Brooklyn Dodgers

The Brooklyn Dodgers are one of the major league baseball teams that Santiago and Manolin discuss during their evenings together, anchoring the old man's thoughts in a world of competition, skill, and shared memory far removed from the solitary struggle at sea. The team functions as a touchstone for Santiago's identity as a man who follows the game with passion and as a link to the boy who loves him, providing a familiar rhythm of conversation and a source of hope and superstition that parallels his own fishing ordeal.

Identity and Role in the Story

The Brooklyn Dodgers are introduced in the context of Santiago's baseball knowledge, which he shares with Manolin as they eat supper in the shack. When the boy asks about the game, Santiago declares his allegiance: "In the other league, between Brooklyn and Philadelphia I must take Brooklyn." This choice is not casual; it reflects the old man's thoughtful engagement with the sport, his memory of great players like Dick Sisler, and his willingness to commit to a team even when the odds are uncertain. The Dodgers thus become part of the intimate ritual of conversation that sustains Santiago's spirit before his great voyage.

Connection to Santiago's Inner Life

During the long days and nights alone on the Gulf Stream, Santiago's thoughts return to baseball and to the Dodgers as a way to maintain his mental clarity and resolve. He wonders about the results of the games he has missed, thinking, "This is the second day now that I do not know the result of the juegos." The team represents a normal, measurable world of competition where outcomes are recorded and discussed—a stark contrast to the vast, indifferent ocean where his struggle with the marlin has no scoreboard. His loyalty to the Dodgers is part of the mental discipline he uses to keep himself focused, alongside his admiration for the great DiMaggio and his memories of the hand game in Casablanca.

The Dodgers as a Measure of Hope and Superstition

Santiago's baseball talk also reveals his superstitious nature and his need for hope. Earlier, when Manolin asks about buying a lottery ticket with the number eighty-five, Santiago responds with a discussion of the Yankees and then mentions his fear of the Indians of Cleveland and the Tigers of Detroit. The Dodgers are not named in that exchange, but the pattern of thinking about teams and their fortunes mirrors the way he approaches his own luck. Later, alone on the boat, he imagines what the great DiMaggio would do, and he thinks of the Dodgers as part of the larger baseball universe that gives him a sense of belonging to a community of men who compete and endure. The team is thus woven into the fabric of his hope, his superstition, and his will to prove himself.

The Dodgers and the Wider World

In the final scene, after Santiago has returned with the marlin's skeleton, a party of tourists at the Terrace misidentifies the remains as a shark. The waiter explains, "Tiburon," but the woman remarks on the beauty of the tail, and her male companion says, "I didn't know sharks had such handsome, beautifully formed tails." This moment of misunderstanding underscores the gap between Santiago's epic struggle and the ordinary world's inability to comprehend it. The Dodgers, as part of the baseball culture that Santiago and Manolin share, represent a different kind of connection—one that is understood and valued within their small community, even if the larger world (symbolized by the tourists) fails to grasp the significance of what the old man has done. The team thus stands as a quiet emblem of the shared knowledge and loyalty that bind Santiago to Manolin and to the life he has chosen.