Mom, John and Me -- a day with the L.A. Dodgers

John, Shirley (Mom ), and Ken Palke

            It was early summer 1958. With Dad off to work, Mom took brother John and me to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for a day of major league baseball with the newly arrived Dodgers. It was my first game and it kindled my long-standing love affair with our national pastime.

            The team had just moved west from Brooklyn, N.Y. and was playing in the Coliseum while construction of Dodger Stadium was under way in nearby Chavez Ravine.

            I applaud Mom for her grit and determination in just getting us to the big oval stadium in Exposition Park, about eight miles north of 110th and Vermont in southwest L.A. where we lived. I was just 9 and John 6, but she herded us onto the old yellow and green streetcar (see photo), dropped three tokens into the fare box and we were off, the wooden car creaking and groaning along the steel tracks.

            We arrived at the Coliseum early. It had been built in the early 1920s, hosted the Olympic Games in 1932 and was set up for USC and UCLA football games. When the Dodgers arrived, it was configured for baseball during the summer months (see photo).

            After stepping off the streetcar, we were greeted by the cacophony of vendors yelling "scorecards . . . . get your programs here!" The pre-game excitement mounted as several Dodgers in street clothes marched through our small crowd, disappearing into the players gate. Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, Pee Wee Reese, Jim Gilliam and others would soon be putting on their white flannel uniforms, trimmed in blue, with the red front number. These were famous players from New York, but now their blue Dodger caps carried the letters L.A. instead of B for Brooklyn.

            We climbed the Coliseum's steep stairs to our seats and watched the players warm up -- shagging flies in the outfield and taking turns in the batting cage. Drysdale, Koufax, Erskine and the other pitchers running wind sprints. Pretty soon the game began. I don't remember too much more, or even how we got home. It was a lot to take in for one day.

            I'm sure my love of the sport developed from that very first game. I played Little League and Pony League baseball and have attended hundreds of Dodgers, Angels and Mariners games since. Ironically, my son Kevin's Little League team was named the Dodgers.

            These days, Pam and I enjoy going to see the minor-league Salem-Keizer Volcanoes at a ballpark close to our house.