By Ed Piper
The joy was palpable, the anticipation supreme as a local sports enthusiast--blossoming in later life as a full-blown baseball fan of Major League Baseball--and reporter trekked with his spouse to a revamped and beautified Dodger Stadium in three-hour-away downtown Los Angeles at midweek in early May.
It was the furtherance of a ritual begun before age eight as a child, when playing catch and watching his older brother's games with the Dodgers--another team in a youth league using rubber-coated balls instead of hardballs--led to getting catcher Johnny Roseboro's autograph and, wide-eyed, attending his first MLB game, coincidentally, the first year the then-new stadium was opened in the Ravine.
What if Grandpa had been an Angels or Yankees or Orioles fan? And the Saturday morning breakfast at his church had featured a player from another franchise? One will never know. Merle (his grandson's middle name) had been born in North Dakota, served in the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe in 1917, and served as railroad YMCA director in Toledo, Ohio.
He could have been a Reds fan, or (then) Indians fan. Maybe he just adapted to wherever his current locale was, and adopted the L.A. franchise, right over the hill from Glendale on the short Glendale Freeway, while he worked for the USO, mentoring young men, his life-long passion.
The multi-billion-dollar franchise, not shy about spreading its millions around to pursue greatness and break a decade-long record of regular-season excellence following by postseason disappointment (except for the one World Series championship in 2020), clubbed the lowly Miami Marlins, 3-1, Wed., May 8.
Powered by free agent outfielder Teoscar Hernandez's two-run home run in the sixth inning, the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of Miami and winning the 14th of their last 16 games. Goodbye, rest of the National League Western Division.
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