Thursday, October 8, 2009

Let's Go, Dodgers!


Here we are in October, one of my favorite months--setting sun and all. It's baseball playoff time, and although summer is gone, its game is only now heating up.
Readers of JackRabbit Cafe´ may be aware that I was a long-time New York Yankee fan. But time, distance and Take Me Out to the Ballgame have converged to change all that.
Growing up where I did can result in some twisted allegiances. I was a fan of the long-gone Montreal Expos and Yankees, yet I loved Boston's Celtics and Bruins. I was a New York Giants fan with little regard for the Bills, Jets or Patriots. I left the North Country in '87--in mind, even before then--and have been an expat East Coast sports fan (almost) ever since.
The Expos are no more, and, sadly, I really don't follow hockey any more. And this year, I crossed the Yankees off the list. (The Celtics stay. Period.)
Take Me Out to the Ballgame reminds us to "root, root, root for the home team." So now I bleed Dodger Blue (but I still think Tommy Lasorda was and is, well...)
Time and distance and a sentimental song all have their place, but so did the decision by a bunch of greedy bastards to abandon the shrine that was Yankee Stadium to build a $1.5 billion gussied-up replica. Luxury--at a bunch of taxpayer-funded dollars--for struggling straphangars and lunchpail Larrys. Oh, and they threw Joe Torre on the garbage heap after the '07 season and killed acres of Bronx park land in the process.
(In a related story, I didn't notice the Red Sox building a fake Fenway or the Cubs publicly funding cushy new friendly confines.)



As long as Jeter, Rivera and Posada wear pinstripes, I'll always have a little Yankee in me. But give me the wistful vistas of Dodger Stadium, the poetry of a Vin Scully-called game and please, please, please give me a Dodger-Yankee World Series.
(While you're at it, give me a ticket broker who won't want a kidney for a Series ticket, too...)


BeltwayBlips: vote it up!
allvoices

4 comments:

Daniel Gauss said...

On TV, and in your overhead, it looks like that stadium's completely symetrical. What's up with that? Thought all those were victims of the wrecking ball..
Good game last night. Kinda feel sorry for Wainright. OK, that's long enough.....

JohnnyRussia said...

Dodger Stadium is symetrical; it doesn't have nooks and crannies, but its setting gives it its charm (of course, Walter O'Malley supplanted a poor Mexican neighborhood to build it, which I suppose was an early-60s version of today's Fake Yankee stadium...) Hard to believe that it's the third-oldest park in MLB, though. The place looks great. No real elements to pound it through any "real" seasons helps...

Great game last night.

OCTOBER!!!

Daniel Gauss said...

Hey. After the first two games, you might want to add A-Rod to your Yankee fanlist. He's off to a very hot start. Especially for him.

JohnnyRussia said...

Yup, A-Rod's more relaxed this year. And Fake Yankee Stadium or not, there's still nothing quite like a New York curtain call in October.