May 20, 1957

It is characteristic of our pueblo to blow up a typhoon over matters
which might more wisely be handled quietly and in proper perspective.
For instance, the fuss over the impending arrival of the Brooklyn
Dodgers.

As one who spent many a hot summer afternoon as an eager boy picking up
empty soft-drink bottles after the baseball games at old Washington
Park, then at Washington Boulevard and Hill Street,
to earn a pass for the next day’s game, I wish to cast a dissenting and
slightly scornful vote. I don’t think it’s quite that wonderful.

We have two good ball clubs, Los Angeles and Hollywood–good enough to
hold their own against the second-division clubs in both major leagues.
Yet not enough people support them. Whence cometh, then, this assurance
they will support the Dodgers?

Let’s face it–this is a stay-at-home town with a widely scattered
population. For those who choose not to stay at home there are too many
other things, more exciting than baseball, to do and see.

And all the synthetic excitement and double talk over whether they’ll
play at the Coliseum or Wrigley Field or Chavez Ravine is mostly a
bunch of guys talking to each other.

Certainly it’s news that the Dodgers are coming, if and when they come. But not THAT much news.