Table of Contents
Stadium Guide by Baseball Tripper
History
The Los Angeles Dodgers are not only one of the most popular franchises in all of Major League Baseball, but they are also one of the oldest. They were established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn, New York which is now simply a suburb of New York City. Although they remained in Brooklyn from 1883 to 1932, they bounced around on a lot of different names going from the Bridegrooms and eventually ending on the Dodgers. Most famously they were the first team to break the color barrier of the Major Leagues with Jackie Robinson joining the team in 1947. Prior to that African American baseball players were restricted to play in the Negro Leagues and even in 1947 Jackie Robinson was way ahead of his time with the Civil Rights movements in America not starting until the 1960s. As you can imagine Jackie Robinson faced a lot of hate during his debut, but without him the major leagues do not look like it does today.
They eventually moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and were immediately successful, when they won the 1959 World Series. They were well known for having some of the best pitchers in the history of the MLB including Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Similar to how the team broke the color barrier in 1947, they broke the country barrier in 1981 when they hired phenom pitcher Fernando Valenzuela. He was so good that they won the world series title again in 1981 and Valenzuela became the only person in MLB history, to date, to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in the same season. The Dodgers have won a total of 7 World Series Championships including this past season and they certainly have the potential to repeat this Championship this year.