Rooting for the Dodgers

Even though I like baseball in general and enjoy watching good matchups regardless of the teams involved, I've always have a favorite that I root for in any sports.

So during the playoffs last fall, I've gone through Wikipedia articles, team history section on MLB.com for every major league team that has been playing in the pre-sixties era.

As it's plainly obvious from the banner, I've chosen the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dating as far back as 1884 when they went by the name of Brooklyn Atlantics, the Dodgers played their home games at legendary Ebbets field in baseball's hotbed, the city of New York. Causing great disappointment among Brooklyn faithful, just three years after winning their first World Series, Dodgers relocated to the west coast in 1958, settling in Los Angeles. Appropriately enough, their long standing rivalry with the New York Giants didn't end in 1958, since the Giants also relocated to Pacific coast that same year, going to San Francisco. Dodgers were the first major league team to cross the color divide, signing HOF Jackie Robinson, who played his first game in the majors on April 15th, 1947. The 'bums' as they were nicknamed, always had great pitchers - Don Newcombe, HOF Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen, HOF Don Sutton, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, Chan Ho Park, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny. And I've just recently finished reading a book on their perhaps best hurler ever, Sandy Koufax. HOF's biography, which is mixed with flashbacks to each inning of his 1965 perfect game vs Cubs, was superbly written by Jane Leavy (1). But not only pitchers, other positions with the Dodgers were manned by some great players throughout the years: HOF Pee Wee Reese (great leader, who played a big role in acceptance of Robinson as the first African-American in the majors (2); these two also made up one of the greatest double-play combos in baseball), Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Maury Wills, Kirk Gibson, Mike Piazza, Paul LoDuca, Shawn Green to name a few.

Clearly a team with great tradition, as evident from (just some of) historical facts listed above. All this and more enticed me to embrace the LA Dodgers as my favorite.

Go Dodgers!

1 - Amazon link to Leavy's Book: US readers, UK/Europe readers
2 - Link to photo of a sculpture in KeySpan park in Brooklyn, NY depicting Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson (posted on Flickr.com by member ElissaSCA)