Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Westways Highlights LA Dodger Memories

Westways, the Southern California Automobile Association member magazine, had a nice five-page article on the Dodgers' 50th anniversary in Los Angeles, written by Managing Editor Robin Jones. By our count here at SoSG, this is Jones' second article for Westways featuring the Dodgers, so we're guessing that she's quite a Dodger fan. We've admired Jones' writing for quite some time, and since we love fellow Dodger fans, we hope she keeps up the great work!

The five pages, which detail memories about the Dodgers in Los Angeles, along with profiles of some of the greats in the Dodgers organization, are scanned in below. Page 1 might be hard to read, so it leads with this:

For those of us who've grown up with Dodger Blue, it's hard to believe that as late as the 1950s, there was no Major League Baseball in Los Angeles. But it wasn't until April 18, 1958, that the Dodgers played their first game in L.A.

Until that day, the Dodgers had played for 68 years in Brooklyn, and Major League Baseball's most western team had been the St. Louis Cardinals. in 1957, Dodger owner Walter O'Malley had convinced Horace Stoneham, owner of the new York Giants, to move with him to the West Coast, and when the Dodgers beat the Giants, 13-1, in San Francisco on April 16, 1958, MLB entered the jet age.

The Dodgers' move was contentious; very few people across the country thought that one of the best and most storied teams in the major leagues should leave its home. But the baseball fans in L.A., who'd been clamoring for a team for years, couldn't believe their luck. They rewarded the team by setting attendance records all year long, a tradition that has lasted to this day.

To commemorate this anniversary year, we've collected your reminisces of the Dodgers' first 50 years in L.A., and we've asked a few old-timers to reflect on their memories of the team over the years. Their stories follow.

(click on pages for larger images)

3 comments:

Rob said...

Huh. Kinda, slightly illegible.

Steve Sax said...

We're getting a new scanner here at SoSG, just as soon as we get that Google AdSense paycheck.

Rob said...

Sure, but where will you get a usable scanner for $34.62?