of either going home or watching the game from the third deck. I worked the 1964 and 1965 baseball seasons.

There were two shifts, one started two hours before the ballgame and the other started an hour later. I always hoped to get on the first shift because your tour ended after four hours. The second shift stayed until the end of the game, even if it went into many extra innings. I think the pay was four dollars an hour and change. We wore company provided grey slacks, maroon double-breasted coats, clip on ties and straw hats. You provided your own white dress shirt.

The Los Angeles Angels Baseball team was formed in 1961 and played in the same stadium which they called Chavez Ravine. They played their home schedule when the Dodgers were on the road and, as their attendance was low most of the time, except when the Yankees were in town, I did not work as much for them. Having teams from both the National and American leagues come into town, I was able to see all the great players of the era; Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Al Kaline, Ernie Banks, Warren Spahn, Willie Mays, etc. Of course, there were all the Dodger greats like Don Drysdale and Maury Wills as well.

I did see Sandy Koufax pitch a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs, September 9, 1965 and worked all home games for the

Sandy Koufax, my all time Greatest Pitcher

Dodgers when they won the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins.

One of my favorite fellow ushers was a boxing instructor. I believe his name was Joe Crosetti or something close to that. He worked with fighters down at Los Angeles’ old Main Street Gym. The friend who got me the job (unfortunately I can’t remember his name) and I went down there and did some training with Joe, including some sparing with real boxers. I soon learned that I was not quick, tough or hungry enough to go much further. But my friend was real good and worked at it for a long time. I lost contact with him when I went into the Peace Corps after the second year of ushering. I wonder what happened to him?

Many of the other ushers were Pakistanis with advanced college degrees, who were working for the same peanuts I was. One evening it was explained to me; they had come over to the U.S.on student visas and as long as they continued studying, they could stay here. Their visas only allowed them to work at part-time jobs, like ushering. Additionally, all of them had a wife and kids back in Pakistan. Their parents would not let them leave their home country without establishing these ties to assure their return.

There were a few venders that I got to know well. They would work their way up from selling the heavy things like soda and beer to the ultimate, peanuts. One peanut seller who really impressed me was a black law student with a big personality. He was wonderful at playing the crowd and worked really hard. He told me once that he could make $300 on a big three-day weekend! $300 to me was a lot of money in 1965.

Most of the time as an usher, after we helped people find their places, we would walk behind the last row of seats and ask people to “please stand behind the yellow line”. This  painted line was about a yard back behind those seats and the reason we were required to do that was so that the seated patron would not have some drunk hanging over his shoulder spilling beer.

Many times I was selected to work the Club Level where I saw many of the baseball writers and celebrities who attended the games, like Angie Dickinson with whom I had a stilted (on my side) conversation with in an elevator one time. I always suspected, but never asked, the reason I worked there so much was that I was a clean-cut looking white kid.

I saw a few folks get hurt by being hit by line drive foul balls and flying bats, but nothing really ugly. Of course there was always the mad scramble for loose balls in the stands. When I go to a baseball game these days I have absolutely no interest in having any foul ball come near me.

One day in sunny Southern California, we had an extremely heavy downpour of rain and the game was called off. There was so much water on the field that one of the batboys decided to swim, not wade, between the dugouts.

Fights, drunks, cursing, bad behavior? Yeah, but not a lot, and that’s what the police were there for. It was Los Angeles, not the East Coast, baseball not soccer.

As a member of the union, I had the opportunity to work other events as well. One year I saw the circus 64 times. With this overdose, I have had little interest in going again.

All in all it was a good job and I’m happy I had the opportunity to do it.