Donations Rising, but It Might Be Hush Money

The wife and Miss Radio Personality had beauty appointments, so you knew that would be an all-day project. The happy/sappy couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bagger, wanted a get-away day because they’ve been married only two years and still like each other.

So that left G.P. alone with the granddaughter, the 7-Eleven Kid. We watched her first John Wayne movie, “Red River,” I told a few jokes about the Dodgers, she smiled, grunted a little and then I mentioned Steve Finley’s name.

Well, right away she spit up on me, hitting my shoulder, neck and ear, meaning she has hit more in the last few days than Finley.

When I challenged Finley recently to start hitting, he said he’d donate $100 to the pediatric cancer ward at Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA for each hit he posted the rest of the year. Big deal, that could be nothing. Angel Manager Mike Scioscia offered to match Finley’s donation, and then he benched him. (Just a coincidence, of course.)

Lance and Sandy Lawson e-mailed to say they were also going to donate $10 for every Finley hit and $100 for a four-hit game. “Not that we have a lot of confidence in Finley,” they wrote, “but it may be good for the team and kids.”

Dave Ayers e-mailed to say, “You are ignorant when it comes to hockey, but I always have the choice not to read you when the puck drops. Please put me down for $10 for every Finley hit. Thanks, jerk.”

Rick Pena e-mailed with another $10 donation per hit. “I hope this helps,” he wrote. “In addition, if your daughter [who can’t get a date] likes old fat guys, let me know.” I’ve already passed on his e-mail address.

Ron Oliver has agreed to donate $5 for every Finley hit and $10 for each home run. “I challenge all Page 2 readers to also make a pledge,” he wrote, “especially the readers who hate T.J. Simers.”

Robert Chapman has agreed to match my offers of $100 for every Finley homer and $500 if Finley has one of those miracle four-for-four games, while Tom Kacvinsky is contributing $1 for each hit, $5 for home runs, $1 for every runner thrown out by a Dodger catcher -- $2 if it’s by Jason Phillips -- and $5 for every Jeff Kent homer (“Just to be sure I donate something,” he wrote).

Kacvinsky also will donate $10 for every UCLA win, and $10 for every USC victory (“Just to be sure I donate something,” he added).

Steve Halpern has also agreed to donate $100 for each Bruin victory. “That should set me back $400,” he wrote, which means a UCLA win is now worth $110, while a USC victory earns only $10. (Apparently Steven Sample has a firm grip on all USC donors; I’d call and ask him about it, but you know how that would go.)

Now if Finley ever picks up a bat again, a hit will mean $236 to the kids at Mattel, a home run $215, a four-for-four performance $1,100. I would think a four-for-four performance would also be worth a mention in Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

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FOR SOME reason I seem partial lately to anything having to do with a grandfather, which explains why I took such an interest in a letter from Aaron Amitin.

Aaron is 29, one of Cy Amitin’s eight grandchildren. Cy grew up in a Minnesota orphanage, dropped out of school early and hopped a train to California. A young girl from his Minnesota hometown, working for the USO, picked his name off a list and wrote him letters for three years while he was off fighting in World War II. Then they met for the first time, got married and stayed that way for 59 years.

On his way to work one day in 1958, Cy heard a radio report the Dodgers were moving to Los Angeles. He immediately sent a telegram with $25 to the Brooklyn Dodgers and was No. 187 on a list of future season-ticket holders.

When the Dodgers arrived, he bought two seats in the Coliseum, Tunnel 9. When the team moved into Dodger Stadium, he purchased four seats at $3.25 each, Aisle 22, Row E, Seats 1-4 -- $60 each now.

“We’ve been there ever since,” Aaron wrote. “My dad and his two brothers were raised on Dodger baseball. I went to my first game when I was less than a week old. In his beat-up old Dodger hat with his scorecard in one hand and transistor radio in the other [blaring Vinny’s voice for the entire section to hear], Grandpa Cy taught us about his beloved Dodgers and the game of baseball.”

Cy Amitin, age 87, died recently.

“Dodger Stadium was my grandfather’s paradise,” Aaron wrote in a tribute letter to his grandfather. “No matter what troubles or challenges he faced in life, the Dodgers could solve any problem. Leo Durocher was his all-time Dodger, and he used to quote him to me when I’d get in tough situations.

“He told me if it wasn’t for the Dodgers, he and my dad wouldn’t have spoken during the Vietnam War because of their philosophical differences. When I was away at college adjusting to East Coast life, Grandpa told me to book a flight home on his dime so we could catch a ballgame. It was a cure for any ailment.

“Nothing could keep him away from Dodger Stadium, not a losing team, not an increase in ticket prices, not cancer. When he couldn’t walk on his own, my dad and uncle carried him to the seats.

“He’d call players ‘bums’ if they didn’t hustle, and when Lasorda would come out, he’d yell, ‘Give him the hook, Tommy.’ My dad and uncle said they should’ve had Tom Niedenfuer pitch to Jack Clark, but my grandfather argued at the time they should’ve walked him.

“He loved talking to the people around him. My grandpa saw the game change as much as the faces in Aisle 22 have over the years. But in those 47 years one thing has stayed the same -- you could always find Cy Amitin in Aisle 22, Row E, Seat 1,2,3 or 4. He was the greatest fan the Dodgers ever had.”

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P.S. Alan Amitin, Aaron’s father and Cy’s son, still maintains the Dodgers should’ve pitched to Clark, but “around him.” I argued they should’ve walked him, just like Cy did years ago.

Us G.P.s have to stick together.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at

t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.