Baseball is still for me the All-American pastime. Football may be king on TV and in the ratings, but it just cannot match the beauty of a well-played baseball game. I discovered the sport at five years old. I was not very good at it to begin with. The Dodgers I discovered when I was seven. My uncle was watching the 55 World Series, and I was fascinated by how good those guys were, and man could they hit a ball a long way. I wanted to do that someday.
Duke Snider # 4 Center Fielder
The Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles as we all know for the 1958 season. I was 10 years old and saw my first MLB game at the coliseum. I don’t even remember who won, what I do remember is that I had never seen so many people in one place at the same time. I was living at a home for kids in Highland Park at the time, and we went to three more games in 1958. My favorite player was Duke Snider. By age 10 I had figured out that hitting from the left-side was my best option. I just did not make solid contact from the right. Also, because of a severely broken right wrist when I was six, I learned to throw lefty.
In 1959, their second year in their new home, the Dodgers tied the Braves for the National League pennant. They would play a best of three-game tie breaker series. The first game would be in Milwaukee at County Stadium. The starting pitchers were Carl Wiley for the Braves and Danny McDevitt for the Dodgers. LA’s starting lineup looked like this, Gilliam 3B, Neal 2B, Moon LF, Larker RF, Hodges 1B, Demeter CF, Roseboro C, and Wills SS. Pitchers still hit in those days, so they were usually in the #9 hole. The only player in the LA lineup who hit .300 or better was Moon.
Against them the Braves had Mathews and Aaron, who hit over .300, plus a couple of excellent hitters in Adcock and Bruton. Aaron and Mathews were a serious 1-2 punch power wise since they finished 1-2 in homers with 47 for Mathews and 46 by Aaron. But this would be a low scoring affair. McDevitt, who won 10 games, lasted just 1.1 innings. He was relieved by Larry Sherry. McDevitt gave up 2 runs, just 1 was earned. Both came in the second inning. The Braves would not score again.
LA had jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first. Neal would single and eventually score on a single by Larker. The Braves scored their two runs in the bottom of the second. After a lineout, Logan walked, Crandall singled and Bruton singled Logan home. Sherry relieved McDevitt. Wiley reached base on an error by Wills. Avila then scored Crandal on a ground out before Sherry got the last out.
LA got the run back in the top of the third. After a Neal single, Moon hit into a force out. Larker singled sending Moon to second, and then he scored when Hodges singled. That is the way the game stayed until the top of the sixth inning when Johnny Roseboro led off the inning with his 10th homer of the year to right field. LA led 3-2. That would be the final score. Sherry pitched 7.2 innings of scoreless relief, walking 2, allowing 4 hits and striking out 4 for the win. 
The Dodgers had tried to get game two switched to a night game since both teams traveled back to Los Angeles immediately after game one. The Braves had taken issue with that prior to the start of the series and NL president; Warren Giles insisted all games were to be played during the day. The crowd for the day game was 36,528, well below the coliseum’s 90,000 capacity. The game started at 2 O’clock in the afternoon PST. Lew Burdette started for the Braves and Drysdale started for the Dodgers.
The Braves struck quickly as Mathews walked, and Aaron doubled. There was some dispute on Aaron’s double as Snider had recovered the ball quickly and fired to Neal who thought he had Aaron easily. Umpire Augie Donatelli said Neal missed the tag. Frank Torre then singled home both runners. LA got the run back on a Neal triple and a Moon single. The Braves got that run back in the top of the second. LA was now down 3-1 after 2 innings.
Neal homered in the fourth making it 3-2. Big D gave up a homer to Mathews in the top of the fifth and walked Aaron and was relieved by Johnny Podres. Podres would pitch 2.1 innings of scoreless relief before being replaced by Chuck Churn in the top of the 7th. In the bottom of the 7th, Larker singled leading off. Roseboro then hit into a double play, but Larker crashed into SS Johnny Logan trying to break up the double play. Logan had to be carried from the field. Felix Mantilla moved from second to SS and Red Schoendienst came in to play second. Churn gave up the Braves 5th run in the 8th when Crandall tripled and scored on Mantilla’s sac-fly.
The Dodgers went quietly in the 8th. Koufax came in to pitch the 9th and loaded the bases on walks. But he got the next three hitters without allowing a run. LA came to bat in the bottom of the 9th, down 5-2. Moon and Snider singled, with Lillis coming in to run for Snider. Hodges singled loading the bases, Don McMahon relieved Burdette. Larker singled scoring Moon and Lillis and advancing Hodges to third. Spahn relieved McMahon. Furillo PH for Roseboro and Pignatano ran for Larker. Furillo hit a sac-fly tying the game. Wills singled and Joey Jay relieved Spahn. Fairly grounded out and Gilliam flew out leaving the game tied at 5-5 and heading into extra innings.
LA made wholesale changes in the top of the 10th, Stan Williams came in to pitch, Pignatano took over behind the plate, Moon moved to left, Fairly went to center and Furillo took over in right. Neither team threatened in the 10th, but in the 11th, Mathews walked with one out. Aaron grounded into a force out but then took second on a passed ball to Torre. They intentionally walked Torre. Spangler, pinch-hitting drew a walk loading the bases. Adcock grounded out ending the inning. In the Dodger half, Pignatano was hit by a pitch and Furillo walked. After two fly outs, Jay walked Gilliam loading the bases. He was relieved by Bob Rush who induced Neal to ground out ending the 11th. 
The Braves went down in the 12th. In the Dodger half, Rush got the first two outs. He walked Hodges who advanced to second on a single by Pignatano. With Furillo at the plate, he hit a ball up the middle that was fielded by Mantilla, Mantilla threw wildly to first and Hodges came home with the winning run sending the Dodgers to their first World Series in Los Angeles. Williams got the win with 3 scoreless innings of relief.
LA would go on and beat the White Sox in a six-game series. It was the last World Series for guys like Snider, Hodges, Furillo. All would be gone by the time the Dodgers went to their next one in 1963. Duke and Furillo never got another shot. Hodges on the other hand would manage the 1969 Miracle Mets to the title, earning his 3rd ring. It was those years that got me hooked on the game.
Since, there have been many ups and downs. World Series wins in 63-65-81-88-2020- 24. But nothing has compared to the success they have had since the Guggenheim Group bought the team. It is fun to watch Dodger baseball and has been for a while. Although we fans are a fickle lot. It does not take much for the criticism to start, but when they play well, especially like they have sine this playoff run began, all is forgiven. Opinionated guys like me will always have a gripe or two, I still hate strikeouts. I think they could improve the batting order by moving Ohtani out of the leadoff spot and inserting him into a more RBI oriented spot in the lineup. I totally understand they have him hitting leadoff to maximize his at bats, but I disagree with that decision. But then again, what do I know? 
I wrote this before last night’s final playoff game of the NLCS. Ohtani proved me wrong with one of the more electric playoff performances ever. 6 plus innings, 10 Ks, and a 3-homer night. Bullpen bent a little but did not break. Sasaki closed it out and the Dodgers won their 26th pennant, their 14th in Los Angeles. Shohei was named the NLCS MVP. Now we wait to see who they will play. I am pulling for Seattle since LA would have home field advantage.
“Ground ball back of second, Mantilla over and up with it, throws, low and wildly! Hodges scores we go to Chicago!”
I will never forget that call.
‘59 World Series. I’ve told the story a few times here. I was 11, had only recently moved to So Cal from Missouri and there in the Coliseum with my Uncle Bob for Game 5. Row 7 right above the opening to the Dodgers dugout. Shaw and Koufax. Surrounded by celebrities my uncle pointed out (the only names I really recognized were Doris Day, Nat King Cole and Joe DiMaggio). Distant memories at this point, but very meaningful ones.
I think there are a lot of fans who agree dropping Ohtani in the order a spot or two would produce more runs. If he remains at leadoff, the Dodgers need to get more out of 7-9, though Ohtani’s 102 RBI’s suggest they got plenty. He also scored 146 runs, lead the league, so, there’s that.
I remember the call too. It was an exciting time for a 10-year-old kid just learning the game. The series had some pretty cool moments too after the game one beatdown the Sox laid on them in Chicago. Sherry winning two and saving two. Dodgers outhomered the Sox 7-4. Kluszewski had 3 homers in that series, 2 in game 1. Hodges and Snider hit the last World Series homers of their careers. Neal and Essegian hit 2 each, and Moon had the other. Koufax lost his only start, but it was a 1-0 game at the coliseum. Carl Furillo, basically a forgotten piece of those great Brooklyn teams, got another clutch hit in game 3, a 3-1 win. He drove in the first two runs in the bottom of the 7th with a single. He would play only 8 games in 1960 before he went on the DL, and was released in May while on the DL, which in those days was a no-no. He ended up suing MLB and the Dodgers. He got 30,000 dollars. He never worked in baseball again, instead he worked for the Otis Elevator company in New York. For those three Brooklyn icons, it was their last World Series.
Giants close to hiring Tony Vitello as their manager. He has no MLB experience. He is the Head Coach at Tennessee. He led the Vols to the NCAA championship in 2024. He has been there since 2017. Pat Murphy, who is the Brewers manager, had some minor league managerial experience and coached in the majors before he was hired.
I don’t ask for much. Just win it, sign Tucker & run it back for threepeat.