This post was reminiscent of the article you wrote for Newsday that touched me so deeply. Like you, my father came from Brooklyn, 79 Street & 20 Avenue, in Bensonhurst. He and my uncle were die hard Dodgers fans. He was an X Ray technician in the the Army in WWII and he had a choice of training centers in the U.S. He chose Memphis, because it was the closest one to the St. Louis Browns so he could see the Dodgers when they played there. It was in Memphis he met my Mom, so I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Dodgers(in a roundabout way, LOL!).

I was only 2 when the Dodgers won the World Series, but from the stories he told me, I figured it equalled the ‘69 Mets championship. I would have loved to have gone to Ebbets Field, so I guess I will have to settle for Citifield. If my Dad was still alive, I know he would be excited it about it. He always was proud to say he was an alumni of Lafayette HS, the same school attended by Sandy Koufax, and later Fred Wilpon.

My mom became a Dodgers fan when she married my Dad, and of course she became a Mets fan in 1962. We went to many games together, just as recently as last year. It was one of the ugly September games, where they blew a lead and the bullpen was horrid. Yet we stayed until the 9th inning, still hoping for a miracle. This Mother’s Day we were rewarded with a Mets win.

I hope you can get your mom to go to Shea as well as to Citifield. I don’t think it will be hard to do since she is a true blue fan.

My parents were Mets fans, but not like I was. As a kid, I saved money from lawn mowing and snow shoveling and bought a tiny portable TV so I could watch every Mets game, because my parents weren’t about to let me commandeer the sole TV in the house about 162 times a year.

Mom and dad definitely knew the depth of my love for the Mets. When the World Series victory celebration schedule was announced in October 1969, I said how much I’d love to go. Mom said, well, go.

Uh, Mom, it’s tomorrow, a school day.

Mom: So?

She drove me to the bus station in Somerville, I got off at the Port Authority, saw the whole thing, went to school the next day with an excuse note from my mom that read: “Chris was absent from school yesterday because he went to New York to participate in the celebration of the New York Mets World Series victory.”

Mom and I were always close, but never more so after that.

Was the first time I went to NYC (at age 14) on my own. Thanks again, Mom.

Beautiful post, Dana, just beautiful.

This all really connects to me, because both my parents’ devotion to the Dodgers was an essential factor in making me who I am.

If you asked either of my working class parents, “What is the greatest thing you ever saw in your life?” The single greatest thing of any category or nature. Both of them would unhesitatingly answer “Jackie Robinson.”

My Italian grandfather took his daughters to Ebbets Field one spring day in 1947, and pointed out to them the big black man on the field. He didn’t say anything about color or history, he just said “See that man, girls? That man is going to get us the pennant.”

My father was in high school during the ‘55 World Series, and the Irish Xtian Brothers let the kids listen to the games on the radio, and my dad wrote a few hundred times in his Latin notebook:
JACKIE ROBINSON STOLE HOME!
JACKIE ROBINSON STOLE HOME!
JACKIE ROBINSON STOLE HOME!
etc. He kept that book for years.

Happy Mother’s Day to you and yours.