I was only seven years old at the time but I was already a Dodger fan for life – and he had a lot to do with it. The date was September 8, 1961. It was a Friday night so my parents let me stay up late listening to Vin Scully’s call of the game on my transistor radio even though I had to get up early the next morning for my Little League game.

After all, I, too, was a Dodger.

In the sixth inning of what Scully described as a bitterly cold and windy night at Candlestick Park (go figure), Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges hit a home run with a runner aboard off of Giants left-hander Mike McCormick. Unfortunately, the Dodgers were already down by six runs and would eventually lose by a score of 7-3. Damn Giants. Even back then I hated them. Still do.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, nobody did, it would be Hodges’s final home run as a Dodger. It was the eighth of his injury-riddled season and the 361st of his career – second most in franchise history behind only Duke Snider’s 389. Still is.

Hodges remains second on the Dodgers all-time home run list 28 behind his close friend and former ‘Boys of Summer’ teammate Duke Snider. (AP photo)

Much to my dismay and displeasure, Hodges would fall victim to the expansion draft the following season. He was now a member of the inaugural New York Mets and, in fact, hit the first home run in Mets history. Hodges would hit only eight more home runs as a Met. Bad knees would force the 39-year-old Princeton, Indiana native from the game during the 1963 season – yes, the Dodgers World Series championship 1963 season. Hodges would later go on to manage the Mets and was at the helm when the 1969 “Amazin Mets” won their first-ever World Series title after an improbable 100-62 season over the highly favored 109-53 Baltimore Orioles.

And then the unthinkable happened.

On April 2, 1972 Hodges died suddenly of a massive heart attack just two days before his 48th birthday. We had lost one of ‘The Boys of Summer’ and I had lost one of my childhood heroes. I was devastated.

“He was the core of the Brooklyn Dodgers,” said Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson upon hearing the news of Hodges tragic and premature death. “With this, and what’s happened to [Roy Campanella] and lot of other guys we played with, it scares you. I’ve been somewhat shocked by it all. I have tremendous feelings for Gil’s family and kids.”

Little did anyone know at the time that Robinson himself would die of a heart attack six months later on October 24, 1972 at the age of 53.

Don Drysdale, who was perhaps closer to Hodges than anyone, wrote this about his former teammate and roommate in his 1990 autobiography Once a Bum, Always a Dodger:

“The news of Gil Hodges’s death absolutely shattered me. I just flew apart. I didn’t leave my apartment in Texas for three days. I didn’t want to see anybody. I couldn’t get myself to go to the funeral. I couldn’t get myself to call his widow, Joan. I couldn’t do anything. It was like I’d lost a part of my family and I was devastated.

“I’ve never been one to label friends as ‘best’ or ‘next best,'” added Drysdale. “But Gil Hodges was as close to me as anybody I’ve every met.”

Ironically, just like his teammates Gil Hodges and Jackie Robinson, Drysdale would also die suddenly of a heart attack in 1993 at age 56.

Hodges finished his 18-year MLB career with a .273 batting average, a .359 on-base percentage, a .487 slugging percentage for an impressive .846 career OPS. He hit 370 career home runs, was an eight-time All-Star, three time World Series Champion, won three Gold Gloves and on August 31, 1950 became only the sixth player in major league history to hit four home runs in a single game (10 players have done so since). On June 9, 1973, the Mets honored Hodges by retiring his uniform number 14. The Dodgers have not. In 1982 Hodges was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame. The Dodgers don’t even have one.

Hodges spent six years with the Mets – two as a player and four as a manager. He spent 16 years with the Dodgers – all as a player. The Mets retired his number in 1973. The Dodgers still have not. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

At the time of his death and during his 15 years of Hall of Fame eligibility, only five players had been elected into the Hall of Fame with career batting averages lower than .300 and only one (Rabbit Maranville) with a batting average lower than Hodges. Many felt that the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) refused to vote for Hodges because he had never been an MVP nor did he ever lead the National League in any offensive category. However, after Hodges’s BBWAA Hall of Fame eligibility expired in 1983, two additional players with career batting averages lower than Hodges (Eddie Matthews at .271 and Brooks Robinson at .267 ) were voted into the sacred Halls of Cooperstown by the BBWAA.

In November 2011 Hodges was one of 10 Golden Era candidates for Hall of Fame consideration. The Golden Era Committee (formerly called the Veterans Committee) elected Ron Santo into the Hall of Fame with 15 votes. Jim Kaat received 10 votes with Hodges and Minnie Minoso each receiving 9 votes.

On Thursday Hodges was named to this year’s Golden Era ballot along with former Dodger great Maury Wills, Kaat, Minoso, Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Bob Howsam, Tony Oliva, Billy Pierce and Luis Tiant.

Will Gil Hodges finally receive his long overdue and just reward of baseball immortality?

If the 16-member Golden Era committee gets it right this time he will.