There was in all probability no Dodgers fan extra grateful to see the Blue Crew lose badly within the opening recreation of the World Sequence than Conrado Contreras. See, the 75-year-old was completely happy to get pleasure from any Fall Traditional in any respect.
A yr in the past tomorrow, the Zacatecas native suffered a coronary heart assault and gentle stroke within the moments after seeing his Dodgers win Recreation 2 of the World Sequence in opposition to the New York Yankees. He spent three days in a medically induced coma at St. Francis Medical Heart in Lynwood and regained consciousness to information from jubilant nurses that the Dodgers had received the championship.
The lifelong baseball fan had no thought what they had been speaking about. His ardour for the game was misplaced alongside along with his reminiscence.
When relations placed on highlights from the 2024 championship throughout his rehabilitation at a clinic in Gardena all through the top of the yr, the previous carpenter would shrug and alter the channel. When somebody advised him that legendary Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela had died, Contreras swore that he had simply seen his fellow Mexican pitch on the stadium.
It wasn’t till the 2025 baseball season got here alongside that Contreras’ thoughts started to really rebound. He watched video games from his longtime residence within the unincorporated Florence-Graham neighborhood and discovered to like the Dodgers anew. However he didn’t cheer like earlier than. Contreras adopted physician’s orders to remain calm when the Dodgers had been shedding as a substitute of cursing just like the previous and quietly applaud when the workforce was profitable when he would’ve beforehand roared.
He’s the father-in-law of my sister Alejandrina. And I needed to hang around with Don Conrado for Recreation 1 of this yr’s World Sequence to expertise fandom in all its mortality.
Sporting a flat-brimmed fedora and a blue Dodgers 2024 World Sequence champions T-shirt, I caught Contreras simply as he was coming into my sister’s Norwalk residence holding on to his walker with the assistance of Alejandrina’s husband, Conrad. His father talks slower than he used to and may’t drive anymore, however Contreras is as soon as once more the identical man his household is aware of: witty, observant and baseball-crazy.
A schoolyard pitcher in his hometown of Monte Escobedo, Contreras fell in with the Dodgers nearly as quickly as he migrated to the USA in 1970 to affix a brother in Highland Park. He used to attend video games each week “when $10 bought two individuals into the stadium and you possibly can additionally eat a sizzling canine,” Contreras advised me in Spanish earlier than Recreation 1 started.
His tales from these years had been immaculate. Don Sutton throwing a shutout. The Cincinnati Reds at all times “able to play to the demise.” Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie Stargell hitting a house run out of Dodger Stadium in 1973 “and all of us simply staring above our heads in awe.”
Contreras was such a fan that he took his pregnant spouse, Mary, to look at Valenzuela pitch on the day in 1983 that Conrad was due as a result of they had been giving out “I (Coronary heart) Fernando” T-shirts, an anecdote that left their son flabbergasted.
“What occurred to the shirt?” Conrad requested his mother in Spanish.
“I threw it away,” replied the 61-year-old Mary.
“They’d price some huge cash now!” he groaned.
“They had been low cost! The colour actually light quick.”
Los Angeles Dodgers two-way participant Shohei Ohtani hits a two-run residence run through the seventh inning of Recreation 1 of the World Sequence between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays at Roger Centre on Friday in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays received, 11-4.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Occasions)
The household continued to attend video games by means of Conrad’s teenage years however stopped “when even the birds couldn’t afford to attend,” Mary mentioned. Conrad, 42, thinks the final time he went to a recreation along with his dad was “a minimum of” 20 years in the past. However they often watched video games on tv. It was he who administered the CPR a yr in the past that saved his dad’s life.
“He was strolling round the home offended all that recreation,” Conrad mentioned.
“No, properly, Roberto was making me mad,” Conrado replied, his nickname for Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts. “However I can’t get mad anymore.”
I requested how he thought this yr’s collection would go. He talked about Shohei Ohtani, whom he saved calling el japonés in a respectful tone as a result of, properly, his reminiscence could be fuzzy.
“He strikes out an excessive amount of, however when he hits it, he hits it. If he performs like that, they win the collection. But when Toronto hits, neglect it.”
Yet one more query earlier than recreation time, the one too many liberal Latino Dodgers followers are belly-aching over proper now: is it moral to root for the workforce contemplating they haven’t been too vocal in opposing Donald Trump’s deportation marketing campaign and proprietor Mark Walter has investments in corporations which might be making the most of it?
“Sports activities shouldn’t get into politics, however all sports activities house owners are with Trompas,” he mentioned, utilizing a nickname I’ve heard quite a lot of rancho libertarians use for Trump. He shrugged.
“So what’s one to do? They saved la migra out of the stadium,” referring to an unsuccessful June try by federal brokers to enter the stadium parking zone. “If the workforce had allowed that, then there’d be an enormous downside.”
Mary wasn’t as sympathetic. “Latinos shouldn’t let the Dodgers off really easy. However when Latinos give up, they give up.”
It was recreation time.
Conrad slipped right into a grey Dodgers away jersey to match his black workforce cap. My sister, an Angels follower for some motive, wore a Kiké Hernández T-shirt “as a result of he stands with immigrants.”
“The one benefit of the Dodgers is that they aren’t profitable with a gringo,” mentioned Mary, who really doesn’t care a lot about baseball as a result of she finds it boring. “It’s somebody [Ohtani] who doesn’t wish to communicate English who’s profitable it for them.”
Her husband smiled.
“Let’s see if Mary will get into baseball.”
“That’ll be the actual miracle,” she snapped again.
Contreras rubbed his arms in glee because the Dodgers went up 2-0 within the high of the third and merely frowned when the Blue Jays tied it within the backside of the fourth whereas we had been having fun with takeout from Taco Nazo. “His anger is available in waves, it’s a visit,” Conrad mentioned. “He’s calmer however se enoja.”
“Who?” Conrado deadpanned.
When Dodger beginning pitcher Blake Snell left the sport with the bases loaded and nobody out within the backside of the sixth, Contreras shook his head in disgust however saved his voice calm.
“That is what will get me mad. They need to’ve taken him out way back, however Roberto didn’t. That is what I used to be afraid of. When Toronto get on, they get on. They received’t cease till they destroy.”
Positive sufficient, the Blue Jays erupted for 9 runs that inning, together with a two-run blast by catcher Alejandro Kirk, who had sparked the Jays’ preliminary rally just a few innings earlier.
Earlier within the recreation, Alejandrina had advised Conrado that Kirk was a Tijuana native. The delight in shared roots, albeit generations aside, took a bit little bit of sting off his residence run, which made the rating a humiliating 11-2.
“Thank goodness he’s Mexican,” Conrado advised his son, patting his knee. “That’s what’s left for us” to be completely happy concerning the recreation.
An inning later, Contreras started to really feel woozy. His sugar degree was elevated. Mary took off his jacket to repair his insulin system. My sister’s corgi, Penny, jumped onto the sofa and lay on his lap.
“They do know when somebody’s unwell, proper?” he mentioned to nobody earlier than scratching Penny’s tummy and cooing, “You recognize I’m unwell, proper? I’m unwell!”
When the “bloodbath” lastly ended, Contreras remained philosophical.
“It’s unimaginable that I’m in a position to see this. However I’m nonetheless malo. My ft damage, my reminiscence isn’t what it was, my sense of stability isn’t there. However there’s the Dodgers. However they should win.”
Conrad went to the bed room to seize his father’s walker.
“Would you like a Toronto shirt now?” he joked.
His dad stared silently. “No, that will give me one other coronary heart assault.”
