Letters to the Editor: Going from a Brooklyn Dodgers fan in the 1950s to a ‘nervous wreck’ in 2024

To the editor: It was considered outre to be a Brooklyn Dodgers fan on Long Island, where I lived and where most people followed the Yankees or the Giants. I was 13 years old in 1955 when the Dodgers won their first and only World Series. It was against the Yankees. (“Dodgers fans turn to lucky jerseys, sweaters, rosaries and prayer to help team win the title,” Nov. 1)

On the morning of Jan. 28, 1958, catcher Roy Campanella was in a bad car crash in a nearby Long Island town. In homeroom that day, the nun at St. Mary’s High School had each of us go up to the front of the room and tell the class the most important item on the news. I told them about what had happened to Campanella. (Paralyzed, he lived to work for and inspire the Los Angeles Dodgers until his death in 1993.)

In the summers, in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, I listened to Vin Scully announce games on an early transistor radio. I would awake in the morning with a dead battery. Worth it.

I surprised myself by rooting for both teams in the 2024 World Series. I envied the deportment of manager Dave Roberts, because I was a nervous wreck: I had been a long time without a home team.

Elizabeth Bryant Caffrey, Placerville, Calif.