Dodgers playoff run seems hollow with no Dodger Stadium, Dodger dogs or Vin Scully
Years ago, arriving in California for the first time, I made the drive through the stark Nevada desert from Las Vegas, over the pass in blazing hot Baker and into the state I would call home for the rest of my life.
I was from Brooklyn and the contrast was staggering. But when I found a familiar voice on the radio, everything seemed OK, normal, proper.
It was the Dodger broadcast and the voice was, of course, Vin Scully. The smooth, calming sounds of the play-by-play were familiar “It’s time for Dodger baseball.”
For decades now, I have followed the Dodgers (and the Angels), but 2020 has been a challenge. We don’t have Vinnie anymore – he’s in his fourth year of retirement – and many of us don’t get the games on local TV if we have a crummy cable station, as I do.
I should be super excited that the team has another shot at winning a world championship – and a good one, I believe. But the team is playing in Texas!! Against the San Diego Padres, the neighbors down the freeway. Meanwhile, Houston and Oakland are continuing their playoff games at Dodger Stadium!!! It’s all as confusing as the political landscape.
We can watch the games on national TV, but is it just me or is it less than exciting to see cardboard cutouts rather than real fans and to hear piped in music during the game?
Egads. What kind of year is this? No local TV during the regular season. And no Vinnie. Criminal, if you ask me.
Still, you have to like our chances. A deep and explosive lineup with power everywhere is comforting. With the wonderful Clayton Kershaw reverting back to his Cy Young days, our hope has escalated. This team is so much better than the last Dodger championship club of 1988 (Kirk Gibson’s home run), what could go wrong, he says?
Well, there are those upstarts from San Diego, those cocky, young, talented upstarts, who don’t know they’re supposed to lose to the boys in blue.
It is all unraveling in Texas. I really want to get behind this team, but are they really the Dodgers? No Dodger Stadium, no Dodger dogs. No fans. No “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”. No Vin Scully. Come on!
Long year
It has not only been a challenging baseball season, but a sad one, too. We have lost the great Tiger Al Kaline, the greatest Met in Tom Seaver and a pair of Hall of Fame Cardinals in Bob Gibson and Lou Brock. Also gone are Dodgers of yesteryear Ron Perranoski, Sweet Lou Johnson and the prankster, Jay Johnstone. All off to the memory books.
Pete Donovan is a Palm Desert resident and former Los Angeles Times sports reporter. He can be reached at pwdonovan22@yahoo.com
