It is a banner year for the West Coast base ball clubs,
as the mighty Yankees and the talented upstart Metropolitans have
stepped out of the spotlight and allowed the city of Los Angeles to
demonstrate to the sporting world that it has arrived as a world-class
athletic power.
The Dodgers, led by a Dominican named Ramirez, and the Angels, who
play amongst the orange groves of Anaheim, each clinched their
respective pennant races several days before the season ended, and are
well-rested and ready to take on their opponents in the first round of
the play-offs. The teams both feature an impressive array of big-
league talent and are in good position to take their fans with them
all the way to a championship, which jibes well among the burgeoning
youth culture of Southern California.
Oh how the times have changed! I visited California one summer as a
boy, helping my Uncle Lysander on his ill-fated llama farm north of
Pasadena, and I fondly recall watching with delight as the local base
ball clubs had perfectly adapted the experience of our national
pastime. Lysander himself had been among the first generation of
native Californiaoans, having accompanied his father and 12 sisters
during the great molybdenum rush of ’27.
It will be interesting to see how the New York press will handle the
experience of a Western-centric play-offs and whether the public will
respond to contests in such a remote locale. Here’s to the possibility
of a Fall Classic under the palm trees!
