For Jerry Reinsdorf, it's often a Brooklyn state of mind

First of three parts

For 40 years, Jerry Reinsdorf's life has been intertwined with the Chicago White Sox.

But in his heart, he will always be a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.

In a phone interview, Reinsdorf reflected on his formative years in Brooklyn, offering a revealing look at the deep impression made on him by this legendary franchise and how he was marked by its loss to the community.

Reinsdorf explained a bit about the character of Brooklyn when he pointed out that Brooklyn didn't become a borough of New York City until 1898.

Reinsdorf, who was born in 1936, said, "When I was growing up, I knew a lot of people in Brooklyn who were still angry that Brooklyn was forced to become part of New York City."

He said, "Brooklyn had over 3 million people, so just by itself it would have been the third largest city in America. We never really considered ourselves part of New York. Manhattan was New York.

"We had our own downtown. We had our own baseball team. We had our own newspaper. We had our own government. We had a borough president. Brooklyn was more a state of mind than it was a geographical location. And that doesn't exist today. Today, Brooklyn clearly is just a part of New York City."

And in Brooklyn, the most important thing was the Dodgers.

"That was the glue that kept everybody together. Everybody was a Dodger fan. There were a few Yankee fans here or there, and I remember a couple of kids who were Giant fans. Nobody would talk to them, because they thought they were traitors."

When Reinsdorf began to get interested in baseball, the Dodgers were evolving from a laughingstock to a perennial pennant contender.

During the dry years between the 1920 and the 1941 pennants, the Dodgers were known as the Daffiness Boys, with such characters as Babe Herman, a brilliant hitter who struggled with his fielding.

Reinsdorf said there was an old joke that had somebody mention, "The Dodgers have three men on base," to which someone else responded, "Which base?"

The origin of the joke was a play in a 1926 game between the Dodgers and the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field that began with Herman at the plate and the bases loaded. He hit a gapper for a sure double that scored the lead runner, Hank DeBerry, from third. The runner on second, Dazzy Vance, rounded third and headed for home but turned back on what he thought were the third base coach's instructions. In fact, the coach was telling the runner advancing from first to third, Chick Fewster, to slow down to avoid passing Vance.

Heading back to third, Vance got caught in a rundown. Meanwhile, Herman, mistaking Vance for Fewster in the rundown, headed for third, already occupied by Fewster.

Vance escaped the rundown and dove into third, meeting his other two teammates at the bag.

Reinsdorf said he first became interested in baseball in 1945, when he went to the house of his friend Norman Ricken, who later became president and chief operating officer of Toys 'R' Us, and asked if Norman could play.

His mother said Norman was listening to the baseball game on the radio.

"I remember thinking, 'Baseball on the radio? What's that all about?' and so that was my first awareness."

In 1946, he attended his first Dodger game, with Norman and another friend. The Dodgers lost that day to the Phillies.

"But from then on I was just absolutely totally hooked on the game," he said.

He remembers Ebbets Field as a very intimate park, "smaller than Wrigley Field."

Games would start in the afternoon, but Reinsdorf would leave at 9:30 a.m. to be one of the first in line to grab a buck-and-a-quarter general admission seat and watch both teams take batting practice.

He recalls, "The food was lousy. They had these hot dogs that they boiled. They didn't grill them. There wasn't much food in the park. Peanuts and stuff like that, So we usually brought our own food."

His favorite seats were the best general admission seats along the first base line.

"I wasn't working at that age, but kids pick up a few quarters here and there, so anytime I got a dollar and a quarter, I was off to Ebbets Field. I would take the subway there - the subway was a nickel - because I wanted to get there as early as I could. But then I would walk home, which was maybe a mile and a half, to save the nickel going home."

His favorite player was Pee Wee Reese.

"He was the leader. He was the captain. I had tremendous admiration for him," he said.

Later, when Reinsdorf became friends with former Dodger pitcher Joe Black, he learned that Reese was also a good guy, "the guy that we all went to with our problems. He was the guy that made it easy for Jackie Robinson to succeed, so my adulation of Pee Wee Reese was vindicated."

When Reinsdorf became an owner, he had a chance to meet Reese at the winter meetings in Hawaii. "I got on an elevator with (former baseball Commissioner) Bowie Kuhn's wife, and there was Pee Wee Reese.

"She introduced me to Pee Wee. I couldn't talk. I was tongue-tied. I was in the presence of my idol. I was so excited."

Next week: Jackie Robinson arrives in Brooklyn