I like my uncle was born a dodger fan. There are pictures of me a few months old wearring a sweat shirt that said Dodgers on it with a Rose :) I went to my first dodgers game at 4 or 5. I remembered watching it on TV prior to that but I always asked about going to a a game and I finally got to go. If I remember I went with my dad, and grandfather and at least one of my uncle’s it was so much fun. From then on I asked to go all the time. Then I moved to a state where there was not a baseball team that was not fun. I couldn’t even get Dodger’s games on TV. When I moved back home after 6 years without a live game My uncle suggested we get Season tickets, We did and I have been at as many games as I possibly could get to every season since. I love it. I hate it when baseball season ends and I come alive when it starts up.

This is my first time posting here. I became a Dodger fan during the 1965 World Series, I was 5 and watching with my dad, Sandy Koufax pitch . We lived in Northern California and my dad was a big time Giants fan but I thought Sandy was pretty cool. After that, I started the baseball card collecting, reading sports stories and all that. Of course knew all the rosters each year, where the minor league teams were and many of their players. It did make for many years of turmoil of being a Dodger fan in the household of Giants fans but it worked out ok. My 8 year old now thinks the Dodgers are great so at least I did not get a payback.

That’s great, Eric!

I don’t know exactly why… but T-Bone Shelby was probably one of my favorite players growing up. Him and Pedro Guerrero. I think I just like his name. T-Bone. Why on earth would anyone have that nickname? My best friends father thought I looked like Pedro when I was a kid, and he would often call me Pedro. We were all Dodger fans and it was a great time. The group of us played t-ball together, graduated to 5 pitch, moved on to little league and then Frank Manning Pony League. Good times. We always had goofy team names too. Our t-ball team was called the Muppets. We had green uni’s when we were in little league and we called ourselves “Green Machine”. I think one year we were the Rockies, probably the same year they came into the league.

I remember being in Little League in 1958 and seeing the headlines of the L.A. Examiner “Dodgers moving to Los Angeles”. At that time the L.A. only had the Angels and the Hollywood Stars in the Pacific Coast League. We went to see them at the old Wrigley Field. I was originally from Chicago and my family were mostly Sox fans. But that soon changed. Going to games at the Colliseum and sitting in back of the screen in left field during batting practice, you were almost sure to get a ball. What a thrill! A double header was even better.
After the games, if you waited outside the exit, you could meet the players and they would actually stop and chat with us. I got autographs of Maury Wills, Don Drysdale, Stan Williams, Norm Larker, Duke Snider, Jim Gilliam, Charlie Neal, and my favorite Sandy Koufax. He and Stan Williams stopped and talked to us for several minutes one night – what a nice guy! They all seemed like such normal guys who were almost embarrassed by the attention. Things have changed a bit although I think most of the players are still good guys. The bad apples always get more attention. And of course nobody had agents in those days. I’ve lived all over the country but still manage to keep my loyalty. I’ll always be a Dodger fan.

Although I don’t have recollection my dad took me to games from around the age of 5. My first concrete memory of the Dodgers is Kirk Gibson’s homerun, but I can’t tell if it is a real memory or simply there because of how many times I’ve seen it since then. I lost track of the team and baseball after the strike as I rebelled in my teenage years. Since I came back to Orange County after college I have embraced the only team I truly love every day. I now have a package with the Dodgers for the past three seasons and take my dad to those games.

My favorite Dodger was Mike Piazza. He was the best player on the team during my formative years and was one of the greatest hitting catchers of all time. In second would be Eric Gagne for the sheer energy that filled Dodger Stadium when he had the most dominant stretch by a closer ever.

I became a Dodger fan back in 1983 when my dad got stationed out at, then, Los Angeles Air Force Station. I was 8 and really just starting to get into sports. My dad took us to our first Dodger game shortly after getting there and I immediately felt a connection with the team, the stadium and everything baseball. I have been a hardcore Dodger fan ever since even though we left LA in 1986 and I haven’t been back since. After living in 3 foreign countries (through my dad and myself after joining the Air Force) and numerous other states, I have settled in Ft. Worth, Texas. Even though I go and watch the Rangers quite a few times a year, I have remained a True Blue Dodger fan and you can imagine my excitement this year since the Dodgers are coming out here for a 3 game series in June (starting just one day after my birthday on the 12th). My favorite player back then was definitely Steve Sax. He just seemed really cool to an 8 year old and when I played LIttle League I always wanted to play second base and wear number 3. My favorite times were the days when my dad would take us to Dodger Stadium and listening to the Dodgers winning the series in ‘88 on the Armed Forces Network in Greece…I still have the newspaper clippings from the Stars and Stripes. I will always be a hardcore Dodger fan and hoping that my 6 week old son will also be a Dodger fan through me. I guess this is long enough but I certainly wouldn’t know how my life would be if I didn’t have the Dodgers to always count on during the summer.

Sorry I’m late, haven’t been keeping up this week!
Really glad you got it and I’m glad it meant something to you. Yes, we’re all fans at heart and we all grew up idolizing these guys. Sometimes I think that was the best part and I love it when I can get any part of that back. Sure, I’m an adult now but whenever I get a chance to meet a ballplayer, I still feel like a kid. I hide it pretty good though!
I sometimes think that being a ballplayer is a bit like having a superhero power… you have the power to create happiness and memories by simply taking 30 seconds to talk with someone. Roboskin above remembers several minutes from 40 years ago!
I’ll never have that power but I’m glad that through Eddie, I could sprinkle a little of that magic dust! Hope to see you at the ballpark this year.

To answer your question… my Mom started taking me to Dodger games regularly by the time I was about 7 years old. We would sit in the left field pavilion and I would spend half the game hanging out by the bullpen and the batting cage that is just across from it. Eventually I’d haunted the area enough that the players got to know me and even took me in the clubhouse a couple of times. I got to pick up BP balls for guys like Lee Lacy, LeRon Lee and later Jay Johnstone.
Don Sutton was particularly nice to me as well. Those are the moments that set me into a life long love of the game. They are also some of the best memories of my childhood. Perhaps ball players shouldn’t be heros but boy were they to me back then!

Born and raised in LA, Glendale specifically, 10 minutes from the Stadium. Growing up I spent a great deal of time at the Stadium. Then my Dad had season tickets for a couple of years….JACKPOT! June 5, 1970. My first trip to a Dodger game, 7 years old, my Dad and Grandpa brought me and my brother. They lost to the Reds 10-5. We sat in the box seats halfway down the right field line first row. All I remember was the immensity of the stadium, and the scoreboards. Then I became a Dodger & Baseball fan. Over the years different things would reinvigorate my “fan-dom.” October 3, 1980, Joe Ferguson hit a home run bottom of 9th to win the first of three games from the Astros and force a one game playoff. I was in the right field pavilion for that. could go on and on, but the best is when I met Vin Scully.
Abour 7 years ago I was working at a dealership when he brought his car in for repairs. I was in charge of alternate transportation, a high end dealer, and was to take care of Mr. Scully. The graciousness him was incredible, I am sure he would never remember me, but he had the most recent world series ring, and showed it to myself and my assistant. Then to hear him talk about the game, the sincerity he has about baseball and the Dodgers mesmorized me. I truthfully could have listened to him for hours. When he left we all talked about what he has seen first hand. SInce then, I don’t see myself even thinking of another baseball team. If I had to move to New York, I would still be a Dodger fan. Thanks for this, I think everyone has a baseball story to tell, we all want to tell it!