Fair weather strikes again

You know that I am a Los Angeles Angels fan -- it not only goes back to some of my earliest blog entries, my first baseball cap -- I can't remember a time before I had it, so I must've been 3 when I first got it -- was from the original expansion Angels, blue with a red bill and intertwined "LA," and the cool silver/white halo on top. (Please, Mr Moreno, please!!!) Jimmy Fregosi, Bobby Knoop, Rick Reichardt, Bob (later "Buck") Rodgers, Jay Johnstone, Aurelio Rodriguez, Roger Repoz, Dean Chance, Bill Rigney (hmm, lots of Rs), those are my guys.

But an afternoon at Grandma-and-Grandpa's often had Vin Scully describing the Dodger game in the background, "brought to you by Farmer John Hot Dogs, proud sponsor of the Dodgers" and maker of the world famous Dodger Dogs®. My first professional baseball games were at Dodger Stadium where, my Angels cap long-disappeared (and too small anyway), I bought a Dodger cap with my very own money when I was 10. I still have it.

In 1988 we were sitting in the lounge of PLTS' Beasom Hall watching the first game of the World Series. The whole world knew that the Oakland A's were going to win that Series, and in Berkeley everyone's an A's fan. Except the Angel fan from LA, watching because he likes watching baseball (though he has no dog in this particular game) and the company. And then, Kirk Gibson comes to bat as a pinch hitter. (Go ahead, read it, for the author's got it just right.) For when the crippled former Tiger put that ball over the fence, well, Tibbetts is an LA boy and the Dodgers are the home town team. Everybody was shocked. One was overjoyed.

Okay, I'm a fair weather Dodger fan. And, yes, I'll always have a longing for anything that reminds me of home. But who'da thunk 2 weeks ago that the Los Angeles Dodgers, a once-proud franchise that has been in chaos since O'Malley sold out to Murdoch and Lasorda had to retire, would now be managed by Joe Torre.

It's time to get a new Dodger cap. And 2, not just one, bobbleheads.