After running the “Love of Dodgers Spans Five Generations for one L.A. Family” article last week, I received several emails from other loyal Dodger fans who wanted to share their great stories of how and when they fell in love with the Dodgers. Their stories are far too wonderful not to share with you. Here are a couple of them:

Harold Uhlman – Rhodes Corner, Nova Scotia, Canada

I remember where I was when the news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination arrived in Nova Scotia. I was working in the reading room in the Science Library at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

I recall what I was doing when the fateful events of 9/11 unfurled. I and two fellow retired teachers were painting a house in Lunenburg for our friends Dave and Alice Patrick.

On February 6, 1952, I can remember the headlines in the Halifax-Chronicle Herald: “The King Is Dead – Long Live the Queen.” Being a monarchist country, that was a significant event in our lives.

Harold Uhlman listened to his first Dodger game in 1952 on his RCA Victor Nipper radio. “I shudder when I think of the possibility that I could have become a Red Sox, Yankees, Giants or Phillies fan by turning that dial a fraction of an inch one way or the other.”

But, something else happened in 1952 that has become much more important in my life than the monarchy could ever be. I don’t recall the day, most likely very early in the season, nor the exact moment, probably shortly after 8:00 P.M. EST, but I remember very vividly where I was when I was baptized as a Dodger fan. Unlike Sal Duran, whose amazing story was included in a recent Think Blue LA blog article, I am not a fourth generation Dodger fan – I am a first generation Dodger fan and mine is the story of being a Dodger survivor in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, now a fan for sixty years. I pinpoint the year by recalling that the Dodger outfield for that season was Andy Pafko, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo. I now know that Andy came to the Dodgers in a trade midway through the 1951 season, but I have no personal recollection of the Bobby Thompson home run. Andy played for the Milwaukee Braves in 1953, so 1952 is my official Dodger birth year.

I do have a defining moment, not nearly as definitive as a Kirk Gibson home run, but defined by a voice and yes, a home run. Where was I? I was in bed in our home at 235 Pelham Street in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I had a white radio that I had received for Christmas and was carefully turning the dial looking for a radio mystery show. Although you folks in Los Angeles or even New York may find it difficult to believe, I had never heard of the Brooklyn Dodgers before that evening. We had no television and I had not yet developed an interested in newspaper sports pages or sport magazines. Baseball cards had not yet reached us, although hockey cards abounded.

As I slowly turned the dial, I picked up a very distinctive voice and for the first time was listening to a live baseball broadcast. I was spell bound as I knew about and played pick up baseball and was already in love with the game. The voice was that of Vin Scully, the most unforgettable voice in my life, outside of my family. I followed the game later into the evening than I should have on a school night, as an eleven year old. The other defining moment for me that evening was a home run, hit by my all time favorite Duke Snider. I was definitely hooked. I loved the name. “Duke” was familiar to me, as a monarchist title. I had never heard the name “Snider” before that evening. The combination was intriguing, as was his play throughout the season.

With my parents’ permission, I listened to games regularly as long as the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, even on school nights. My heart broke with they moved to Los Angeles for the 1958 season, but Vin and Duke had captured my baseball heart. I shudder when I think of the possibility that I could have become a Red Sox, Yankees, Giants, or Phillies fan by turning that dial a fraction of an inch one way or the other, as I later discovered that broadcasts for those teams were also available to me. This is when I fell in love with the Dodgers.

Linda Valkenburg – Las Vegas, Nevada

How did you come to love the Dodgers?

Did your mom or dad take you to a game when you were young?  Did you live in another baseball town and move to LA and adopt the Dodgers?  Did you have someone in your life that loved the Dodgers and you grew to love them too?  Did you go to Rookie, Single-A, Double-A, or Triple-A games for the Dodgers and knew that you had to love the major league team?  And the list goes on…

For me it was my mother and I have no idea why she loved the Dodgers – particularly since she was from Greensboro, NC and we had no baseball.  I grew up hearing names like Pee Wee, Duke, Sandy, Don, Johnny, Jackie, Sal, Manny, Maury and on and on.  I knew that when the team called the Dodgers were on TV, my mother told us when meals would be served and they wouldn’t be served during a baseball game.

My mother (Judy Smigel) with Leo Durocher at Vero Beach in March 1961

I remember my dad thought a baseball game was a good excuse for a nap.  I remember at age 6 my mother telling my teacher I had a doctor’s appointment and she took me to Winston-Salem, NC for some baseball game.  I remember Sal Maglie pitched horribly and she made me get his autograph as he was walking off the field (wonder whatever happened to that autograph).  I remember her excitement every year when she and my dad went to a convention in Florida – she didn’t care about the convention – she got to stop in Vero Beach and see and photograph HER Dodgers.

Duke Snider and Don Drysdale at Vero Beach in March of 1962

The photos she took (or my dad took of her with various Dodgers) are now housed in Cooperstown.

And every time I watch a Dodger game I know my mother is invisibly sitting by my side cheering for her team with me. This is how I came to love the Dodgers.

So, when did you fall in love with the Dodgers?