A man who knows both parties intimately predicts one of ’s greatest love affairs when ’s former heroes

? • in capital of the West Wide World open the entertainment Will Love The Dodgers!

" r ¦ By As told to Joans Hoffman

Los Angeles baseball. If the Los Angeles Chamber ofCom- If somebody had asked me 10 years ago, merce thought it already had everything “Which do you think is the most likelyto move climate, industry, orange groves and Kim the Brooklyn Bridge or the Brooklyn Dodg- Novak itwillbe infinitely enriched once the ers?” I guess I’d have picked the Bridge. former heroes of Flatbush find their way After all, humorists have been trying to sell around on the freeways. it for years. But the Dodgers?? After all, baseball was first played in Brook- The Dodgers were as deeply embedded in lyn before 1839, the box score was invented Brooklyn as the subways or so I thought. there, enclosed ball park was built Yet, here they are, wearing Los Angeles uni- there, and before Hollywood exploited curves, forms, opening against the San Francisco they were throwing them in Brooklyn. Giants on April 18, and I’m still shaking my Who can ever forget the time _ ~. l^i. head. doffed his hat and a bird flew out? Babe Brooklyn-to-Los “long Herman and two other base runners on third? * Angeles is a throw wrR M^^^r»VSfS|Ji| from center” 2,500 miles but you could Bleacherite Hilda Chester and her resounding always count on the Dodgers to do the unex- cowbell? pected. Where “unusual” elements are con- Those Dear Old Dodger Days cerned (and I'm not speaking of the weather) Angelenos will have to take a back seat. And those fans! They were unique, too. I’ve They’ve drawn a trump card in the Dodgers! never seen more bloodthirsty characters. You Now, I don't claim to be the Elder States- win, see, and they're waiting for you outside man of on the basis of a 10-year the gate that separated the walk from the dug- association with the club (1938-1948) as player out to your office, yelling, “HI, Leo, you’re and , and nobody has ever called me the greatest! They can’t heat ns, Leo!” an Angeleno Emeritus, although I’ve lived in Fine. But if we lost, those same vultures Los Angeles for about 12 years. But if any- would be screeching, “Yabom ya, ya couldn’t body is qualified to talk on the baseball blood manage your grandmudder!” M ft I transfusion that brought the old trolley-Dodg- That was all part of the Dodger legend ... ers to the city of traffic dodgers. I'm the guy! Uncle Wilbert Robinson ... and Van Lingle Mungo, famed for their zany

New Major-League Record? antics ... BillTerry and his “Is Brooklyn still I’ve said all along that once Los Angeles got in the league T crack ... tumultuous Larry a major-league team and a suitable ball park, MacPhail... ... Pete Reiser, it would break all existing attendance records. who might have been the greatest of Will it outdo Milwaukee? Sure it’s bigger. them all, if he hadn’t tried to through a Don’t forget. Los Angeles just set a new centerfield fence. Brooklyn’s , National Football League attendance record the first Negro major leaguer ... of over 1,000,000 with a so-so Ram football It was a wonderful, riotous chapter in base- pro football high ball history, and it was a vital part of Brook- dub and the all-time ' of 102,368 for the 49'ers game last November. lyn, too. Now the Bums have gone West In fact, ifit’s a good day when theDodgers and they’re not even the Bums anymore! and Giants open on April 18 and good days One ofthe first official acts of the newly formed are all we have out here it wouldn’t sur- Los Angeles chapter of the Baseball Writers prise me to see 100,000 people in the Coliseum Association ofAmerica, was to adopt a resolu- stands to break the all-time baseball attend- tiondiscouraging use ofthe nickname, “Bums.” ance record for a single game! A local scribe promptly rechristened them, It’s sad they won’t see , one “Los Dodgers.” They must be shaking their of the game’s greatest . His loss, heads in Brooklyn. through that terrible auto accident, can’t help People keep asking me if the Dodgers will Listen, they’ll fficHofd Hertt but be felt all through the league. be any “different” out here. In always be the Dodgers! What’s more, they’ve AUTHOR in Pods r»' bi|M«lwm —th« Lm Anfdn Colinum. But Los Angeles has been lucky. the to right Continued on page 32 InMt: Gil Hodgea ctMling second against those Giants I Dodgers, it landed the most colorful team in come the

THIS WfCK Mogoiin* March 9,19 SS 30