When I was Young and a Dreamer

1959, start of the season – A young 11-year-old boy reads about his heroes in the daily sports page. A right of passage in those days. Games on TV were few and far between, especially Dodger games. The only televised games were those from San Francisco on KKTV channel 11.

           Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett did the announcing. Doggett would do the 3rd and 7th innings, Vinny the rest. It was the Dodger’s second year in LA. I had been to a couple of games at the coliseum in 58 and they were not a very good team.

         This season would start with Reese retired and Zimmer taking over his job at SS. Neal at 2nd. Gilliam played 3rd and Hodges at 1st. Roseboro was the catcher with Moon, Demeter, and Snider in the outfield. Moon had come over in a trade for Gino Cimoli.

        Furillo was injured, so Snider moved to RF for the younger and fleeter Demeter. I remember all of their numbers, Hodges 14, Neal, 43, Zim 23, Gilliam 19, Roseboro 44, he would change to # 8 later, Moon 9, Demeter 2, and the Duke 4.

       They opened in Chicago and Big D lost a 6-1 decision. Bob Anderson threw a 6 hit complete game. The only run came on a HR by Drysdale. They would win the next day 5-3 with Klippstein getting the win. Then they went back to LA for the home opener against the Cardinals and Lindy McDaniel. Podres was on the wrong end of a 6-2 loss.

      But Big D shut the Cards out the next day 5-0. Klippstein won his 2nd the next day in relief, beating Ernie Brolio and the Dodgers had a 3-2 start. After 10 games they were 7-3 and tied for first. At the end of April, they were 11-6 and still tied.

      Things were looking much better than 58, but there was a long way to go. Drysdale finished April 3-1. Klippstein was 3-0. Reliever Art Fowler was also 2-1. The bullpen was proving to be a major force.

      May started off with 3 losses. they were 3-6 after 9 games. They then had a 4 game winning streak followed by a 5 game losing streak. At the end of May, they stood at 25-23, 5 games out of first. They went 18-12 in June to get within 1.5 games of the lead.

      The team was making fans believe they could be a pretty good team. Moon had perfected hitting balls over the left-field screen at the coliseum and the term Moon Shot was used by Vin to describe his LF HR’s. My favorite player, Duke Snider was having a better 59 than his down year in 58.

    Hodgers, Roseboro, Neal, Gilliam, were all performing at a better clip than the prior year. But Zimmer was in a horrendous slump. He would soon be replaced by 26 year old Maury Wills. A career minor leaguer. Wills would add speed to a very slow footed lineup. Larker, and Fairly added some pop. Furillo would get into 50 games and have some real clutch hits.

     Chuck Essegian came over in a trade and was clutch off of the bench. I was really getting into collecting baseball cards during this season and  I would use my lunch money to go to a local store near my school and buy as many packs as I could.

      I was doing what all kids that age dream of, playing when I could and emulating my favorites batting stance. I had Sniders down pat. And I used it for years.

    As the summer dragged on, the excitement behind the team grew. With each clutch win you began to believe they could win the pennant. On the 31st of August, after Koufax beat the Giants 5-2, they were 1 game back. But they started September off 1-4. They then won 5 straight, pulling within a half game of the lead. They split two with the Braves, did the same with the Reds and went to SF for a crucial 3 game series which they swept behind Craig, Drysdale and Podres. They split a 2 game series with the Cardinals and then went to Chicago tied for the lead. They took 3 of 4 from the Cubs to end the season tied with the Braves for the pennant.

     A 3 game playoff was declared and they won game 1 3-2 with Sherry getting the win. Back at the Coliseum, they went 12 innings. Then in the bottom of the 12th, with Gil Hodges on 2nd, Furillo hit a grounder up the middle that Felix Mantilla got to, but his relay to first was wide and Hodges scampered home with the winning run. LA had it’s first NL pennant.

      This was heady stuff for an 11 year old. Of course all of the games were during the day while we were at school, so I was listening on my old transistor radio while in class. Some teachers allowed the kids to watch the games on TV, but not mine.

    I had to be careful not to get too excited and accidentally cheer when they did something good.  But during the days that followed, we would all imagine it was us out there playing.

     I was always dreaming that someday, I would be patrolling CF or playing 1st base for the Dodgers. I could never see myself in any other uniform.  Of course, the only uniform I had in my future was Army green. But at the time, that was not the plan.

    I hope kids today still have that dream. That innocence that we had. I look at the kids on this Dodger team, and the ones who are close and soon will be in the bigs and I see that the dream still lives.

     I no longer dream of playing for the team, but I live that dream through these kids who have so much talent. I wish all of them much success.

P.S. The cover photo is a Young “Bear” Cub!