July 20th, 2012 at 4:36 am 
by Harold Uhlman Have you ever had a long distance romance? I have, on two occasions. The first didn’t have a very successful ending as it suffered from all of the pitfalls of being separated by 2400 miles. The letters, the phone calls, the rare visit were not enough to sustain the relationship for two young people. The second long distance love affair has lasted a lifetime, and I have been separated from the object of my affection, the Los Angeles Dodgers, by 3000 miles and four time zones for fifty-four years.
I became a Brooklyn Dodger fan in 1952, captivated by the golden voice of Vin Scully on the radio.
I became a Brooklyn Dodger fan in 1952, captivated by the golden voice of Vin Scully on radio and the Silver Fox, not Charlie Rich, but Duke Snider, the Duke of Flatbush. The very first radio broadcast of a MLB game that I picked up on my little radio was a Brooklyn Dodger broadcast. Vin’s commentary captivated me, and Duke’s home run cemented the relationship. I shudder when I think of the possibility that I could have become a Red Sox, Yankees, Giants, or Phillies fan if I had turned the dial on my radio a fraction of an inch one way or the other, as I later discovered that broadcasts for those teams were also available to me. In a matter of a few minutes I fell in love with the Dodgers, only to have my heart broken when they picked up and moved to Los Angeles for the 1958 season. You see, I was raised in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in Canada, 3000 miles from Los Angeles and worse still, four time zones away. As a teenager, the odds of maintaining that relationship didn’t seem to be very great. To add to the strain on the relationship, the Montreal Expos came to Canada in 1969 and Expo telecasts were frequent with Duke Snider as a color commentator for a number of years. Yet, when Rick Monday’s home run crushed the Expos in 1981, I offered the loudest, unrestrained shout in all of Nova Scotia, making me less than popular with Expo fans in the room.
So how does one maintain a long distance love affair over time and distance? Maintaining the relationship takes a certain amount of effort, in fact, considerable work. I had the advantage of being brought up in a family where loyalty was a significant part of our lives. That alone made it easier to keep the relationship alive. Imagine what it is like to go to bed most nights not knowing the score of the Dodger game, not having a box score in the Halifax Chronicle Herald the next morning and not seeing many Dodger highlights on TV. That was my lot in life for many years, living here basically in total isolation from other Dodger fans. The Dodger fan base in this area started to die in 1958 and expired with the Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays.
How is it possible to still bleed Dodger blue through the good times and especially the last twenty years? Before the social media network I had to find ways to stay connected. Obviously, one method was to read all I could find to read: books, sport magazines, Dodger Blue, newspaper articles. With the Internet for the past number of years, that has become much easier as the amount of Dodger information is almost unlimited. To satisfy a longing, I did travel to Vero Beach twice for spring training and in 1985 I went on a pilgrimage to Dodger Stadium for five games. Each time my family came along to share my fantasy.
During one of my visits to Vero Beach for spring training, Tommy Lasorda generously took the time to pose with me for this photograph.
Another most enjoyable way I used to stay connected to the Dodgers was to collect baseball cards, and specifically Dodger cards. Our son, Jamie, and I spent much time together at card shows, flea markets and yard sales looking for cards. I still collect Dodger cards, trying to get the first cards printed for each Dodger prospect, which brings me to another connection to the Dodgers. I have followed the minor league system as closely as I could for a long time, and now check the home page for every Dodger minor league team every morning. I listen to some games on radio: the Great Lake Loons, the Chattanooga Lookouts, and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes for early games. I absolutely love minor league ball and by following the minor league players closely, it provides me with a base of information that perhaps some Dodger fans don’t have, as they haven’t seen the minor league games either.
Of my 30,000+ baseball cards, my all-time favorite is this 1954 Topps Duke Snider card.
For the past few years, I have followed a number of Dodger blogs, the first being Inside the Dodgers. From there Kevin Sparkuhl took me under his wing on his Dodger Dogs forum, and more recently I was adopted by the ThinkBlueLA forum and blog, hosted by Ron Cervenka and Scott Harvey. Distance and time still tend to isolate me from the Dodgers, but I am no longer isolated from other Dodger fans, having become friends with a number of Dodger fanatics across the United States, all who share the same passion for Dodger blue.
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Great story, Harold. It never ceases to amaze me at the number of die-hard long-distance Dodger fans (such as yourself) that I have come across throughout my years; there are thousands of them out there.
What’s ironic is that I actually became a Dodger fan when the team was still in Brooklyn even though I was born and raised in Southern California. This had more to do with the fact that my very first Little League team was the Dodgers and why I fell in love with them even before they moved out west. The very first real baseball players I remember hearing about were guys named Duke, Pee Wee, Campy, Skoonj, Newk, Hodges (aside from Babe Ruth, of course). You can only imagine how ecstatic I was when the team moved to L.A.
We may have all taken a different path to get here, but the results are the same – we all bleed Dodger Blue.
Harold, I can really identify with your story it’s almost identical to my own, except I am one time zone closer. I know exactly what you mean about how hard it is to maintain a long distance relationship with a baseball team. Also, that fact that I live in New York and could root for the most successful team, the Yankees, in baseball history sometime boggles my mind. I guess when your a little kid and you go to your first game and fall in love with a team it last forever. Well, at least for me it did.
Growing up across the street (literally) from Ebbets Field I was hooked practically at birth. When I moved to Wisconsin in 1953 I found it difficult, but not impossible, to follow the Dodgers closely and was able to get the box scores in The Sporting News each week (even though it wasn’t exactly timely) as well as listen to their games against the Pirates (KDKA), Cardinals (KMOX), and Cubs (WGN) all of which were clear channel, 50,000 Watt stations whose signals I could pick up in Wausau. When the Dodgers moved to LA my allegiance never wavered as I had abandoned Brooklyn before they did. Now I live in Toledo and I still manage to get to at least one Dodger series each year. My wife and I have planned annual vacations so as to catch a road series for the last 20 or so years, and now our daughter lives in LA so visits to her are always accompanied by a trip to Chavez Ravine. And my wife sent me to Dodger Camp for my 55th birthday not realizing that she had opened Pandora’s Box since I’ve been to twelve more. The camp experience has led to many very strong friendships with fans (including Ron Cervenka and Gary Smith from TBLA) as well as retired Dodgers and minor league coaches. In four weeks I’ll be joining a number of Camp alumni as we meet in Chattanooga for a few Lookout games then head to Atlanta for the weekend series. I’ll also be heading up to Midland, Michigan before that to take in a Loons game and renew acquaintances with John Shoemaker, their manager. I’ve managed to infect my wife, children, and grandchildren with this passion for the Dodgers. It’s so bad that my two grandsons call me “Dodger” as opposed to Grandpa, Gramps, Poppa or any other name!
Jamie, our eight year son at the time, took the picture of Tommy Lasorda and myself. What isn’t showing is a baseball Tommy was putting into my hand. He later autographed it along with the following note: “To Harold, you and the Dodgers are both great.”
G-R-E-A-T story and also love the comments.
Linda, I think another factor that may have put a stress on the relationship is the fact I didn’t live in New York and didn’t see the Dodgers live as a kid. My first actual live encounter came in the ’80’s.
Thanks to Ron for the pictures and especially the map. That puts the situation in perspective.
Your story, Bluenose Dodger, almost mirrors mine. My first season following the Dodgers was 1947. I might have seen more Dodger games in person during the time the team resided in Brooklyn, because of the fact that they were my home team.
I had just graduated High School when the Dodgers left for LA in ’57 and like you it was tough to keep up with them for about 50 years, but it was quite a hobby doing so and I don’t regret one minute of it.
Things are much easier now, with modern technology and I’m so happy that I never lost interest in following the team after all those years.
I am sorry that I never went to spring training while the team was at Vero Beach, but I can forget about that and concentrate on the future. Thanks to blogs and forums like TBLA, Dodgerdogs, ITD, OTD and others, I am now more of a fan than ever.
In jest, I’d like to add, HA HA, we’re both carrying on the same love affair with the same team.
I hope to meet you in person someday, hopefully this coming Spring at CBR.
Lovin’ the same one isn’t so bad OBF, if it’s Dodger blue. You are right. Although we are much older , it is easier to stay connected now. I too never regret the effort put into remaining a committed Dodger fan. I hadn’t thought of it as a hobby, but as a pursuit of relaxation and enjoyment, it is a hobby, and like any hobby that one does well, it requires an investment in time and effort. To many folks around here now, the Dodgers are part of my identity.
Great story Harold. Having been born in LA before the Dodgers moved to LA I didn’t really know to much about them. But the minute they arrived in LA my Dad was hooked and so was I !! Although I don’t remember the very first game I went to in the coliseum I do remember going to a number of them and watching Wally Moon and the Moon Shots, Don Drysdale and his brush back pitches and Sandy Koufax pitching a GEM !! Over the years the passion grew, thanks to Vin Scully. And with the internet came the blogs and my extended Dodger family to share in the experience. It’s something my family and I can enjoy together and is always a topic of discussion. Sometimes it’s hard just to reflect and enjoy with all the instant communications and social media and new but at the end of the day it’s great to be a Dodger Fan !!