DODGERS CELEBRATE 60 YEARS IN LOS ANGELES STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK LANGILL Moving to Los Angeles may have seemed like a last resort in 1958 when the Dodgers couldn’t build a new ballpark in Brooklyn, but the consolation prize turned into a jackpot. As the Dodgers commemorate their 60th anniversary in Southern California in 2018, images and memories of their first home game at the cavernous Los Angeles Coliseum proved “a star was born” in the land of Tinseltown with just one screen test. Despite ten years of Major League service and two career no-hitters under his belt, starting pitcher Carl Erskine barely slept the night before the team’s April 18 opener against the San Francisco Giants. “The first pitch in Los Angeles…” Erskine said. “I wanted it to be a strike.” More than 78,000 fans would be in attendance, a far cry from the 31,000-seat capacity at Ebbets Field, which had only 300 parking spaces by 1957. Now 91 and living in his hometown of Anderson, IN, Erskine still savors the excitement of L.A.’s wild 6-5 victory, the potential game-tying run in the ninth inning erased when San Francisco rookie Jim Davenport missed third base trying to score on a triple. Earlier in the game, Erskine noticed his teammates were looking over their dugout roof to spy the movie stars in the grandstands, a lineup that included Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Edward G. Robinson, George Jessel, Ray Bolger, Lana Turner, Jeff Chandler, Lauren Bacall, Jo Stafford and 2017 WORLD SERIES
VINTAGE DODGER BOBBLEHEAD AND 1957 HEADLINE ANNOUNCING DODGERS’ MOVE WEST
1980 ALL-STAR GAME TICKET
18 / The Quarterly Magazine / Spring 2018
VINTAGE STADIUM SIGNS ON TOP DECK AT DODGER STADIUM
JACKIE ROBINSON STATUE ON RESERVE LEVEL
DODGER STADIUM’S ADDRESS RENAMED IN BROADCASTER VIN SCULLY’S HONOR IN 2016
Paul Weston. “There were a lot of movie stars there because it was a historic day in Los Angeles,” Erskine said. “It wasn’t a baseball crowd yet. It was a curiosity crowd. They came and wanted to be part of the big event. It was a social event more than a rousing, hyped-up fan base like we used to have in Brooklyn. But they didn’t know any of us. We were all just names that maybe they had heard about.” The Dodgers have since played before more than 174 million fans at the Coliseum and Dodger Stadium. The franchise brought its storied history dating back to its Brooklyn roots in the 1880s and continued its popularity with five championships, Hall of Fame performers and unforgettable personalities. Dodger Stadium, the third-oldest ballpark in the Majors after Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field, underwent a $100 million facelift after Guggenheim Baseball Management purchased the franchise in 2012. In addition to new clubhouse and workout facilities for the players, fan amenities included more restaurants and restrooms and Instagram-friendly “landmarks” such as life-sized bobblehead statues and a retired numbers plaza on the top deck. In 1958, Vin Scully marked his ninth season in the Dodger broadcasting booth. Scully stuck around for a few more generations before retiring in 2016 with the ballpark’s Elysian Park Avenue street renamed in his honor. Also in 1958, Spanish radio station
COLLECTION OF DODGER PLAYER BATS
Spring 2018 / The Quarterly Magazine / 19