D o d g e r s 5 CONTENTS CHAPTERS Team of Many Names 6 Dodgers Emerge 15 Koufax and Double D 22 Lasorda Takes the Reins 29 Up-and-Down Dodgers 36 AROUND THE HORN Ebbets Field 12 A Baseball Visionary 20 An Act of Brotherhood 24 A Giant Rivalry 31 Hobbled Hero 38 The Dodger Dog 43 ALL-TIME DODGERS P Sandy Koufax 8 C Roy Campanella 13 1B Gil Hodges 14 2B Jackie Robinson 18 3B Ron Cey 23 SS Maury Wills 28 LF Zack Wheat 30 CF Duke Snider 35 RF Carl Furillo 39 M Walter Alston 40 Index 48
6 D o d g e r s TEAM OF MANY NAMES n 1781 Spanish settlers led by a regional governor named Felipe de Neve founded the city of Los Angeles along America’s western coast In the early 19th century Los Angeles came under Mexican rule In 1848 the United States acquired possession of the city following the Mexican American War With a location that featured generous amounts of sun sea and sand it’s no wonder that L A was so highly sought after Los Angeles came by its Major League Baseball team due to a shift in ownership as well In 1950 New York real estate businessman Walter O’Malley bought the Brooklyn Dodgers franchise of the National League NL and after the 1957 season he moved the team across the country from New York to California Los Angelenos immediately took to the first professional sports team in the city’s history and for good reason the team arrived with a history rich in stars and success The team also featured a long history of name changes In the 1850s a ballclub named the Brooklyn Atlantics arose and began playing some of the first organized baseball games in New York First baseman Joe Start I
Los Angeles is famous for the vast and ever busy system of freeways that link all corners of the sprawling 500-square-mile metropolis
