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In the 20th century, the team, then known as the Robins, won league pennants in 1916 and 1920, losing the World Series both times, first to Boston and then Cleveland. In 1941, as the Dodgers, they captured their third National League pennant, only to lose again to the New York Yankees. This marked the onset of the Dodgers–Yankees rivalry, as the Dodgers would face them in their next six World Series appearances. Led by Jackie Robinson, the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era; and three-time National League Most Valuable Player Roy Campanella, also signed out of the Negro Leagues, the Dodgers captured their first World Series title in 1955 by defeating the Yankees for the first time, a story notably described in the 1972 book The Boys of Summer. Following the 1957 season, the team left Brooklyn. In just their second season in Los Angeles, the Dodgers won their second World Series title, beating the Chicago White Sox in six games in 1959. Spearheaded by the dominant pitching style of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, the Dodgers captured three pennants in the 1960s and won two more World Series titles in 1963, sweeping the Yankees in four games, and 1965, edging the Minnesota Twins in seven. The 1963 sweep represented their second victory against the Yankees and first against them as a Los Angeles team. The Dodgers won four more pennants in 1966, 1974, 1977 and 1978, but lost in each World Series appearance. They went on to win the World Series again in 1981, thanks to pitching sensation Fernando Valenzuela. The early 1980s were affectionately dubbed "Fernandomania." In 1988, another pitching hero, Orel Hershiser, again led them to a World Series victory, aided by one of the most memorable home runs of all time, by their injured star outfielder Kirk Gibson coming off the bench to pinch hit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of game 1, in his only appearance of the series. The Dodgers share a fierce rivalry with the San Francisco Giants, the oldest rivalry in baseball, dating back to when the two franchises played in New York City. Both teams moved west for the 1958 season. The Brooklyn Dodgers and Los Angeles Dodgers have collectively appeared in the World Series 18 times, while the New York Giants and San Francisco Giants have collectively appeared 19 times and have been invited 20 times. The Giants have won one more World Series (7); the Dodgers have won 21 National League pennants, while the Giants hold the record with 22. Although the two franchises have enjoyed near equal success, the city rivalries are rather lopsided and in both cases, a team's championships have predated to the other's first one in that particular location. When the two teams were based in New York, the Giants won five World Series championships, and the Dodgers one. After the move to California, it has almost been the reverse—the Dodgers have won five in Los Angeles, the Giants won two in San Francis
Jackie Robinson
For most of the first half of the 20th century, no Major League Baseball team employed an African American player. Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play for a Major League Baseball team when he played his first major league game on April 15, 1947, as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. This was mainly due to general manager Branch Rickey's efforts. The deeply religious Rickey's motivation appears to have been primarily moral, although business considerations were also a factor. Rickey was a member of The Methodist Church, the antecedent denomination to The United Methodist Church of today, which was a strong advocate for social justice and active later in the Civil Rights movement.[4] Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Dodgers
How the Dodgers are doing
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att Kemp did not hesitate. He charged hard in left field, scooped the ball up and fired to the plate. Catcher Drew Butera made a nice catch and placed the tag on Allen Craig just before Craig crossed the plate to end the seventh inning, a close call that was upheld on a replay challenge. It was a game-changing play that bought enough time for the Dodgers to finally scratch across a run in the eighth in a hard-fought 1-0 victory Thursday over the St. Louis Cardinals. Juan Uribe was back in the Dodgers clubhouse, officially back in the lineup for the first time Thursday after missing seven weeks with a right hamstring injury. Uribe was greeted with a headlock from Matt Kemp, some rough-housing with Hyun-Jin Ryu and an animated conversation with Yasiel Puig about how Puig missed Uribe’s presence in the lineup. “He’s a guy who’s good offensively and a guy who’s a solid defender,” Dodgers manager. Bases-loaded hit batter helps Dodgers beat Royals KANSAS CITY, Mo. >> Wade Davis plunked A.J. Ellis of the Dodgers with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning Wednesday night, sending Los Angeles to a 5-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Jamey Wright (3-2) threw 2 2-3 scoreless innings in relief of Dan Haren to pick up the win. Davis (5-2) had not allowed a run in 22 1-3 innings spanning his last 20 outings. But after nearly escaping a jam by catching Adrian Gonzalez in a rundown between third base and home... Clayton Kershaw pitches Dodgers to 2-0 win at Kansas City KANSAS CITY, Mo. >> Clayton Kershaw was asked to assess his performance against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night, and the Dodgers ace bemoaned the fact that he didn’t have command of his fastball. Maybe if he did, he’d have tossed another no-hitter. Kershaw still managed to follow his first career no-no by going eight marvelous innings, and Adrian Gonzalez and Andre Ethier drove in a run apiece as the Dodgers scraped out a 2-0 victory. Clayton Kershaw delivered the kind of performance Sunday that turned the Dodgers' ascension to first place into an afterthought.. Kershaw pitched seven innings in a 6-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium, dominating in a fashion that made first baseman Adrian Gonzalez wonder if the game has become too easy for him. "Baseball's boring for him, I think," Gonzalez joked. Kershaw moved the Dodgers into a virtual tie for first place with the San Francisco Giants in the National League West by limiting the Cardinals to five hits and two walks. He struck out 13. He won his sixth consecutive start and extended his scoreless streak to 28 innings, the longest such run in a career that includes two Cy Young Awards. Imagining himself retired, Andre Ethier pondered how he would remember playing behind Kershaw. "I'll look at it and probably say, 'I can't believe I got a chance to play with that guy and be his teammate,'" Source: http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/
And sometimes, they just fall like raindrops from the baseball heavens. Between fielders, just inside the lines or over outreached gloves. Times like the Dodgers’ second inning Saturday. The Dodgers came up with a season-high six runs in the second inning and then cruised in behind the lock-down pitching of Zack Greinke for a 9-1 victory over the Cardinals before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 50,910. Hanley Ramirez a late addition to Dodgers lineup. It was not, however, all good news for the Dodgers on Saturday. Infielder Justin Turner left the game in the second with a strained hamstring after collecting one of the Dodgers’ four doubles in the inning. Turner has been playing extremely well for the Dodgers for over six weeks. Since May 11 he is hitting .374 (37 for 99) with 17 RBI. He had been the main replacement for Juan Uribe when he was on the disabled list; Uribe missed almost five weeks with a hamstring injury of his own. Most of the damage done by the Dodgers in the second came from what might be described as well-placed hits off Lance Lynn (8-6). After Andre Ethier singled off the glove of shortstop Daniel Descalso, he scored all the way from first on Turner’s double into the right-field corner. A.J. Ellis doubled in one and Dee Gordon’s ground-rule double scored another. There were a couple of walks, two wild pitches from Lynn, a soft single from Adrian Gonzales, a bloop hit by Matt Kemp, an Ethier pop-up double that fell between three Cardinals, and the Dodgers had a fat 7-0 lead. It was more than enough for Greinke (10-4), who held the Cardinals to a Matt Carpenter solo home run in the third. Greinke went seven strong innings, not walking a batter and striking out 10. He allowed only four hits. He was what you might call, in control. Of course, give an ace like Greinke an early seven-run lead to work with, and that kind of performance is pretty much expected. Paul Maholm pitched a perfect eighth, and despite loading the bases, Chris Perez threw a scoreless ninth for the Dodgers. The Dodgers did score again in the eighth on some poor St. Louis fielding and a two-run single by Juan Uribe. The Dodgers have now won 11 of their last 15 games. As you can see the Dodgers have been doing well and may have chance to make it to the world series. Source: http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/
More about Jackie Robinson This event was the harbinger of the integration of professional sports in the United States, the concomitant demise of the Negro Leagues, and is regarded as a key moment in the history of the American Civil Rights movement. Robinson was an exceptional player, a speedy runner who sparked the team with his intensity. He was the inaugural recipient of the Rookie of the Year award, which is now named the Jackie Robinson Award in his honor. The Dodgers' willingness to integrate, when most other teams refused to, was a key factor in their 1947–1956 success. They won six pennants in those 10 years with the help of Robinson, three-time MVP Roy Campanella, Cy Young Award winner Don Newcombe, Jim Gilliam and Joe Black. Robinson would eventually go on to become the first African-American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Uniform info
The Dodgers uniforms have remained relatively unchanged for over 70 years. The home jersey is white with "Dodgers" written in script across the chest in Dodger Blue. The road jersey is gray with "Los Angeles" written in script across the chest in Dodger Blue. The word "Dodgers" was first used on the front of the team's home jersey in 1933; the uniform was white with red pinstripes, and the stylized B on the left shoulder.[16] The Dodgers also wore green outlined uniforms and green caps throughout the 1937 season but reverted to blue the following year. The current design was adopted in 1939, and has remained the same ever since with only minor cosmetic changes. Since 1952, the home uniform has had a red uniform number under the "Dodgers" script. The road jerseys also have a red uniform number under the script. The most obvious change is the removal of "Brooklyn" from the road jerseys and the replacement of the stylized "B" with the interlocking "LA" on the caps in 1958. In 1970, the Dodgers removed the city name from the road jerseys and had "Dodgers" on both the home and away uniforms. The city script returned to the road jerseys in 1999, and the tradition-rich Dodgers flirted with an alternate uniform for the first time since 1944 (when all-blue satin uniforms were introduced). These 1999 alternate jerseys had a royal blue top with the "Dodgers" script in white across the chest, and the red number on the front. These were worn with white pants and a new cap with silver brim, top button and Dodger logo. These alternates proved unpopular and the team abandoned them after only one season. In 2014, the Dodgers introduced an alternate road jersey: a gray version of the home jersey (w/the Dodgers script). Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Dodgers
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