(Editor’s note: TBPC would like to welcome Andy Lane Chapman to the writing team. Hopefully, Andy will tolerate the quirkiness of both myself and the blog site and continue to contribute many insightful articles in the future. Feel free to give her a follow on Twitter.)
When I first joined Twitter, I was told a few times by other Dodgers fans, that I was not a “real fan”. A “real fan” couldn’t possibly live outside California, let alone all the way across the country. Of course this is a load of bull, but allow me to tell you how I became a Dodgers fan that lives in Pennsylvania.
My father was military, and I was born in Ft. Huachuca, AZ. My mother was the baseball fan in the family; she grew up going to see the Dodgers in the bleacher seats in the 50’s My family had just moved from Germany to Arizona, and my mother was able to enjoy baseball again. The only team on her TV was the Dodgers. I am proud to say that my first major league baseball game, at the ripe old age of 15 months, was at Dodger Stadium.
My father retired after 20 years of service, and moved my family back to NorthEast PA. My mother continued to follow the Dodgers, and so I grew up with the love of them, shunning the thought of rooting for the local teams, the Phillies, the Mets, or God forbid the Yankees. My first crush, age 6, was Steve Sax. Not being able to watch too many games on TV, I poured over the paper the day after games to read the box score and find out the outcome of the game. I clearly remember to this day, KNOWING Kirk Gibson was going to hit that homer in ’88.
Flash forward to today. My love of the Boys in Blue hasn’t wavered, I daresay it has only intensified. Twitter has made me feel much more connected to them, being able to converse with other fans and having access to real-time info. And thanks to the baseball package and mlb.tv, I am able to watch almost every game and listen to the best there is, Vin Scully. Now I am excited to continue that love and learning about this team though here. I look forward to connecting with other Dodgers fans, no matter where we’re located. You can follow me @DodgerGirlinPA on Twitter.
YES!!! This is awesome Andy! Way to go!
Thanks Gail!
From the time I exited the womb I was bred to be a Phillies fan. But I can remember as far back as 1st grade that I had an itch, something was really bugging me. Pretty much my entire family were die-hard Philly fans, but for some reason I had a difficult time showing my support. Probably the second or third game I ever attended was the Dodgers vs. the Phillies, and when I saw the Boys in Blue take the field in the bottom of the first, I began to glow. It all seemed right. Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey instantly became my heroes! And I can remember as far back as second grade (7 years old), our class was assigned to write a fun, short general essay, and I chose to write mine about the Los Angeles Dodgers. I included all 25 players on the roster, and I wrote a few words about each player.I began to play baseball at 8 years old, and I played continuously thru my junior year in college. And it seemed that as time went by, my love for the Dodgers became stronger and my dedication deepened. I couldn’t be more proud to be a Dodger fan today! Anyway, that’s my story.
That’s so great to know! I was wondering how you became a Dodgers fan in PA!