Northridge : Dodger Fan Part of Team’s Teacher Salute

Terri La Masa loves the Dodgers.

How much? The Northridge schoolteacher has owned season tickets for 20 years and estimates she’s cheered the Dodger blue at more than 600 home games. Not only that, her car’s license plate reads 4DGRS2.

But in all her years of supporting the team, she’s never been on the diamond. Until now.

On Sunday, La Masa will stride onto the field at Dodger Stadium with dozens of other Southern California educators during the team’s annual salute to teachers.

“I’m excited, not nervous,” she says. “I’m just happy to be saluted.”

Arguably the biggest Dodger booster at Calahan Street School, where she has taught for 11 years, La Masa was selected by the elementary school’s PTA in recognition of her work at the campus and with the San Fernando Valley Reading Council.

“When they announced it, my face dropped,” she recalls, noting that sunglasses hid her tears of joy.

At Sunday’s event, La Masa will be accompanied by fifth-grader Becky Benson, a high-achieving student she describes as bright, kind and caring. “She’s just a sweetheart,” she says.

With La Masa’s family watching from the stands, the event will very likely be a highlight in a lifelong fascination with baseball, a love that began as a child when her father sold tickets for the minor league Los Angeles Angels.

“Everybody’s got something they’re devoted to,” she said. “I don’t do any sport but baseball.”

Still, despite her love of the game and her enthusiasm for the teacher tribute, La Masa wryly notes the irony of an event where millionaire baseball players pay homage to educators, all of whom earn far, far less.

“Put it where it belongs--on the kids,” she says, smiling.