Everything about Brooklyn Dodgers totally explained
The
Los Angeles Dodgers are a
Major League Baseball team based in
Los Angeles, California, USA. The team is in the Western Division of the
National League. Established in
1883, the team originated in
Brooklyn, New York, where it was known as the
Brooklyn Dodgers, before moving to Los Angeles before the
1958 season.
Team History
Early Brooklyn baseball
Brooklyn was home to outstanding
baseball clubs in the mid-
1850s. Eight of 16 participants in the
first convention were from Brooklyn, including the
Atlantic,
Eckford and
Excelsior clubs that combined to dominate play for most of the
1860s. Brooklyn helped make baseball commercial, as the locale of the first paid admission games, a series of three all star contests matching New York and Brooklyn in
1858. Brooklyn also featured the first two enclosed baseball grounds, the
Union Grounds and the
Capitoline Grounds; enclosed, dedicated ballparks accelerated the evolution from
amateurism to
professionalism.
Despite the success of Brooklyn clubs in the first Association, officially amateur until 1869, they fielded weak teams in the succeeding
National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the first professional league formed in
1871. The Excelsiors no longer challenged for the amateur championship after the war and never entered the professional NA. The Eckfords and Atlantics declined to join until
1872 and thereby lost their best players; Eckford survived only one season and Atlantic four, with losing teams.
The
National League replaced the NA in 1876 and granted exclusive territories to its eight members, excluding the Atlantics in favor of the
New York Mutuals who had shared the same home grounds. When the Mutuals were expelled by the League, the
Hartford Dark Blues club moved in, changed its name to
The Brooklyn Hartfords and played its home games at Union Grounds in 1877 before disbanding. They were also the Brooklyn Superbas for a little while.
Brooklyn Dodgers
The Brooklyn baseball club that eventually became the NL Dodgers was established in 1883, and the team joined the upstart
American Association the following year. Originally the Brooklyn team was known as the "Atlantics" (a reference to the earlier National Association team), and later as the "Grays." After several of the team's players were married in succession in 1888, the press began referring to the team as the "Brooklyn Bridegrooms." The Bridegrooms won the AA pennant in
1889. Upon switching to the
National League in
1890, the franchise became the first of only three major league sports teams, and the only major league baseball team, to win championships in different leagues in consecutive years. (The other two sports teams to win consecutive sufis in different leagues were the 1948-1949
Minneapolis Lakers and the 1949-1950
Cleveland Browns.) Eight years passed before any more success followed. Because of joint ownership between the two clubs, several
Hall of Fame players were sold to Brooklyn by the soon-to-be-defunct
Baltimore Orioles, along with their manager,
Ned Hanlon. This catapulted Brooklyn to instant contention, and "Brooklyn Superbas" (as the team was known in the late 1890s because the manager shared a surname with "Hanlon's Superbas," a popular acrobatic troupe at the time) lived up to their name, winning pennants in
1899 and
1900.
Teams of this era played in two principal ballparks,
Washington Park and
Eastern Park. They first earned the nickname "
Trolley Dodgers," later shortened to Dodgers, while at
Eastern Park during the
1890s because of the difficulty fans (and players) had in reaching the ballpark due to the number of trolley lines in the area. The name "Trolley Dodgers" is recorded separately in two newspapers on
September 3,
1895. The club also engaged in a series of mergers during this period, acquiring the
New York Metropolitans in
1888 for territorial protection and star contracts, merging with the
Brooklyn Wonders in
1891 as part of the
Players League settlement, and merging with the
Baltimore Orioles (NL) in
1900 as part of the
National League's consolidation of clubs.
In 1902, Hanlon expressed his desire to buy a controlling interest in the team and move it (back, effectively) to
Baltimore. His plan was blocked by a lifelong club employee,
Charles Ebbets, who put himself heavily in debt to buy the team and keep it in the borough. Ebbets' ambition didn't stop at owning the team. He desired to replace the dilapidated
Washington Park with a new ballpark, and again invested heavily to finance the construction of
Ebbets Field, which would become the Dodgers' home for 45 seasons starting in
1913 and ending after the 1957 season.
Rivalry with the Giants
The historic and heated rivalry between the Dodgers and the
Giants is more than a century old, and is the longest rivalry in baseball history, having begun when both clubs played in New York City (the Dodgers in
Brooklyn and the Giants in
Manhattan). When both franchises moved to
California in
1958, the rivalry was easily transplanted with them, as the cities of
Los Angeles and
San Francisco have long been rivals in economic, cultural, and political arenas throughout the history of the State of California.
“Uncle Robbie” and the “Daffiness Boys”
Manager Wilbert Robinson, another former
Oriole, popularly known as “Uncle Robbie,” restored the Brooklyn team to respectability, with his “Brooklyn Robins” winning pennants to reach the
1916 and
1920 World Series, losing both, but contending perennially for several seasons. Charles Ebbetts and Ed McKeever died within a week in 1925, and Robbie was named president while still field manager. Upon assuming the title of president, however, Robinson’s ability to focus on the field declined, and the teams of the late
1920s were often fondly referred to as the “Daffiness Boys” for their distracted, error-ridden style of play. Outfielder
Babe Herman was the leader both in hitting and in zaniness. After his removal as club president, Robinson returned to managing, and the club’s performance rebounded somewhat.
.
When Robinson retired in 1931, he was replaced as manager by
Max Carey. Although some suggested renaming the "Robins" the "Brooklyn Canaries," after Carey (whose last name was originally "Carnarius"), the name "Brooklyn Dodgers" returned to stay following Robinson's retirement. It was during this era that
Willard Mullin, a noted sports
cartoonist, fixed the Brooklyn team with the lovable nickname of
“Dem Bums.” After hearing his cab driver ask "So how did those bums do today?" Mullin decided to sketch an exaggerated version of famed circus clown
Emmett Kelly to represent the Dodgers in his much-praised cartoons in the
New York World-Telegram. Both the image and the nickname caught on, so much so that many a Dodger yearbook cover, from 1951 through 1957, featured a Willard Mullin illustration with the Brooklyn Bum.
Perhaps the highlight of the Daffiness Boys era came after Wilbert Robinson had left the dugout. In
1934, Giants player/manager
Bill Terry was asked about the Dodgers’ chances in the coming pennant race and cracked infamously, “Is Brooklyn still in the league?” Managed now by
Casey Stengel (who played for the Dodgers in the
1910s and would go on to greatness managing
another team), the 1934 Dodgers were determined to make their presence felt. As it happened, the season ended with the Giants tied with the
St. Louis Cardinals for the pennant, with the Giants’ remaining games against the Dodgers. Stengel led his Bums to the
Polo Grounds for the showdown and they beat the Giants twice to knock them out of the pennant race. The “
Gashouse Gang” Cardinals nailed the pennant by beating the
Cincinnati Reds those same two days.
One key development during this era was the 1938 appointment of Leland Stanford MacPhail — better known as
Larry MacPhail — as the Dodgers' general manager. MacPhail, who brought night baseball to MLB as general manager of the Reds, also introduced Brooklyn to night baseball and ordered the successful refurbishing of Ebbets Field. He also brought Reds voice
Red Barber to Brooklyn as the Dodgers' lead announcer in 1939, just after MacPhail broke the New York baseball executives' agreement to ban live baseball broadcasts, enacted because of the fear of what effect the radio calls would have on the home teams' attendance.
MacPhail remained with the Dodgers until 1942, when he returned to the Armed Forces for
World War II. (He later became one of the
New York Yankees' co-owners, bidding unsuccessfully for Barber to join him in the Bronx as announcer.) MacPhail's surviving son Leland Jr. (
Lee MacPhail) and surviving grandson
Andy MacPhail also became MLB execs.
The first major-league baseball game to be
televised was Brooklyn’s 6-1 victory over
Cincinnati at Ebbets Field on
August 26,
1939.
Batting helmets were introduced to Major League Baseball by the Dodgers in
1941.
Breaking the color barrier
For most of the first half of the
20th century, no Major League Baseball team employed an
African-American player. A parallel system of
Negro Leagues developed, but most of the Negro League players were denied a chance to prove their skill before a national audience.
Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play for a Major League Baseball team when he played his first major-league game on
April 15,
1947, as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It happened mainly due to General Manager
Branch Rickey's efforts. The deeply religious Rickey's motivation appears to have been primarily moral although business considerations were also present. Rickey was a member of
The Methodist Church, the antecedent denomination to
The United Methodist Church of today, which was a strong advocate for
social justice and active later in the
Civil Rights movement. (
The New York Times: )
This event was the harbinger of the integration of sports in the United States, the concomitant demise of the
Negro Leagues, and is regarded as a key moment in the history of the American
Civil Rights movement. Robinson was an exceptional player, a speedy
runner who sparked the whole team with his intensity, and was given the inaugural
Rookie of the Year award, which is now named the Jackie Robinson award in his honor. Robinson would eventually go on to become the first African-American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
“Wait ’til next year!”
After the wilderness years of the 1920s and 1930s, the Dodgers were rebuilt into a contending club first by general manager
Larry MacPhail and then the legendary
Branch Rickey. Led by
Pee Wee Reese,
Jackie Robinson and
Gil Hodges in the infield,
Duke Snider in center field,
Roy Campanella behind the plate, and
Don Newcombe on the pitcher's mound, the Dodgers won pennants in
1941,
1947,
1949,
1952, and
1953, only to fall to the
New York Yankees in all five of the subsequent World Series.
The annual ritual of building excitement, followed in the end by disappointment, became a common pattern to the long suffering fans, and
“Wait ’til next year!” became an unofficial Dodger slogan.
While the Dodgers generally enjoyed resounding success during this period, in
1951 they fell victim to one of the largest collapses in the history of baseball. On
August 11, Brooklyn led the National League by an enormous 13½ games over their archrivals, the Giants. However, while the Dodgers went 26-22 from that time until the end of the season, the Giants went on an absolute tear, winning an amazing 37 of their last 44 games, including their last seven in a row. At the conclusion of the season, the Dodgers and the Giants were tied for first place, forcing a three-game playoff for the pennant. The Giants took Game 1 by a score of 3-1 before being shut out by the Dodgers'
Clem Labine in Game 2, 10-0. It all came down to the final game, and Brooklyn seemed to have the pennant locked up, holding a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning. However, Giants third baseman
Bobby Thomson hit a stunning three-run
walk-off home run off the Dodgers'
Ralph Branca to secure the NL Championship in dramatic fashion for New York. Today, this home run is known as the
Shot Heard 'Round The World.
In
1955, by which time the core of the Dodger team was beginning to age, “next year” finally came. The fabled “Boys of Summer” shot down the "Bronx Bombers" in seven games, led by the first-class pitching of young left-hander
Johnny Podres, whose key pitch was a
changeup known as “pulling down the lampshade” because of the arm motion used right when the ball was released. Podres won two Series games, including the deciding seventh. The turning point of Game 7 was a spectacular double play that began with left fielder
Sandy Amoros running down
Yogi Berra’s long fly, then throwing perfectly to
shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who doubled up a surprised
Gil McDougald at first base to preserve the Dodger lead. The Dodgers won 2-0.
Although the Dodgers lost the World Series to the Yankees in
1956 (during which the Yankees pitcher
Don Larsen pitched the only postseason
perfect game in baseball history), it hardly seemed to matter. Brooklyn fans had their memory of triumph, and soon that would be all they were left with – a victory that decades later would later be remembered in the
Billy Joel single "
We Didn't Start the Fire," which included the line, "Brooklyn's got a winning team."
Move to California
Real estate businessman
Walter O'Malley had acquired majority ownership of the Dodgers in
1950, when he bought the shares of his co-owners, the estate of the late John L. Smith and
Branch Rickey. Before long he was working to buy new land in Brooklyn to build a more accessible and better arrayed ballpark than Ebbets Field. Beloved as it was, Ebbets Field had grown old and wasn't well served by infrastructure, to the point where the Dodgers couldn't sell the park out even in the heat of a pennant race (despite largely dominating the league from
1946 to
1957).
New York City Construction Coordinator
Robert Moses, however, sought to force O'Malley into using a site in
Flushing Meadows,
Queens – the site for what eventually became
Shea Stadium. Moses' vision involved a city-built, city-owned park, which was greatly at odds with O'Malley's real-estate savvy. When it became clear to O'Malley that he wasn't going to be allowed to buy any suitable land in Brooklyn, he began thinking elsewhere.
Meanwhile, non-stop transcontinental air travel had become routine during the years since the
Second World War, and teams were no longer bound by much slower railroad timetables. Because of these transportation advances, it became possible to locate teams further apart – as far west as California – while maintaining the same game schedules.
When Los Angeles officials attended the
1956 World Series looking to entice a team to move to the City of Angels, they were not even thinking of the Dodgers. Their original target had been the lowly Washington Senators (who would in fact move to
Bloomington, Minnesota to become the
Minnesota Twins in
1961). At the same time, O'Malley was looking for a contingency in case Moses and other New York politicians refused to let him build the Brooklyn stadium he wanted, and sent word to the Los Angeles officials that he was interested in talking. Los Angeles offered him what New York would not: a chance to buy land suitable for building a ballpark, and own that ballpark, giving him complete control over all its revenue streams.
Meanwhile, Giants owner
Horace Stoneham was having similar difficulty finding a replacement for his team's antiquated home stadium, the
Polo Grounds. Stoneham was considering moving the Giants to Minneapolis, but was persuaded instead to move them to San Francisco, ensuring that the Dodgers would have a National League rival closer than St. Louis. So the two arch-rival teams, the Dodgers and Giants, moved out to the West Coast together after the 1957 season.
The Brooklyn Dodgers played their final game at
Ebbets Field on
September 24,
1957, which the Dodgers won 2-0 over the
Pittsburgh Pirates. On
June 24,
2007 spectators at
KeySpan Park in Brooklyn, home of the
New York Mets Single-A team, the
Brooklyn Cyclones, watched
Danny McDevitt, who threw the last pitch for the Brooklyn Dodgers re-enact that moment with his catcher
Joe Pignatano, who caught McDevitt's ball in 1957.
'Brooklyn' Dodgers Celebrate 50th Anniversary
On
April 18,
1958, the Los Angeles Dodgers played their first game in LA, defeating the former New York and now new San Francisco Giants, 6-5, before 78,672 fans at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
A 2007
HBO film,, is a documentary covering the Dodgers history from early days to the beginning of the Los Angeles era.
Who is to Blame?
There has been much controversy over the move of the Dodgers to California, perhaps more than over any other franchise move of that era. Walter O'Malley, in particular, is described as villainous by old Brooklyn Dodger fans and is considered a hero by Angelenos for bringing a big-league team to their city. (An old Brooklyn barb is that the three greatest villains of the Twentieth Century were
Hitler,
Stalin, and O'Malley. The joke is if a fan was locked in a room with the three and had only two bullets who would he shoot? The Answer? O'Malley. Twice.) The old Brooklyn Dodgers fans further believe he demonstrated some measure of selfishness and greed, but the same might also be said of the New York City politicians who opposed him. Both sides were quite stubborn and fatally misjudged each other. It also should be noted that Brooklyn had declined in many ways, under various social pressures, and was a much less desirable location for a baseball team than it had been. In fact, both sides in the stadium dispute proposed to remove the Dodgers from Brooklyn (Moses' plan for a team in Flushing Meadows was realized several years later, with little alteration, when the
New York Mets began playing in Shea Stadium). O'Malley also deserves credit as a visionary. Until 1958, cities in
Missouri had generally been the westernmost outpost of Major League Baseball, whereas 12 of baseball's 30 teams now have their homes farther west.
On the opposite side, the Dodgers were the second-most profitable team in the National League in the 1950s, even with the deficiencies of Ebbets Field. Other teams (like the
Boston Red Sox) proved successful in facilities that were as old as Ebbets Field, and the
New York Yankees still drew large crowds to
the Bronx, in a neighborhood facing many of the changes and problems as Brooklyn. Moses' motives for opposing O'Malley's stadium may not have been without foundation: the Dodgers' owner wanted to drop a cookie-cutter
domed stadium at the busy intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in
Prospect Heights, which would have required a massive
urban renewal project that would have been politically and financially problematic. Moses also felt the development there would create a "China Wall" of traffic. The site remains problematic: The proposed
Atlantic Yards development in Prospect Heights, including an arena across the street from the proposed Dodger Stadium site that would house the
NBA's
New Jersey Nets team, has run into opposition from Brooklyn politicians and community activists, who say its scale could ruin the neighborhood's character.
Many writers have suspected O'Malley of deliberately making his stadium proposal impractical, in order to bolster his claim that New York politicians drove him out of Brooklyn. It has been noted that O'Malley kept a model of the Dodgers' new stadium on his desk and publicly touted its merits while privately negotiating with Los Angeles politicians. Many Moses scholars would, however, point to Moses' almost pathologically uncompromising nature; Moses was openly dismissive of public and press criticism of his projects, and the political structure of New York City in the 1950s was such that he nearly always got his way. Still, prominent New York leaders learned how to deal with Moses for mutually beneficial projects:
Francis Cardinal Spellman was even able to pressure Moses to build a Manhattan expansion for
Fordham University. By the 1950s, only Queens had large undeveloped areas of land in New York City (not counting
Staten Island, as the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge wouldn't be completed until 1964), a fact of which O'Malley was keenly aware.
Moreover, O'Malley was hardly the first team owner to see the possibilities of Los Angeles. The
St. Louis Browns were attempting to move to LA after the 1941 season. A vote on the proposed relocation was to take place at an owners' meeting scheduled for
December 8,
1941. This was canceled due to the Japanese attacks on
Pearl Harbor the previous day.
Kansas City Athletics owner Arnold Johnson was rumored to have parked the A's in Kansas City while waiting to move the team out to California (they ultimately moved to
Oakland, giving the Giants an A.L. rival), and the American League would expand to Los Angeles in
1961 with the
Angels (giving the Dodgers an A.L. rival).
During the
2000 World Series,
Roger Kahn wrote an Op-Ed for the
Los Angeles Times in which he recalled sitting on a panel of New York State and City officials to explore the purchase of the Dodgers. The O'Malley family put the team up for sale in
1998, and the panel was charged with exploring the possibility of moving the Dodgers back to Brooklyn. Kahn said the officials came up with a preliminary offer that was rejected by the O'Malleys; the figure, he said, was larger than the price
Rupert Murdoch eventually paid for the team. Kahn argued that the O'Malleys rejected the offer because the story of the Dodgers being "thrown out of New York" was an essential part of the team's mythology. Kahn said the O'Malleys needed the myth more than the money. Peter O'Malley has stated he'd only sell the team to someone who kept a commitment to Los Angeles and Southern California
(External Link)Time.
Despite the passage of 50 plus years since departing from Brooklyn, many in the borough, and the nation, continue efforts to encourage a move back east. Many of these efforts take the shape of letter writing campaigns, online petitions and nostalgic articles. Brooklyn Dodgers merchandise is still popular among fans as well.
Major League Baseball estimates $9 million in sales every year. The
Baseball Hall of Fame reports that Brooklyn photos and broadcasts are the museum's second biggest sellers behind the Yankees,
eBay lists close to 1,000 items a day relating to the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the
Library of Congress has over 100 books on the Brooklyn teams, third only to the Yankees and Red Sox.
New start
The process of building Walter O'Malley's dream stadium soon began in semi-rural
Chavez Ravine, in the hills just north of downtown L.A. There was some political controversy, as the residents of the ravine, mostly
Hispanic and mostly poor, resisted the
eminent domain removal of their homes (land which had been previously condemned for a public housing project,
Elysian Park Heights) and gained some public sympathy. Still, O'Malley and the city government were determined, and construction proceeded. The resistance of the residents against their removal was known as the
Battle of Chavez Ravine.
In the meantime, the Dodgers played their home games from
1958 to
1961 at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a gargantuan football and track-and-field stadium that had been built to host the
1932 Summer Olympics. The Coliseum's dimensions were not optimal for baseball, and the only way to fit a diamond into the oval-shaped stadium was to lay the third-base line along the short axis of the oval, and the first-base line along the long axis.
See picture. This resulted in a left-field fence that was only some 250 feet from home plate, and a 40-foot screen was erected to prevent home runs from becoming too easy to hit. Still, the
1958 season saw 182 home runs hit to left field in the Coliseum, while only 3 were hit to center field and 8 to right field. Dodgers outfielder
Wally Moon, newly acquired for the
1959 season, became adept at launching lazy fly balls over the screen, which became known as "Moon shots."
In 1959, the season ended in a tie between the Dodgers and the
Milwaukee Braves, and the Dodgers won the tie-breaking playoff. 1959 also saw a team other than the
Yankees win the A.L. pennant, one of only two such years in the 16-year stretch from
1949 through
1964. In a lively
World Series, the Dodgers defeated the "Go-Go"
White Sox in six games, thoroughly cementing the bond between the team and its new California fans.
Commemorating their 50th year in Los Angeles, the Dodgers again played in the Coliseum on March 29, 2008 for a charity exhibition game. The crowd of 115,300, the largest in baseball history, saw the Dodgers lose to the
Boston Red Sox, 7-4. Due to subsequent renovations, the Coliseum's left field corner was reduced to only 191 feet, necessitating an even taller net of 60 feet.
Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox and
James Loney of the Dodgers hit home runs over the net.
The 1960s: Pitching, defense, and speed
Construction on
Dodger Stadium was completed in time for Opening Day
1962. With its clean, simple lines and its picturesque setting amid hills and palm trees, the ballpark quickly became an icon of the Dodgers and their new California lifestyle, and it remains one of the most highly-regarded stadiums in baseball even today. Despite the fact that the Dodgers have played in Dodger Stadium longer than they'd played in Ebbett's Field, the stadium remains surprisingly fresh. O'Malley was determined that there wouldn't be a bad seat in the house, achieving this by
cantilevered grandstands that have since been widely imitated. More importantly for the team, the stadium's spacious dimensions, along with other factors, gave defense an advantage over offense, and the Dodgers moved to take advantage of this by assembling a team that would excel with its
pitching.
The core of the team's success in the 1960s was the dominant pitching tandem of
Sandy Koufax and
Don Drysdale, who combined to win 4 of the 5
Cy Young Awards from 1962 to 1966, during a time in which only one award was given to the top pitcher from either of the two major leagues. Top pitching also came from
Claude Osteen, an aging
Johnny Podres, and reliever
Ron Perranoski. The hitting attack, on the other hand, wasn't impressive, and much of the offensive spark came from the exploits of speedy shortstop
Maury Wills, who led the league in
stolen bases every year from 1960 to 1965, and set a modern record with 104 thefts in
1962. The Dodgers' strategy was once described as follows:
"Wills hits a single, steals second, and takes third on a grounder. A sacrifice fly brings him home. Koufax or Drysdale pitches a shutout, and the Dodgers win 1-0." Although few games followed this model exactly, the Dodgers won their first World Series the year after they came out to LA.
The
1962 pennant race ended in a tie, and the Dodgers were defeated by the archrival
Giants in the tie-breaking playoff, but the Dodgers proceeded to win the pennant in three of the next four years. The
1963 World Series was a 4-game sweep of the
Yankees, in which the Dodgers were so dominant that the vaunted Bronx Bombers never even took a lead against Koufax, Podres, and Drysdale. After an injury-plagued
1964, the Dodgers bounced back to win the
1965 World Series in a thrilling 7 games against the
Minnesota Twins. Game 1 happened to fall on
Yom Kippur, and Koufax (who is
Jewish) refused to pitch on the holy day, a decision for which he was widely praised. The Dodgers rebounded from losing the first two games, as Koufax pitched
shutouts in Games 5 and 7 (with only two days rest in between) to win the crown and the
World Series MVP Award.
The Dodgers again won the pennant in
1966, but the team was running out of gas and was swept in the
World Series by the upstart
Baltimore Orioles (who went on to a successful run through the late '60s and early '70s). Koufax retired that winter, his career cut short by arthritis in the elbow of his pitching arm, and Wills was traded away after offending Walter O'Malley. Drysdale continued to be effective, setting a record for consecutive scoreless innings in
1968, but he too retired early due to injuries. While the Dodgers were subpar for several seasons thereafter, a new core of young talent was developing in their
farm system. They won another pennant in
1974, and although they were quickly dismissed by the dynastic
Oakland Athletics in the
World Series, it was a sign of good things to come.
The late 1970s: The early Lasorda years
For 23 years, beginning in
1954, the Dodgers had been managed by
Walter Alston, a quiet and unflappable man who commanded great respect from his players. Alston's tenure is the third-longest in baseball history for a manager with a single team, after
Connie Mack and
John McGraw. His retirement near the end of the
1976 season, after winning 7 pennants and 4 World Series titles over his career, cleared the way for an entirely different personality to take the helm of the Dodgers.
Tommy Lasorda was a 49-year-old former minor-league pitcher who had been the team's top coach under Alston, and before that had been manager of the Dodgers' top minor league team. He was colorful and gregarious, an enthusiastic cheerleader in contrast to Alston's taciturn demeanor. He quickly became a larger-than-life personality, associating with
Frank Sinatra and other celebrities, with a penchant for eating Italian food in large volumes. He became well-known for sayings such as, "If you cut me, I bleed
Dodger blue," and for referring to
God as "the Great Dodger in the sky." Although some considered his persona to be a
schtick and found it wearing, his enthusiasm won him a reputation as an "ambassador for baseball," and it's impossible to think of the Dodgers from the late '70s to the early '90s without thinking of Lasorda.
Another transition had recently occurred, higher up in the Dodgers management. Walter O'Malley passed control of the team to his son
Peter, who would continue to oversee the Dodgers on his family's behalf through
1998.
New blood had also been injected into the team on the field. The core of the team was now the infield, composed of
Steve Garvey (1B),
Davey Lopes (2B),
Bill Russell (SS), and
Ron Cey (3B). These four remained in the starting lineup together from 1973 to 1981, longer than any other infield foursome in baseball history. The pitching staff remained strong, anchored by
Don Sutton and
Tommy John. The Dodgers won
NL West titles in both
1977 and
1978, and defeated the
Philadelphia Phillies both years in the
National League Championship Series, only to be defeated in the World Series both years by the
Yankees. In
1980, they swept a three game series from the
Houston Astros in the final weekend of the regular season (including Don Sutton's brilliant save) and were in a first place tie in the National League West, but lost to the Astros 7-1 in the one-game playoff.
The 1980s: Fernandomania and the Bulldog
The Opening Day starting pitcher for
1981 was a 20-year-old rookie from Mexico:
Fernando Valenzuela.
Pressed into service due to an injury to
Jerry Reuss, Valenzuela pitched a
shutout that day, and proceeded to win his first 8 decisions through mid-May. The youthful left-hander, speaking only Spanish but sporting a devastating
screwball, became a sensation. “Fernandomania” gripped both Southern California, where huge crowds turned out to see him pitch, as well as in his home country of Mexico, where the number of radio stations that carried Dodger games increased that year from 3 stations to 17. Valenzuela became the only pitcher ever to be named
Rookie of the Year and win the
Cy Young Award in the same season. The Dodgers' torrid start assured them of a playoff berth in the
strike-shortened split season. After defeating the
Montreal Expos with the help of a ninth-inning two-out home run by
Rick Monday in the 5th and deciding game of the National League Championship Series they proceeded to defeat the
Yankees in the
World Series in six games, with the World Series MVP award split three ways among
Ron Cey,
Pedro Guerrero and
Steve Yeager.
The Dodgers won
NL West titles in
1983 and
1985, but lost in the NLCS both those years (to the
Phillies and
Cardinals, respectively). The 1985 NLCS was particularly memorable for Game 6, in which the Dodgers were protecting a 5-4 lead in the ninth inning, hoping to force a deciding seventh game. With two runners on and first base open, Lasorda elected not to
walk Cards slugger
Jack Clark, who proceeded to hit a home run off
Tom Niedenfuer and send St. Louis to the World Series.
After seven years of high
strikeout totals, and a 21-win season in
1986, Valenzuela sat out for most of the
1988 season. Plagued by arm troubles that were widely blamed on his being overused by Lasorda, his effectiveness faded before he turned 30. The new anchor of the pitching staff was a bespectacled string-bean of a right-hander named
Orel Hershiser. He had been given the nickname "Bulldog" by Lasorda, more as a hopeful motivational tool than an objective description of his personality, but by 1988 he'd matured into one of baseball's most effective pitchers. That year he won 23 games and the
Cy Young Award, and broke
Don Drysdale's major league record by tossing 59 consecutive scoreless innings, ending with a 10-inning
shutout on his final start of the season.
1988 World Series Championship Team
The
1988 Championship won by the Dodgers is all the more magical for the fact that the Dodgers were hardly baseball's best team on paper. They enjoyed career years from several players, and were inspired by the fiery intensity of newcomer
Kirk Gibson (the league's
Most Valuable Player that year), as well as the quiet but steady Hershiser and the always ebullient Lasorda. Although they entered the
NLCS as decided
underdogs to the powerful
New York Mets, who they were 1-10 against during the regular season, the Dodgers prevailed in a thrilling back-and-forth series that went the entire 7 games and saw Hershiser come on for the save in game 4. The
World Series matched them with an even more powerful opponent, the
Oakland Athletics, who owned baseball's best regular-season record with 104 wins against only 58 defeats. Featuring the "Bash Brothers" duo of
Mark McGwire and
José Canseco, the A's took an early lead in Game 1 on a
grand slam by Canseco, and led 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. With two outs, pinch-hitter
Mike Davis drew a base on balls from formidable closer and future
Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley. During Davis' at-bat, Lasorda had the light-hitting infielder
Dave Anderson on deck so the Athletics would pitch to Davis more carefully. Then, Gibson, hobbled by injuries to both his legs that included a strained MCL and a severely pulled hamstring, came in to
pinch hit. After fighting off several pitches and working the count full, Gibson got the backdoor slider he was looking for and pulled it into the right field
pavilion for a two-run,
walk-off home run, winning the game for the Dodgers, 5-4. Easily one of the most memorable and improbable home runs in baseball history, Gibson's dramatic home run was his only appearance of the entire series, and it set the tone for the following four games. Hershiser dominated the Athletics in Games 2 and 5, and was on the mound when the Dodgers completed their stunning 4 games to 1 upset of the A's, capping off an incredible personal season by being named the Series MVP. Few remember that the Dodgers were so injury riddled during their World Series appearance. They won the Series in Game 5 with lifetime reserves Danny Heep and Mickey Hatcher in the starting lineup.
The 1990s: Rookies and the Fox Era
After 1988, the Dodgers didn't win another postseason game until 2004, though they did reach the playoffs in
1995 and
1996, narrowly missed in
1991 and
1997, and led the NL West when the end of the 1994 season was cancelled by a
strike. Hershiser, like Valenzuela before him, suffered an arm injury in 1990 due to overwork, which took the edge off his effectiveness for the remainder of his career. From 1992 to 1996, five consecutive Dodgers were named
Rookie of the Year:
Eric Karros,
Mike Piazza,
Raúl Mondesí,
Hideo Nomo, and
Todd Hollandsworth, which is a record. After nearly 20 years at the helm, Lasorda retired in 1996, though he still remained with the Dodgers as an executive vice-president. He was replaced as manager by longtime Dodgers shortstop
Bill Russell.
Nearly a half-century of unusual stability (only two managers 1954-1996, owned by a single family 1950-1998) finally came to an end. After L.A. city officials rejected a proposal to bring an NFL stadium and franchise to Chavez Ravine in 1998, the O'Malley family sold the Dodgers to
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation, owner of the
Fox network (which also owns
broadcast rights to MLB games) and
20th Century Fox. Among the new ownership's early moves were trading away popular catcher Piazza, and replacing Russell with celebrity manager
Davey Johnson. Johnson's volatile tenure ended two years later, and he was followed as manager by
Jim Tracy. To fans accustomed to the personal touch of the O'Malleys, the Fox corporate ownership often seemed clumsy and distracted. Huge contracts were awarded to injury-prone pitchers
Kevin Brown and
Darren Dreifort, unprofitably tying up money that could have improved the team in many other areas. Fox made the first changes to the home uniform since the club moved from Brooklyn and introduced the team's first alternate jersey and cap, adding silver to the team's official colors (although they've rarely been used since). The team became more steady on the field in the early 2000s, with four consecutive winning seasons under the leadership of manager Tracy, starting pitcher
Chan Ho Park, slugger
Shawn Green, third baseman
Adrián Beltré, and catcher
Paul Lo Duca. The 2002 season was marked by the emergence of
Éric Gagné as one of baseball's top
relief pitchers. Gagné later won the
Cy Young Award in 2003, converting all 55 of his save opportunities that year, and holding the league to a 1.20
ERA and striking out 137 batters in 82 1/3 innings. Gagné would later establish a new major league record for consecutive saves, with 84 saves spanning parts of the 2002, 2003 and 2004 seasons.
The Sabermetric Experiment
In
2004, the Dodgers were returned to family ownership, as News Corp sold the team to
Boston real estate developer
Frank McCourt. McCourt immediately hired
Paul DePodesta as his new general manager, replacing
Dan Evans. As an assistant general manager in Oakland under
Billy Beane, DePodesta favored a highly
statistical approach to evaluating prospects and potential free-agents. This
sabermetric approach, widely publicized in the book by
Michael Lewis, led many to believe that new owner McCourt was unwilling to pay for high priced talent, and would thus reduce the Dodgers to a status similar to small-market teams such as Oakland. With a team largely assembled by DePodesta's predecessors, and augmented by some acquisitions of his own, DePodesta saw the Dodgers near the top of the standings through much of
2004. In an effort to put the team over the top that year, DePodesta pulled off a number of mid-season trades, including sending away three key players (including popular team leader LoDuca), while obtaining several new players. The Dodgers did manage to win the
NL West in 2004, but bowed out quickly in four games in the Division Series to the eventual National League champion
St. Louis Cardinals.
During the winter of 2004-05, the team parted ways with several more longtime players, including Beltré and Green. Their replacements included starting pitcher
Derek Lowe, outfielder
J. D. Drew, and the run-producing, but aging second baseman
Jeff Kent. DePodesta's radical overhaul didn't bear fruit in
2005, as the Dodgers suffered from clubhouse strife and stifling injuries, finishing with their second-worst record in Los Angeles history. The club also faced an overwhelming number of injuries that quickly scuttled the team's hopes of repeating as division champions. Among them were Drew's broken wrist, All-Star shortstop
Cesar Izturis's injury that required
Tommy John Surgery, and closer Gagné's deteriorating elbow condition that would also require surgery and force him to miss much of the 2005 season. Manager Jim Tracy also parted ways with the team at the end of the 2005 season, citing irreconcilable differences with DePodesta. However, DePodesta himself was fired by McCourt less than a month later, with McCourt later citing DePodesta's lack of leadership and personal skills.
Ned Colletti was hired as the new Dodger GM on
16 November 2005.
Colletti and Little
Newly hired
Ned Colletti was responsible for a tangible change in attitude and guided the Dodgers' resurgence in the 2006 season. He hired former Red Sox manager
Grady Little to lead the team and also traded oft-troubled
Milton Bradley for rookie phenom
Andre Ethier. His off season acquisitions also included former Atlanta Brave shortstop
Rafael Furcal and former Red Sox third baseman
Bill Mueller. Coletti also signed former All-Star shortstop
Nomar Garciaparra, even though the team already had two other former All-Star shortstops (Furcal and the then-injured
Cesar Izturis). Garciaparra agreed to play first base and adjusted quite well in the field and remained productive at the plate, producing several key hits in Dodger victories.
Due to the crowded infield, untimely injuries and several players' lack of production, the team was rebuilt during the season. The flurry of trading saw Cesar Izturis go to the Chicago Cubs for
Greg Maddux while Willy Aybar and Danys Baez went to Atlanta for
Wilson Betemit. A series of rookies were called up and provided substantial everyday contributions. Among them were catcher
Russell Martin, who won the starting catching job after being called up in May and starting pitcher
Chad Billingsley, who had several quality starts in August and September.
Andre Ethier led the team in batting with a .308 batting average as the team's everyday left fielder through much of the season. Rookie first baseman
James Loney hit very well in his short time with the team, tying Gil Hodges’ 56-year-old Dodgers record with 9 RBI in one game on 28 September. Another key move was handing the closer's role to rookie (but Japanese League veteran)
Takashi Saito, where he flourished, notching 24 saves in 26 opportunities while posting a 2.07 ERA.
After a heated pennant race, in which the most memorable moment occurred when the Dodgers hit four consecutive home runs on September 18th to tie the score in the ninth inning and then won the game on a tenth-inning walk-off homer by
Nomar Garciaparra, the Dodgers entered the 2006 playoffs in the National League's Wild Card spot, having tied the San Diego Padres for the division lead but having lost 13 of 18 head-to-head meetings with the Padres. They were eventually swept, 3-0, by the
New York Mets in the
2006 National League Division Series.
In 2007, the Los Angeles Dodgers sent three players (
Brad Penny,
Takashi Saito, and
Russell Martin) to the all-star game, and at one point, the Dodgers had a record of 54-41, which was then the best record in the
National League. After a hitting slump, the Dodgers fell to 60-59, and seven games out of first place in the
N.L. West. The Dodgers were able to rebound, however, and had a 79-69 record with three weeks left in the season. At this point, the Dodgers trailed the
San Diego Padres by 1 1/2 games in the wild card slot, and the
Arizona Diamondbacks by 3 1/2 games. However, the Dodgers lost 10 of their next 11 games, which eliminated the Dodgers from post season play, and would finish the season with a disappointing 82-80 record. The last few weeks of the season were disrupted further by public complaints in the media by some of the veteran ballplayers about the lack of respect afforded them by some of the younger players on the team. This led to a divided clubhouse, as younger players consistently got more playing time at the expense of the veterans. After the season and weeks of media speculation,
Grady Little resigned as manager, citing personal reasons
(External Link). A few days later, on
November 1,
2007, the Dodgers announced the hiring of former
New York Yankees skipper
Joe Torre to be the team's new manager.
Other historical notes
Tournament of Roses Parade
On January 1, 2008, The Dodgers kicked off their 50th year in Los Angeles by building a float for the 119th annual
Tournament of Roses Parade in
Pasadena, CA. The riders on the float contained past and current Dodgers, including Tom Lasorda, Nomar Garciaparra,
Don Newcombe,
Fernando Valenzuela,
Steve Garvey,
Eric Karros,
James Loney,
Takashi Saito,
Hong-Chih Kuo, and
Brad Penny. Also on the float was
Vin Scully, the Dodgers announcer of 59 years and the Dodgers organist,
Nancy Bea Hefley.
Attendance
The Dodgers were the first MLB team to attract more than 3 million fans in a season (in 1978), and accomplished that feat 6 more times before any other franchise did it once. On
3 July 2007, Dodgers management announced that total franchise attendance, dating back to 1901, had reached 175 million, a record for all professional sports.
The Dodgers also recently set the world record for the greatest attendance for a single baseball game during an exhibition game against the
Boston Red Sox at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in honor of the Dodger's 50th anniversary in Los Angeles with over 115,000 fans in attendance. All proceeds from the game benefitted the official charity of the Dodgers,
ThinkCure! which supports cancer research at
Children's Hospital Los Angeles and
City of Hope.
Asian Players
The Dodgers have been groundbreaking in their signing of players from Asia; namely, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Former owner
Peter O'Malley began reaching out in 1980 by starting clinics in China and Korea, building baseball fields in two Chinese cities, and in 1998 becoming the first major league team to open an office in Asia. The Dodgers were the first team to start a Japanese player in recent history, pitcher
Hideo Nomo, a Korean player, pitcher
Chan Ho Park, and the first Taiwanese player,
Chin-Feng Chen. In the 2008 season the Dodgers currently have the most Asian players on its roster of any major league team with five. They include Japanese pitchers
Takashi Saito and
Hiroki Kuroda; Korean pitcher
Chan Ho Park; and Taiwanese pitcher
Hong-Chih Kuo and infielder
Chin-Lung Hu.
Celebrity fans
Given the team's proximity to
Hollywood, the large Dodgers fanbase includes many celebrities, most of whom can regularly be seen at
Dodger Stadium during home games. Some of these fans include:
Mackenzie Astin, Actor (External Link)
Jason Bateman, Actor (External Link)
Victoria Beckham, Singer (External Link)
Dyan Cannon, Actress
Bryan Cranston, Actor (External Link)
Ice Cube, Rapper/Actor
Carson Daly, Late-night talk show host
James Denton, Actor
Dr. Dre, Rapper/Producer
The Game, Rapper
Greg Grunberg, Actor, Heroes (External Link)
Linda Hamilton, Actress
Ron Howard, Actor, Director
Larry King, Award-winning writer, journalist, and broadcaster, host of Larry King Live on CNN.
Shia LaBeouf, Actor
Matt Leinart, NFL Football player, former Heisman Trophy winner
Jay Leno, Late-night talk show host
George Lopez, Actor, Comedian, Producer
Al Michaels, TV sportscaster
Alyssa Milano, Actress
Freddie Prinze, Jr., Actor (External Link)
Axl Rose, Singer (External Link)
Christian Slater, Actor
Ice-T, Rapper/Actor
Tiger Woods, Pro golfer (External Link)
Robert Wuhl, Actor (External Link)
Dwayne Johnson, Actor, Former WWE Wrestler
Vin Scully
Vin Scully began broadcasting for the then Brooklyn ball club during the 1950 season and is a beloved figure among the fans to this very day. In 1976, he was selected by Dodgers fans as the Most Memorable Personality (on the field or off) of the team's history in L.A. He is also a recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters (inducted in 1982). In 2008, he'll begin his 59th year with the team.
Radio and television
As noted above, Vin Scully has called Dodgers games since 1950. His longtime partners were Jerry Doggett (1956-1987) and Ross Porter (1977-2004). Unlike the modern style in which multiple sportscasters have an on-air conversation (usually with one functioning as play-by-play announcer and the other(s) as color commentator), Scully and Doggett and Porter generally called games solo, trading with each other inning-by-inning. In the 1980s and 90s, Scully would call the entire radio broadcast except for the 3rd and 7th inning; allowing the other Dodger commentators to broadcast an inning.
Scully continues to call Dodgers games without a color commentator.
When Doggett retired after the 1987 season, he was replaced by Hall-of-Fame Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale, who previously broadcasted games for the crosstown California Angels. Drysdale died in his hotel room following a heart attack before a game in 1993, resulting in a very difficult broadcast for Scully and Porter, and was replaced by former Dodgers outfielder Rick Monday. Porter's tenure was terminated somewhat controversially after the 2004 season, after which the current format of play-by-play announcers and color commentators was installed, led by newcomer Charley Steiner as well as Scully and Monday.
Today, Scully calls a limited schedule of games (all home games and road games in NL West ballparks) for both flagship radio station KABC and television outlets KCAL and FSN Prime Ticket. Scully is simulcast for the first three innings of each of his appearances, then announces only for the TV audience.
If Scully is calling the game, Charley Steiner takes over play-by-play on radio beginning with the fourth inning, with Rick Monday as color commentator. If Scully isn't calling the game, Steiner and Steve Lyons call the entire game on television while Monday (now as play-by-play) and Jerry Reuss do the same on radio.
The Dodgers also broadcast on radio in Spanish, and the play-by-play is handled by another Ford C. Frick Award winner, Jaime Jarrin. Jarrin has been with the Dodgers since 1959. The color analyst for some games is Fernando Valenzuela, for whom Jarrin once translated postgame interviews. The Spanish-language flagship is KHJ.
Live traffic reports pertaining to Dodger Stadium are broadcast from the Dodgers Transportation Center inside the ballpark. KABC radio's Captain Jorge Jarrin (son of Dodger broadcaster Jaime Jarrin) and Doug Dunlap handle those duties during the pre-game and post-game shows as well as during Dodger Talk following the game.
In 2006 the Dodgers introduced an on demand channel on Time Warner Cable called "Dodgers on Demand", it's hosted by Tony Kinkela.
Public Address Announcers
From the Dodgers' move to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958, the Dodgers employed a handful of well-known public address announcers; the most famous of which was John Ramsey, who served as the PA voice of the Dodgers from 1958 until his retirement in 1982; as well as announcing at other venerable Los Angeles venues, including the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena, and the Forum. Ramsey died in 1990.
Dennis Packer, Nick Nickson, Pete Arbogast and Mike Carlucci also served as Dodger Stadium announcers following Ramsey's retirement. Arbogast and Packer were emulators of John Ramsey, using the same style of announcing Ramsey was famous for. Indeed, Ramsey was the best, but Carlucci was easily second best, because he combined the emulation of Ramsey along with personality, in which made him sound more professionally exciting and part of the game.
The current Dodgers public address announcer is Eric Smith.
Quick facts
» Founded: 1855, as a member of the National Association of Baseball Players and minor Inter-State League. The team moved up to the American Association in 1884 and transferred to the National League in 1890.
Chairman: Frank McCourt » Vice Chairman and President: Jamie McCourt
Special Advisor to the Chairman: Tommy Lasorda » Chief Operating Officer:
General Manager: Ned Colletti » Logo design: cursive "Dodgers" superimposed over a red streaming baseball
Uniform: Cap is "Dodger blue" with white "LA" (letters overlapped) centered on front of cap; home is "Dodger blue" on "wedding gown" white, jersey has cursive "Dodgers" (similar to logo but without baseball) across chest; away is "Dodger blue" on gray, jersey has similar cursive "Los Angeles" across chest; names were printed on back of home or away jerseys from circa 1970 to 2004. The names on the back are restored as of the 2007 season, after a two-year absence. » Radio: KABC
Local Television: FSN Prime Ticket (Formerly FSN West 2), KCAL » Spring Training Facility: Holman Stadium, Vero Beach, FL (moving to Glendale, AZ in 2009)
World Series Wins: 6 (1 Brooklyn, 5 Los Angeles) » Rivals: San Francisco Giants Arch-Rivals in both New York City and California. (Division), San Diego Padres SoCal N.L. Clubs (Division) Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Crosstown Rival (Interleague), New York Yankees Numerous World Series Meetings (Interleague)
Image:LA 11333.png|Brooklyn Dodgers 1911 logo
Image:LA_1133.png|Brooklyn Dodgers Dodgers logo in the 1910s
Image:BrooklynDodgersLogo.png|Brooklyn Dodgers 1952-1957 logo
Image:LA 1142.png|Los Angeles Dodgers Script on Dodger Blue
Image:LA_1132.png|Los Angeles Dodgers "Dodgers" Script (1958-Current)
Image:NLW-LAD-Logo.png|Current logo using "Dodgers" Script
Image:Los.png|Los Angeles Dodgers alternate "LA" logo
Baseball Hall of Famers
| Walter Alston (1954-76)
Dave Bancroft (1928-29)
Dan Brouthers (1892-93)
Jim Bunning (1969)
Roy Campanella (1948-57)
Max Carey (1926-29, 1932-33)
Gary Carter (1991)
Don Drysdale (1956-69)
Leo Durocher (1938-1946, 1948)
Burleigh Grimes (1918-26, 1937-38)
Billy Herman (1941-43, 1946)
Waite Hoyt (1932, 1937-39)
Hughie Jennings (1899, 1900, 1903)
Willie Keeler (1899-1902)
Joe Kelley (1899-1901)
|
|
George Kelly (1932)
Sandy Koufax (1955-66)
Tommy Lasorda (1954-55, 1976-96)
Tony Lazzeri (1939)
Freddie Lindstrom (1936)
Ernie Lombardi (1931)
Al Lopez (1928-35)
Heinie Manush (1927-28)
Rabbit Maranville (1926)
Juan Marichal (1975)
Rube Marquard (1915-20)
Tommy McCarthy (1896)
Joe McGinnity (1900)
Joe Medwick (1940-43, 1946)
Eddie Murray (1989-91, 1997)
|
|
Walter O'Malley (1950-79)
Pee Wee Reese (1940-58)
Jackie Robinson (1947-56)
Frank Robinson (1972)
Duke Snider (1947-62)
Casey Stengel (1912-13, 1934-36)
Don Sutton (1966-80, 1988)
Dazzy Vance (1922-1932, 1935)
Arky Vaughan (1942-43, 1947-48)
Lloyd Waner (1944)
Paul Waner (1941, 1943-44)
John Montgomery Ward (1891-92)
Zack Wheat (1909-26)
Hoyt Wilhelm (1971-72)
Dick Williams (1951-54, 1956)
Hack Wilson (1932-34)
|
Retired numbers
Pee Wee Reese
SS, Coach
July 1, 1984 |
Tommy Lasorda
P, M, GM
Aug 15, 1997 |
Duke Snider
OF
July 6, 1980 |
Jim Gilliam
2B, 3B, Coach
Oct 10, 1978 |
Don Sutton
P
Aug 14, 1998 |
Walter Alston
Manager
June 5, 1977 |
Sandy Koufax
P
June 4, 1972 |
Roy Campanella
C
June 4, 1972 |
Jackie Robinson
2B
June 4, 1972 |
Don Drysdale
P
July 1, 1984 |
Since 1997, Robinson's #42 has been retired throughout Major League Baseball in honor of his breaking the color barrier in 1947. Robinson is the only major league baseball player to have this honor bestowed upon him. He spent his entire career with the Dodgers, who retired his number in 1972.
Because the MLB decided to grandfather the use of the number 42 out of the game, New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera still wears the number as he's the only active player who wore the number before it was retired across all of Major League Baseball.
Koufax, Campanella, and Robinson were the first Dodgers to have their numbers retired. They were all retired in a ceremony at Dodger Stadium on June 4, 1972.
Gilliam died suddenly in 1978 at the age of 49. The Dodgers retired his number promptly after his death, making him the only non-Hall-of-Famer to have his number retired with the Dodgers.
Presidents
Charlie Byrne 1883-1897
Charles Ebbets 1898-1925
Edward J. McKeever 1925-1925 (interim)
Wilbert Robinson 1925-1929
Frank B. York 1930-1932
Stephen J. McKeever 1933-1938
Larry MacPhail 1939-1942
Branch Rickey 1943-1950
Walter O'Malley 1950-1970
Peter O'Malley 1970-1997 (sold franchise to NewsCorp in 1998)
Bob Graziano 1998-2004
Frank McCourt (co-chairsperson; bought franchise from NewsCorp in 2004)
- Jamie McCourt 2004-Present (co-chairsperson; appointed president by her husband Frank)
Managers
Since 1884, the Dodgers have used a total of 29 Managers. Grady Little, the previous Manager of the Dodgers, held the position since 2006.
The managers of the Los Angeles Dodgers (1958-present) are as follows:
Walter Alston (1958-1976) [inBrooklyn since 1954]
Tommy Lasorda (1976-1996)
Bill Russell (1996-1998)
Glenn Hoffman (1998)
Davey Johnson (1999-2000)
Jim Tracy (2001-2005)
Grady Little (2006-2007)
Joe Torre (2008-Present)
