My First Opening Day

by James Floto

It's a time to miss work, skip school, go to the ballpark if you are lucky enough to live near one (don't tell me about sell-outs--if you want to get in, you will) or, watch a TRIPLE header on ESPN, thank you very much.

Some ruminations on my first one:

The first Major League game I remember watching was Don Larsen's no-hitter in 1956. This was back in the days when the entire neighborhood would gather around the TV for the World Series, the political conventions, the Olympics. In 1957 I became a major Major League fanatic--started collecting baseball cards, idolized Hank Aaron, played baseball on our street with the kids on our block, was a rookie in Little League. I don't think I watched opening day that year but it does mean I have been a big league baseball fan for 45 years! Ouch--but I wouldn't trade the memories for anything.

But 1958-ho! I grew up in L.A., and although the Dodgers never did become my team, it was exciting watching them. Before they arrived, we had the Hollywood Stars and L.A. Angels of the Pacific Coast League, and in media conscious Los Angeles, these minor league clubs televised their home games in an era when most Major League cities didn't broadcast their home team. Instead, they picked up the revered Game of the Week, with announcers like Dizzy Dean ("Minoso slud into third base!"), Pee Wee Reese, and Buddy Blatner. Until '58, we also had the Game of the Week and the closest big league teams were St. Louis and Kansas City, but I'm glad I can tell my grandchildren that I saw teams with names like the Portland Beavers, Oakland Oaks, San Francisco Seals.

But in '58 we had the Dodgers opening against the other new arrival to our coast, the San Francisco Giants. Walter O'Malley would wait a few years before he realized that he was making enough off attendance that he could also derive extra revenue by televising home games. But he did broadcast away games against the Giants in '58. And that first year the Dodgers opened against the Giants in San Francisco. After hearing about the opening day parade on Market Street, Vin Scully (yes, youngsters, he was around even then, in fact he started in Brooklyn replacing his mentor, Red Barber) and Jerry Dogget relayed the game for us. The Dodgers lost that legendary opener, 8-0, and went on to have a horrible season (71-83, 7th place), while the Giants finished third. But my mom wasn't sure my wide eyes would ever return to normal size as I watched legends Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, and Junior Gilliam. John Roseboro took over catching duties for Roy Campanella who only three months earlier had been in the car crash that crippled him for life. Hard to believe now, but at that time there was still some hope that he would recover--that he would at least walk again and maybe even play. If I remember correctly, Johnny Podres, hero of the 1955 World Series--the only one the Dodgers won in Brooklyn--was the opening day starter. Carl Erskine, Don Drysdale and Stan Williams filled out the staff except for Sandy Koufax. After three years of mostly riding the pines, Koufax would go 11-11, not exactly a breakthrough, but at least he had become a regular.

The Giants had Willie Mays in center, still in his prime. In fact, he hit a career high .347 that year. Jeez, what a joy he was to watch, both in the field and at bat. He loved it--he even wore an oversized cap so it would fall off when chasing fly balls, adding to his dramatic flair. The Giants were a few years short of their great teams of the '60s--Willie McCovey arrived the following year, Juan Marichal in 1960. Meanwhile they had an aging Hank Sauer, and rookies like outfielder named Willie Kirkland who was supposedly the next Mays, Leon Wagner, third baseman Jimmy Davenport and an exciting rookie from Puerto Rico named Orlando Cepeda. They had a pretty good pitching staff-Johnny Antonelli, Ruben Gomez, Stu Miller and Mike McCormick--all all-stars at one time or another except Gomez, who won 17 games for the team that had won the pennant just four years earlier. Gomez also started that opening game, hurling a shutout.

It's hard to describe the excitement of the first Major League opener on the west coast. The ramifications surpassed baseball; it was as if the entire region had arrived. Some old-time New Yorkers still bemoan their loss and I can understand that. But it's not like we fans, especially us kids, were the ones that talked Walter O'Malley and Horace Stoneham in to coming west. We were justificably excited. As for the rivalry, most of those same New Yorkers say that it just isn't the same as it used to be. They forget that Los Angeles and San Francisco, the two main cities on the west coast, especially back then, already had a very strong, fiery rivalry. It was easy enough to graft the Giants and Dodgers on top of that inter-city rivalry.

I enjoy Opening Day ever year, but there has never been another one like my first one, which just happened to be the beginning of an entire new era. Now, some 44 years later, the Padres, Angels, A's and Mariners are also west coast clubs, and the Rockies and Arizona are also west of the Rockies. Quite a change from the days when the Major Leagues extended only as far west as Kansas City.