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 championships 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. [1] 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 did not 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.

"Wait 'til next year!"

Brooklyn Dodgers win the 1955 World Series.

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 old hat 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 and, despite the crushing blow it represented for the Dodgers, is widely regarded as the greatest moment in baseball history.

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.

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."

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Jackie Robinson Breaks Baseball's Color Barrier

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson played in his first major league game and succeeded in breaking the color barrier that divided baseball. Over the course of Jackie Robinson's rookie year, he endured racist taunts from both fans and opposing players. On his first trip to Cincinnati, the fans cursed, taunted, threw bottles, and hurled racist epithets at Robinson. The scene became so raucous and dangerous that Brooklyn manager Burt Shotton briefly considered pulling Robinson from the game.

But at the height of the madness, Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese, the team captain from the segregated southern city of Louisville, walked over to Robinson and put his arm around him, showing support for his teammate and essentially telling the crowd to shut it. They listened. After Reese's move, the crowd quieted down and the game was able to move forward.

That game in Cincinnati was only one of the many indignities that Jackie Robinson suffered in his inaugural campaign. Because he had promised Branch Rickey that he would take whatever the fans could dish out, Robinson continued to silently endure the abuse. He also played his heart out. As a rookie, Jackie Robinson hit .297, scored 125 runs, stole 29 bases, and struck out just 36 times. He was a top-of-order spark who led the Brooklyn Dodgers to 100 wins and the National League pennant. At the end of the 1947 season, he was honored with the first Rookie of the Year award in Major League Baseball.

Although the Dodgers lost the 1947 World Series to Joe DiMaggio's New York Yankees in seven games, Robinson had succeeded in forever altering the landscape of Major League Baseball for the better and had an incredible impact in helping initiate America's Civil Rights Movement. On this the 60th Anniversary of Jackie's Robinson's historic accomplishment, we pay tribute to the man and the legend.

1. Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series Home Run
Unable to start the Series opener against Oakland at Dodger Stadium due to knee and hamstring injuries, the National League's MVP limped off the bench to face Hall of Fame reliever Dennis Eckersley in the ninth inning with the Dodgers trailing, 4-3, two out and Mike Davis on first base.

Gibson actually sat in the trainer's room for eight innings and jumped off the table when Scully, previewing the ninth inning, said that he couldn't play.

A clubhouse attendant put several baseballs on a batting tee, and in the span of just a few minutes, manager Tommy Lasorda was told that Gibson wanted a chance. Lasorda waited to bat Gibson until there were two outs and told the player to remain hidden in the tunnel leading to the dugout. He gave Gibson two strikes to hit the ball out of the ballpark, then played for a tie, as Davis stole second base during Eckersley's sixth pitch to Gibson. Lasorda reasoned that the Athletics wouldn't walk Gibson with two strikes.

Just before a full-count pitch, Gibson remembered Dodgers scout Mel Didier warning that Eckersley liked to throw a backdoor slider in those situations. Swinging off his front foot, Gibson connected for the magical game-winning home run, hobbling around the bases and into October folklore. It was his only at-bat of the World Series, won by the Dodgers in five games. Gibson's home run was later voted as the greatest sports moment in Los Angeles history in balloting by the Los Angeles Sports Council.

2. Sandy Koufax's 1965 Perfect Game
It's appropriate that the most dominant pitcher in franchise history became the first and only Dodger to craft a perfect game, on Sept. 9, 1965. The Hall of Fame left-hander had pitched no-hitters in each of the three previous seasons. Koufax retired all 27 Chicago Cubs batters in a 1-0 victory at Dodger Stadium. Koufax struck out 14, including the final six batters. His hard-luck opponent, Bob Hendley, allowed only a walk and a bloop double, both to Lou Johnson, who scored in the fifth on the walk, a sacrifice bunt, a stolen base and a throwing error.

3. Fernando Valenzuela's 8-0 Start in 1981
With five shutouts in his first eight starts, the left-hander from Mexico became an international sensation. A September 1980 callup who made 10 scoreless appearances in relief, Valenzuela was an emergency starter on Opening Day 1981 after injuries to Jerry Reuss and Burt Hooton.

Valenzuela pitched a 2-0 complete game against the Houston Astros, and three months later was invited to the White House for a reception hosted by the president of Mexico. Valenzuela is the only player to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards in the same season, and the lone pitcher in the Majors to win his first eight career starts since the Boston Red Sox's Dave Ferriss in 1945.

4. Roy Campanella Night
Although a tragic auto accident prevented Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella from playing on the West Coast, more than 93,000 attended a benefit exhibition game with the New York Yankees at the Los Angeles Coliseum on May 7, 1959. The most poignant moment occurred when former shortstop Pee Wee Reese pushed Campanella's wheelchair toward home plate in the fifth inning as the stadium lights were dimmed. Patrons struck matches in silent prayer for the paralyzed Campanella, who outlived his doctors and passed away at age 71 in 1993.

5. Dodgers Sweep Yankees in 1963 World Series
Series MVP Koufax pitched a 2-1 victory in Game 4 to cap an improbable sweep of the Dodgers' traditional October rivals. Of the six Dodgers championships, it remains the only one clinched on their home field.

6. Rick Monday's 1981 Pennant-Winning Home Run
The veteran outfielder's tie-breaking home run in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series at Montreal propelled the Dodgers to the World Series against the Yankees and eventually their first championship since 1965. Monday was already a hero among Dodgers fans when he played for the Chicago Cubs, having rescued the American flag from burning by two protesters during a game at Dodger Stadium in 1976.

7. Dusty Baker Gives Dodgers 30-Homer Quartet
The outfielder hit No. 30 on the final day of the regular season in 1977 against Houston's J.R. Richard to join Steve Garvey (33), Reggie Smith (32) and Ron Cey (30) as the first quartet in Major League history to each hit 30 or more home runs for the same team in one season.

8. Orel Hershiser Surpasses Don Drysdale's Scoreless Innings Streak
In June 1988, the Dodgers honored the 20th anniversary of Drysdale's "unbreakable" streak of 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings. Three months later, as a team broadcaster, Drysdale was the first to congratulate Hershiser in the dugout at San Diego after his 10 scoreless innings against the Padres raised the bar to 59.

9. Dodgers Play First Game in Los Angeles
A festive crowd of more than 78,000 at the Coliseum watches the veteran right-hander Carl Erskine and the Dodgers defeat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5, on April 18, 1958. Although the Dodgers finished in seventh place during their first season on the West Coast, the sports landscape in Los Angeles would never be the same.

10. Dodgers Retire First Three Uniform Numbers
The uniform numbers of Hall of Famers Koufax (32), Campanella (39) and Robinson (42) become the first of 10 retired by the franchise. The Old-Timers Day ceremonies in 1972 marked Robinson's final appearance at Dodger Stadium. He passed away four months later at age 53.

Dodger Stadium has been the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team since 1962. The stadium hosted the 1980 MLB All-Star Game, as well as games of the 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, and 1988 World Series.

Despite being built in a part of Los Angeles called Chávez Ravine, the stadium is also on a hillside overlooking downtown Los Angeles, providing spectacular views of the city to the south; the green, tree-lined hills of Elysian Park to the north and east; and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond the outfield pavilions. Player polls regularly rate Dodger Stadium's playing surface as one of the best in the game.[citation needed]

Dodger Stadium is the only current MLB park (excluding the most recently-built parks) that has never changed its capacity.[citation needed] It has always held 56,000 fans, due to a conditional-use permit limiting its capacity. Every time the Dodgers add seats, they always remove an equal number of seats in the upper deck or in the pavilion to keep the capacity the same.[1]

The stadium was originally designed to be expandable to 85,000 seats, simply by enclosing the outfield pavilion. However, the Dodgers have never even considered such a project.

It has a unique terraced-earthworks parking lot behind the main stands, which allows ticketholders to park at roughly the level that their seats are, minimizing their climbing and descending of ramps once they get inside the stadium. It was also designed to be earthquake-resistant,[citation needed] certainly an important consideration in California, and has stood the test of several serious earthquakes.

The park's most distinctive feature is the wavy roof atop the outfield pavilion. A series of strobe lights were added to it in 1999; they flash when the Dodgers take the field, after a Dodger home run and after a Dodger win.

Other notable events

* Pope John Paul II celebrated a famous Mass at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 16, 1987.

* Many of the world's top rock bands have performed at Dodger Stadium, including acts such as The Cure, Kiss, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Depeche Mode, U2, the Dave Matthews Band and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The Police played at Dodger Stadium on their reunion tour.

* Dodger Stadium was also the site of "Encore - the Three Tenors", a 1994 concert reuniting internationally renowned tenors Plácido Domingo

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