When winning means more

I get it. It’s only a game. The success or failure of millionaire players and billionaire team owners has no effect on our day-to-day lives. And yet, we spend more than we should on tickets, stadium food and drink, and caps and jerseys so we can share our devotion to a sports team. Our emotions rise and fall with every play. Our souls soar with a victory or are crushed by a defeat. In the process, we build a community that transcends backgrounds, beliefs, and generations over a shared love for a team.

I’ve talked a lot about my devotion to the Dodgers on my website. Of course, I was overjoyed when they won their eighth World Series by defeating the Yankees. But this victory meant more.

It was vindication of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series of my teenage years when Reggie “Mr. October” Jackson regularly crushed our hopes. We would then gather at the lunch tables at Reseda High School to commiserate. Decades later, those lunch table discussions with my friends about the Dodgers have moved to Facebook.

It was for my heartbroken mom whose boss gave out tickets to the 1978 World Series to everyone in the office, except her, even though everyone at her work knew she was the biggest Dodger fan there.

It was for the 1981 Dodgers-Yankees World Series I couldn’t pay attention to because I was taking care of her after her stroke while…