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“Remember 1951!”

The oth­er night I watched the final play­off game between the Los Ange­les Dodgers and the San Fran­cis­co Giants. 

For me, how­ev­er, it was a base­ball game between the Brook­lyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, a con­tin­u­a­tion of their fierce rival­ry from the days I grew up in New York City. 

In my youth, there were three base­ball teams in the city. There were the two cit­ed above and the New York Yan­kees. In my world, how­ev­er, the Yan­kees (no doubt because they were so suc­cess­ful) were elite aris­to­crats, and we had defen­sive con­tempt for them. 

But the Giants and the Dodgers … we lived and breathed that rival­ry. I went to Ebbets Field. I lis­tened to the Sym­phoney [sic] there. We rejoiced in Jack­ie Robin­son. Those were the days when there were three great cen­ter field­ers. Mick­ie Man­tle, Duke Sny­der, and Willie Mays were all play­ing. We could (and did) take hours debat­ing their hero­ics. Mays was my hero. 

This recent night, as I watched the game there was a brief flash of a sta­di­um sign that read, “Remem­ber 1951!” In that con­text, a quick grainy news­reel was shown of Bob­by Thompson’s epic home run that won the pen­nant for the Giants that year. In truth, that’s why I watched the game, a reunion, if you will, of memories.

1951 World Series

I urge you to read this mar­velous essay: https://nyti.ms/2Y5iqHa 

Catch You Later, Traitor
Catch You Lat­er, Trai­tor, hard­cov­er edition

That 1951 pen­nant run is a key ingre­di­ent to my book, Catch You Lat­er, Trai­tor. While the book tells a tale of cold war pol­i­tics, a lot is about base­ball. The phrase “CATCH YOU LATER, TRAITOR,” is spo­ken by the char­ac­ter Kat, when she learns that her best friend Pete (the nar­ra­tor of the sto­ry) switch­es his alle­giance from the Dodgers to the Giants in that very year, 1951. This, in 1951, was seri­ous stuff. It was some­thing I did, my first seri­ous act of youth­ful rebellion. 

In the nov­el, there is an account of lis­ten­ing to the his­toric game in school. That is, I relate how the teacher brought in a radio, and the whole class lis­tened to the game. My edi­tor ques­tioned that part of the sto­ry, say­ing no teacher would ever do that. But in fact, base­ball was so fun­da­men­tal to Brook­lyn cul­ture, my teacher did do that. Also, in the course of the sto­ry, an FBI agent comes to the door of Pete’s apart­ment and tries to ques­tion him about his pol­i­tics. A review­er said that would nev­er have hap­pened, but as with the radio in the class­room, it did happen—to me. 

It was a dif­fer­ent time. Or maybe not. 

While what occurs in the nov­el is fic­tion, it is full of bits and pieces that ref­er­ence my life in the 1950s, includ­ing how I became a news­pa­per read­er to a neigh­bor­hood blind man.

In short, Catch You Lat­er, Trai­tor is the most per­son­al of my books. Hard­ly a sur­prise that it is one of my favorites.

As for the game the oth­er night, I wish the Giants had won. Regard­ing the way it end­ed, to use a Brook­lyn phrase, “We was robbed!” 

2 thoughts on ““Remember 1951!””

  1. I loved your men­tion of play­ing the radio in gym class. When I was a kid, I was a big New York Mets fan. It was the first time they were in the World Series in 1969 and I had gym class the last peri­od of the day. Instead of play­ing bas­ket­ball or doing exer­cis­es, my gym teacher wheeled in a TV on a cart and said, “We’re not hav­ing gym class today, we’re watch­ing the World Series.” I was nev­er hap­pi­er. We watch part of the game, school end­ed, and I sprint­ed home to turn on my TV to watch my beloved New York Mets win their first World Series. Great mem­o­ries, thanks for shar­ing yours.

    Reply
  2. Catch You Lat­er, Trai­tor is on my TBR pile. I’ll bump it up my read­ing list because I espe­cial­ly enjoy the most auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal nov­els by my favorite authors.

    Reply

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