October 1981

October 13th carries additional meaning for me.

Early that morning in 1981, I got up and my Dad drove me to the MEPS station in Salt Lake City. For the first time in my life, my Dad shook my hand as I walked away from the car. I learned later that he drove around the corner and parked for a few minutes to gather himself. I walked in, raised my hand, and a few short hours later I landed in San Diego to begin my career as a US Navy Sailor.

I had wanted to join the Navy for many years, and now, just barely 18 year old, I was entering a world that I thought I knew, but I can assure you now, I had no real clue about. There were times I wanted to quit, but every time that happened, I would get word that the Dodgers had won again and after they won the World Series, they were my own inspiration to not quit.

To this day, I have never seen the 1981 World Series. I even have the official film AND all six games on tape. I can’t watch them. I have the series in my head from radio broadcasts and verbal reports of people who saw it and told me about it.

In 2012, I got to meet Steve Garvey. I told him that story, and how the 1981 Dodgers got me through Basic Training. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Ain’t baseball great?”

Yes… yes it is… and forever it is embedded in my mind. Just like that first day in the Navy when EMC(SS) Heisey looked at me and asked, “Are you a beater or a blower?”

I had no clue what he was talking about. It would be just one of a million things that I would learn over the next decade in the greatest Navy to ever sail the seven seas.