There is a very strong possibility that as a kid growing up, your first favorite baseball player – presumably a Dodger – was someone who shared your name. For me, it most certainly could have been longtime Dodgers left-handed reliever (long before they were called closers) Ron Perranoski, who spent eight of his 13 major league seasons in a Dodger uniform from 1961 to 1967 and, for good measure, returned for one season in 1972. In his eight seasons in LA, the two-time World Series champion (both with the Dodgers) posted a remarkable record of 54-41 (.568) with an outstanding ERA of 2.56 – certainly worthy of ‘favorite-Dodger status.’

But he wasn’t.

For me, that honor went to another Dodger named Ron – longtime Dodgers first baseman and right fielder Ron Fairly … and we’re talking very longterm here.

Although the left-handed-hitting and throwing utility infielder/outfielder was born in Macon, GA, he attended David Starr Jordan High School in Long Beach, CA, and later went to USC. He began his MLB career with the Dodgers when the team moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. Over the next 12 seasons, Fairly posted a respectable slash line of .260/.347/.385/.732 with 168 doubles, 22 triples, 90 home runs, and 541 RBI. But that’s only the half of it – almost literally. The extremely popular 5′-10′ / 175-pound redhead went on to play in the major leagues for another nine seasons. That’s a combined and incredible 21 seasons at baseball’s hight level, something absolutely unheard of these days.

Over those 21 seasons, the former Trojan appeared in a total of 2,442 games and posted a career slash line of .266/.360/.408/.768, with 307 doubles, 33 triples, 215 home runs, and 1,044 RBI. He was also a three-time World Series champion in 1959, 1963 and 1965, all as a Dodger.

It’s that 1963 World Series thing (and his first name, of course) that made Fairly my earliest favorite Dodger as a young boy, although admittedly he was soon supplanted by my still all-time Dodger, Hall of Famer right-hander Don Drysdale.

Having been blessed with a father who was an avid baseball fan, albeit a Cubs fan, my dad took my two brothers and me to Game-3 of that 1963 World Series. In that game against the New York Yankees at a then one-year-old Dodger Stadium, Drysdale pitched a remarkable nine-inning two-hit complete-game 1-0 shutout in the eventual four-game sweep over the Evil Empire. The final out of that game, which former Dodger great Tommy Davis still considers the best World Series ever played (Don Larson’s no-hitter notwithstanding), Fairly recorded the final out of the game on a flyball to (very) deep right field off the bat of Yankees first baseman Joe Pepitone.

Ron Fairly passed away at his home in Palm Desert, CA on October 30, 2019 at the age of 81. And even though you won’t find his name on a plaque in Cooperstown or hanging on a wall at Dodger Stadium, and even though he has been all but forgotten (if even known) by most Dodger fans today, his exciting catch in Game-3 of the 1963 World Series was the first of what would become many heart-stopping moments for this now old little boy named Ron.

God Bless You, Ron Fairly. You are not forgotten.

Play Ball!

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