Letter to Campanella From the Heart

Campy, I’m sorry. I had always meant to write a letter to you, to thank you for your many years of positive role modeling, and for your on- and off-the-field service to the Dodger organization. I just never got around to doing it, and now you’re gone.

As a youngster growing up in the ‘50s in Brooklyn, it was a real treat to visit Ebbets Field, and to see you and the rest of “The Boys of Summer.” Why it was that I idolized you, a man of a wholly different color and ethnicity than myself, and who played catcher, a position I personally despised playing, I’ll never know. I guess I just sensed that you were a man of pride and courage.

When, in 1958, my family moved to California, I loved to watch the Dodgers play, but I really missed you. I’ll miss you now, too, that you’ve joined the Big Dodger in the Sky, as Tommy would say.

Thanks for everything, Campy, and please forgive me for not writing sooner.

STEVE MARKMAN

Duarte