Brooklyn, New York, is where I was born more than 55 years ago.
If I remember correctly, when I was a baby, I lived with my family on Avenue N, near my grandparents who lived on the corner of Ocean Parkway and Cortelyou Road.
When I was a baby, the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, which often makes me feel as if I am old as the hills. And the Giants were still at the Polo Grounds, but that's another story for another day.
Today is the 55th anniversary of the Dodgers' last game at Ebbets Field.
They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0, and then they bolted for Los Angeles, as the Giants also went west to San Francisco.
When the Dodgers left Brooklyn, it was as if the heart and soul of the borough went with them.
Brooklyn is one of America's largest cities by population, and when you took the Dodgers out of Brooklyn, you took a lot out of the borough.
Some say Brooklyn hasn't been the same since the Dodgers left.
But that is all about to change.
With the Barclay Center ready to open in downtown Brooklyn right near the Long Island Railroad station, the borough has a new showpiece arena, a place for concerts and athletic events.
And it, once again, has a team that it can call its own, the Brooklyn Nets, the vagabond NBA franchise which has played all over the metropolitan area map, including New Jersey and Long Island.
Will the Nets conjure up the same borough pride that the Dodgers did way back when?
It's actually hard to say.
Times are different, and people don't have a singular focus anymore.
Everybody in Brooklyn was a Dodger fan, or so it seemed from what I've heard.
The Nets have to compete with the legacy of the Knicks, who not only own this town, they own the allegiance of the entire metropolitan New York area.
It should be interesting to see if the Nets can capture that zeal with the fans.
But Brooklyn appears to be back, at least sports-wise, and that, in the long run, is great for the borough.
I will continue to be a Knicks fan, but a little competition certainly can't hurt, can it?
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