Let me be clear right from the start, I don't care about the Brooklyn Dodgers. I am tortured enough just rooting for the Boston Red Sox and trying to figure out how it could possibly have been 39 years since their last World Series win. But this notion by Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley of moving the club out of Brooklyn and to the wilds of Los Angeles is just plain crazy, and will spell the end of baseball as we know it.

The Dodgers have been a fixture in the borough of Brooklyn for 74 years, and moving The Bums out will leave a void that can never be filled. New York City could potentially be left with just one team, the Yankees, as the New York Giants are also rumored to be moving out west, to San Francisco. The problem is, Dodger fans would never be caught dead rooting for the Yankees. In fact, one of the proudest moments for most Dodger fans came just two years ago, when the Dodgers downed the Yanks in seven games to win the World Series, as you all well remember.

And what about all the other teams in the National League? There isn't another major league team west of St. Louis, and now they will have to travel all the way to L.A. to play the Dodgers and San Francisco to play the Giants? It's insane. Clubs travel almost exclusively by train, and there's no train in the world fast enough to get to Los Angeles or San Francisco overnight from most major league cities.

The alternative, to travel by airplane, will bankrupt most teams, especially the Dodgers and Giants, who will have to use that means of travel almost exclusively. You might as well expect them to travel to the moon, which everyone knows will never happen.

Another consideration weighing against a move by the Brooklynites is this: Who knows if anyone will go to the games? Oh sure, Los Angeles has a long tradition of minor league baseball, but never before has a major professional sports team attempted to play there.

The weather is so good all the time, and there is so much else to do, I believe there is a good chance that attendance will plummet after the initial excitement of having a team wears off. Why, you might as well put an NHL team in Los Angeles, too! It's just ludicrous. What in the world is Walter O'Malley thinking? Has he just gone out of his mind?

The final reason why the Dodgers must stay in Brooklyn is this: Tradition, with a capital "T." I already mentioned how the Dodgers have been a fixture in Brooklyn since 1883. Here are a couple of other notable Brooklyn firsts:

The first televised baseball game occurred right there at Ebbets Field nearly twenty years ago, on August 20, 1939 against Cincinnati.

The Brooklyn Dodgers introduced batting helmets to the big leagues back in 1941. Although it was 21 years after Cleveland's Ray Chapman became the only player ever to be killed by a pitched ball, the Dodgers were the first to don the headgear.

The Brooklyn Dodgers, in one of their proudest moments, integrated major league baseball ten years ago when Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player to break the color barrier. Now nearly every team has followed suit, and soon all teams will be signing the best players, regardless of skin color.

Help start a groundswell of support for Brooklyn's major league baseball team. Write a letter to owner Walter O'Malley reminding him of the great baseball tradition in Brooklyn and asking him to come to his senses. Baseball will never flourish in Los Angeles or anywhere else out west. You can take that to the bank.

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Good old One-EighthBaked is remembered as something of a flake in the family, but he was passionate if nothing else. Years after the Dodgers moved to L.A. and had become a fixture there, he could still be heard muttering about it only being a matter of time before the whole silly venture failed and the Dodgers and Giants returned to New York. He steadfastly refused to acknowledge the existence of newcomers like the Seattle Mariners or their predecessors, the Seattle Pilots.