By Jon Weisman
For Martin Luther King Day, here are some tidbits celebrating the civil rights leader’s connection with Jackie Robinson the Dodgers.
Category: History (Page 10 of 35)
By Jon Weisman
With the signing of Kenta Maeda, 11 of the 13 Dodgers on the active roster with MLB experience as starting pitchers will be under 30 when Spring Training begins.
The names of the youth brigade: Brett Anderson (28), Brandon Beachy (29), Mike Bolsinger (28), Carlos Frias (26), Clayton Kershaw (28 in March), Zach Lee (24), Maeda (28 in April), Frankie Montas (23 in March), Hyun-Jin Ryu (29 in March), Ian Thomas (29 in April) and Alex Wood (25).
The only starting pitcher over age 30 on the 40-man roster scheduled to take the mound this spring is Scott Kazmir, and he will be only 32, the same age as Brandon McCarthy, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery and won’t pitch until the summer at the earliest.
While these Dodgers could have one of the highest percentages of under-30 starters since the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1958, they won’t set a record.
In 1962 — a season that went to 165 games because of the three-game tiebreaker playoff with the Giants — every single game the Dodgers played was started by an under-30 pitcher except the 165th, which came three days after Johnny Podres’ 30th birthday.
(Click on the chart below for more detail.)
By Jon Weisman
- Andre Ethier (2006-present) has worn No. 16 as a Dodger player longer than anyone except Ron Perranoski (1961-72).
- Van Lingle Mungo also wore No. 16 for 10 Dodger seasons, from 1932-41. It would have been longer, but Brooklyn didn’t wear uniform numbers before 1932.
- Yasmani Grandal hit 16 homers and into 16 double plays for the Dodgers last season.
- Rick Monday, arguably the most famous Dodger No. 16, struck out exactly 16 times in his first big-league season (1966) and his last (1984).
- The last ’16 Dodgers — more accurately, the 1916 Brooklyn Robins — went to the World Series but lost in five games to Boston.
- Clayton Kershaw has won 16 games two of the past three years.
- Los Angeles hasn’t scored exactly 16 runs in a game since May 25, 2009, most recently topping that figure with the 17-0 shutout of the Giants in September 2014.
- When he was first acquired from St. Louis in 1976, Reggie Smith wore No. 16, before switching to No. 8.
- On the other hand, Hideo Nomo was originally No. 16 in his first stint as a Dodger, before taking No. 10 the second time around.
- Nomo is the last Dodger to strike out 16 in a game (June 14, 1995) — as well as the last to strike out more than 16 (April 13, 1996).
- Two Dodgers have been hit by 16 pitches in a season: Lou Johnson (1965) and Mike Kinkade (2003). Only Alex Cora (18 in 2004) has had more.
- New manager Dave Roberts was hit by a pitch 16 times in his MLB career.
- Last season, the Dodgers used 16 starting pitchers, but that wasn’t a franchise record. The 1944 Dodgers used 19.
- In 12 seasons as a Dodger, Ron Fairly stole 16 bases.
- Willie Davis is the last Dodger with 16 triples, in 1970.
- In the past 16 seasons since 2000, the Dodgers have had winning records 14 times, trailing only the Yankees (16) and Cardinals (15).
Happy New Year from Dodger Insider!
Having spent this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1965 World Series champion Dodgers — review all the posts here — I thought I’d take one last look at the season through some selected pages of the 1966 Dodger yearbook.
By Jon Weisman
A statue of Jackie Robinson, approximately nine to ten feet tall, will be unveiled at Dodger Stadium in 2016 at a location to be determined.
California-based sculptor Branly Cadet will create the Robinson statue, which will be followed in the future by other such pieces, according to Dodger president and CEO Stan Kasten.
By Jon Weisman
There are limited spaces available for “An Epic Evening with Mike Scioscia and Fernando Valenzuela,” taking place January 21 and hosted by Art of the Game at a vintage hotel in Hollywood.
The evening includes:
- On-stage Q&A with Scioscia and Valenzuela
- Professional 11″ x 14″ photo of you and your guest, along with Scioscia and Valenzuela
- Limited edition, licensed photo canvas signed by both greats
- Valet parking, buffet dinner and open bar
For more information, visit Art of the Game.
Also: See below for Valenzuela’s responses in today’s live #Ask34 Twitter chat …
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By Jon Weisman
Dave Roberts made his Los Angeles debut with the 2002 Dodgers, a mostly forgotten squad whom a couple of weeks ago I called the best third-place team in Dodger history.
Those Dodgers won 92 games but finished behind Arizona and San Francisco in the National League West. Under the current playoff format, they would have made the NL wild-card game against the Giants, who ended up in the World Series against the Angels.
Instead, the ’02 Dodgers missed the postseason entirely, so their record as a team has largely been ignored. But in addition to the arrival of Roberts, there were these individual memories:
By Jon Weisman
If 1988 was the best of times for Dodger fans, you’d still have to be Mr. Roboto to view every season since then as the same. So maybe I’ve got too much time on my hands, but come sail away as we rank every Dodger season since 1988, Babe.
By Jon Weisman
We greet you this morning with a treat — a peek at Vin Scully on the brink of his Dodger career.
Last week, my former employer Variety ran a piece with TV legend Norman Lear talking about his first mention in the publication — which came way back in 1950.
That year, of course, is a magic year, because it’s the year of Scully’s debut with the Dodgers after impressing Red Barber with his professionalism during the broadcast of a college football game at a freezing cold Fenway Park. So I decided to look in Variety’s archives to see if Scully was also mentioned in 1950.
Turns out he was — months before his Dodger career began, in this letter from William A. Coleman, chairman of the AM-TV Division of Scully’s alma mater, Fordham University. Coleman was promoting his recent alumni as potential announcing stars of tomorrow.
Or take a lad from last year’s June class — “Vin” Scully. Graduation day found him working at WTOP, CBS’s Washington outlet, and in the fall the nation heard him reporting in each Saturday for Red Barber’s football and sports roundup. Now, we hear that Barber has signed him as his assistant for next season to broadcast and telecast the Brooklyn Baseball games. Here is one of the Ted Husings of tomorrow.”
Husing, if you’re wondering about the reference, was a prominent New York announcer — among other things, a mentor to Mel Allen and a predecessor of Barber as CBS radio sports director.
The Mac McGarry mentioned by Coleman also went on to great success, hosting Washington D.C.’s “It’s Academic,” the longest-running quiz program in TV history, according to the Washington Post, which credits Scully for urging him to apply for a summer job at WRC-TV in 1950.
“Ten years from now, Variety may well run another ‘those were the good old days article and point out the headliners who stepped out from this talent incubator,” Coleman wrote. Yes, you could say Vin Scully validated this prediction.
Part 2 of Alanna Rizzo’s interview with Scully airs tonight on SportsNet LA at 7 p.m.
By Jon Weisman
What historical milestone awaits Clayton Kershaw in 2016, other than hopefully his first World Series title?
If the lefty ace can strike out at least 254 batters by the end of the regular season October 2, he will become the youngest pitcher in National League history to reach 2,000 career strikeouts — by more than a year.
By Jon Weisman
A 2015 World Series with the Dodgers now exists only in our imaginations. It takes me back to another event that never was: the 1951 Dodgers-Yankees World Series. Above is the cover of the program that would have gone on sale, if not for Bobby Thomson.
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By Jon Weisman
It has been just under two years since fans came to Dodger Stadium knowing that their team had to win or the season would end. The starting pitcher that day, as it will be today (only with more hair), was Zack Greinke.
With the Dodgers having lost three of their first four games to the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series, Greinke took the mound on October 16, 2013 and pitched seven innings of two-run ball in a 6-4 Dodger victory.
In fact, the pitcher who threw out the ceremonial first pitch that day will do so again tonight: 1988 playoff hero Orel Hershiser.
By Jon Weisman
Koufax. Johnson. Championship.
This is the last tale from “Remembering ’65,” and the one you know the best.
Fifty years ago today, working on two days’ rest in Minnesota, backed by Sweet Lou Johnson’s fourth-inning home run, Sandy Koufax pitched a 2-0 shutout over the Twins to give the Dodgers the 1965 World Series title, their fourth in the past 11 seasons.
“Alston Leans to Left and Koufax Proves He’s Right,” read the headline in the Times, regarding Dodger manager Walter Alston’s decision to start Koufax over Don Drysdale. But that result was anything but a given as the game unfolded.
By Jon Weisman
In 1965, Sandy Koufax showed he could pitch on two days’ rest. Don Drysdale showed he could be his own run support.
In Game 6 of the 1965 World Series, Minnesota righty Mudcat Grant showed he could do both.
