89 Fun Facts About Dodgers

The Dodgers' name comes from Brooklyn pedestrians who dodged what?

Streetcars: Brooklyn's trolley lines went electric in the 1890s, far faster than the horse cars before them, so the press dubbed locals, and by 1895 their ball club, 'Trolley Dodgers'.

When the Dodgers went west in 1958, which city did the rival Giants move to?

San Francisco: the Giants' owner had been planning a move to Minnesota until the Dodgers' owner talked him into California, keeping their New York rivalry alive on the West Coast.

Where did the Dodgers play their first four seasons in Los Angeles before Dodger Stadium opened?

The LA Memorial Coliseum: the oval was laid out for other sports, so left field was absurdly short and a tall screen had to be hung above the fence to stop pop flies becoming home runs.

Which Yankees catcher insisted Jackie Robinson was out stealing home in the 1955 World Series?

Yogi Berra argued the call on the spot and for years afterwards; the Yankees still won that Game 1 by 6-5, but Brooklyn took the Series in seven games for its first title.

Which Dodgers executive signed Jackie Robinson, wanting a player 'with guts enough not to fight back'?

Branch Rickey spent three hours in August 1945 pressing Robinson on whether he could take racist abuse without hitting back, the promise he wanted before offering a contract.

Which Dodgers catcher won three NL MVP awards in the 1950s before a car accident ended his career?

Roy Campanella: his car skidded on ice in January 1958, weeks before the Dodgers' first season in Los Angeles, so the three-time MVP never played a game there.

Roger Kahn's 1972 book about the Brooklyn Dodgers of the early 1950s has which title?

The Boys of Summer: Kahn borrowed the title from a Dylan Thomas poem that begins, 'I see the boys of summer in their ruin'.

Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 to 1957, was replaced on its site by what?

Apartment buildings: the Ebbets Field Apartments opened on the site in 1962, and the wrecking ball that levelled the park was used again four years later on the Polo Grounds, home of the rival Giants.

Dodger Stadium was built in which Los Angeles neighbourhood, controversially cleared of residents?

Chavez Ravine: most families had been moved out in the early 1950s for a public housing project that was never built, and sheriff's deputies evicted the last holdouts in May 1959.

As of 2025, Dodger Stadium is MLB's third-oldest ballpark, behind Wrigley Field and which other?

Fenway Park (1912) and Wrigley Field (1914) are the only older homes, so every big-league park opened in the 48 years between Wrigley and Dodger Stadium has since dropped out of the majors.

Which other major league team shared Dodger Stadium from 1962 to 1965?

The Angels, a 1961 expansion club, paid the Dodgers rent for four seasons, but feared they would never build a following as tenants and left for their own park in Anaheim in 1966.

Sandy Koufax threw his 1965 perfect game against which team?

The Cubs: Chicago's Bob Hendley allowed only one hit and two baserunners himself that night, yet lost 1-0 because the Dodgers' single run was unearned.

Why did Sandy Koufax decline to start Game 1 of the 1965 World Series?

It fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, so Don Drysdale started instead and was pulled early in a loss; Koufax came back to win Games 5 and 7 by shutout.

Sandy Koufax's record of four no-hitters was broken in 1981 by which pitcher?

Nolan Ryan threw his fifth no-hitter on 26 September 1981 against, of all teams, the Dodgers, and went on to finish his career with seven.

Don Drysdale set a modern National League record for what?

Most batters hit by a pitch: Drysdale threw inside to intimidate and plunked 154 hitters; Orlando Cepeda said the trick was 'to hit him before he hits you'.

Which broadcasting legend mentored the young Vin Scully in Brooklyn?

Red Barber, the Dodgers' lead voice, recommended the 22-year-old Scully for a place in the booth in 1950; Scully later said Barber 'had the greatest influence on my working life'.

Which Dodgers manager won four World Series while working on 23 consecutive one-year contracts?

Walter Alston got the job for 1954 only because his predecessor, Chuck Dressen, had demanded a multi-year contract and been shown the door.

In 1981 Fernando Valenzuela became the first to win which two awards in one year?

Rookie of the Year and Cy Young: Valenzuela only started Opening Day because Jerry Reuss was hurt the day before, then won his first eight starts, five of them shutouts.

Which rare pitch, taught to him by a Dodgers teammate, made Fernando Valenzuela a sensation in 1981?

Screwball: reliever Bobby Castillo taught it to him before the 1980 season because a scout felt he lacked an off-speed pitch, and it broke the opposite way to a curveball.

Kirk Gibson's famous 1988 World Series homer came off which Oakland closer?

Dennis Eckersley threw a backdoor slider on 3-2, just as a Dodgers scouting report had promised; the injured Gibson stepped out, recalled the tip, and hit the pitch out to win the game.

Before baseball, Kirk Gibson was an All-American in which sport at Michigan State?

Football: Gibson was an All-American wide receiver, and the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals drafted him in the seventh round in 1979, but he stuck with baseball.

Which Dodgers pitcher, nicknamed 'Bulldog' by Tommy Lasorda, threw a record 59 straight scoreless innings in 1988?

Orel Hershiser got the name because Lasorda thought he was too timid on the mound and gave hitters too much respect; the streak broke a record set by another Dodger, Don Drysdale.

Tommy Lasorda's United States team won baseball gold at the 2000 Olympics by beating which favoured country?

Cuba had won every Olympic baseball gold medal awarded until then, but Lasorda's Americans shut them out 4-0 in the Sydney final.

The elbow operation first performed on a Dodgers pitcher in 1974 is named after which player?

Tommy John: Dr Frank Jobe gave the untried ligament transplant 100-to-1 odds, yet John came back to win 164 more games.

Why does Shohei Ohtani's $700 million Dodgers contract pay him only $2 million a year?

Most is deferred: Ohtani takes $2 million a year while he plays out the deal and collects the other $680 million only from 2034 to 2043.

Shohei Ohtani founded baseball's 50-50 club in 2024 with 54 home runs and 59 of what?

Stolen bases: he passed 50 of each in the same game, going 6-for-6 with three homers, two steals and 10 RBIs, in a season when elbow surgery kept him from pitching.

Which Lakers legend is a partner in the group that bought the Dodgers for a then-record $2.15 billion in 2012?

Magic Johnson joined Guggenheim Baseball Management, which bought the Dodgers out of bankruptcy for more than any sports franchise had ever fetched.

Which Dodgers starter got the final three outs of the 2024 World Series?

Walker Buehler volunteered to pitch on one day's rest, struck out the last two Yankees and earned the first save of his major league career.

Dodgers pitcher Andy Messersmith's 1975 challenge to baseball's reserve clause opened the door to what?

Free agency: Messersmith pitched all of 1975 without signing a contract, and an arbitrator then ruled that the reserve clause no longer bound him to the Dodgers.

Freddie Freeman joined the Dodgers in 2022 months after winning the World Series with which team?

Atlanta Braves: Atlanta's offer reportedly stopped at five years while Freeman held out for a sixth, so he took six years and $162 million from the Dodgers instead.

Which team did the Dodgers beat in the pandemic-shortened 2020 World Series?

The Rays: Los Angeles beat Tampa Bay in six games to end a 32-year wait for a title, after a regular season the pandemic had cut to 60 games.

The 2021 Dodgers–Giants Division Series ended on which disputed call?

Checked swing: the first-base umpire ruled that Wilmer Flores had gone around on a two-strike pitch, ending the deciding game 2-1 and giving starter Max Scherzer his first career save.

Which Giants pitcher struck Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat in 1965?

Juan Marichal swung after Roseboro's return throw whizzed past his ear; he was suspended and fined, yet the two later became friends and Roseboro lobbied for his Hall of Fame election.

Bobby Thomson's 1951 'Shot Heard 'Round the World' came off which Dodgers pitcher?

Ralph Branca gave up the homer that lost the pennant; in 2001 surviving Giants admitted they had stolen catchers' signs that summer with a telescope in their centre-field clubhouse.

Which team did the Dodgers beat in seven games in the 1965 World Series?

The Twins: Koufax shut out Minnesota in Games 5 and 7 with only two days' rest between them, finishing with a three-hitter and ten strikeouts.

Which Dodgers pitcher became the first South Korean-born player in the major leagues in 1994?

Chan Ho Park made his professional debut in the majors without a day in the minor leagues, then was sent down after two games and spent most of the next two seasons there.

Which visiting outfielder, later a Dodger, snatched an American flag from two protesters trying to burn it at Dodger Stadium in 1976?

Rick Monday, then with the Chicago Cubs, dashed over and scooped up the flag before it could be lit; the Dodgers traded for him the following winter.

Dodgers pitcher Al Downing gave up which slugger's record-breaking 715th home run in 1974?

Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth's career record with it, and Vin Scully, calling the game for Dodgers listeners, dwelt on what the standing ovation meant in the Deep South.

In 1915 Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson tried to catch a baseball dropped from an aeroplane, but which fruit hit him instead?

A grapefruit: it burst on impact and drenched him in warm juice, and Robinson thought he was badly hurt until his laughing players told him otherwise.

In 1956 and 1957 the Brooklyn Dodgers played 15 'home' games in which other state?

New Jersey: the club played at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City while it pressed for a new Brooklyn ballpark that was never built, and after 1957 it left for Los Angeles.

Where did the Dodgers hold spring training from 1948 to 2008 at a complex known as Dodgertown?

Vero Beach, Florida: at Dodgertown, a former wartime naval base, Black and white players lived and dined together, the first racially integrated spring training camp in the South.

Jackie Robinson played the 1945 season for which Negro league team before the Dodgers signed him?

Kansas City Monarchs: Robinson hit well over .300 for them but disliked the nomadic barnstorming life, and that October he signed with the Dodgers' organisation.

Which pitcher won the first-ever World Series MVP award, for Brooklyn in 1955?

Johnny Podres pitched a 2-0 shutout in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium on 4 October 1955, after a complete-game win in Game 3 on his 23rd birthday; Sport magazine gave him a Corvette.

Brooklyn superfan Hilda Chester was famous for which noisemaker in the Ebbets Field bleachers?

A cowbell: told by her doctor to stop yelling after a heart attack, Chester banged a frying pan with a ladle until Dodgers players gave her the bell instead.

Which Brooklyn Dodger's nickname came from his boyhood skill at marbles?

Pee Wee Reese: a 'pee wee' is a small marble, and the future Dodgers captain got the name from the marbles he played as a boy in Louisville, not from his size.

In 1950 Gil Hodges matched which Yankee's feat of four homers in a nine-inning game?

Lou Gehrig hit his four in 1932, but John McGraw retired the same day and took the headlines; Hodges matched him in 1950, homering off four different Boston pitchers.

Which Dodgers pitcher was the first player to win Rookie of the Year, MVP and Cy Young awards in his career?

Don Newcombe completed the set in 1956, and no one matched it for more than half a century; he later said alcoholism had cut his career short.

After several of its players married in 1888, Brooklyn's ball club became known by which nickname?

Bridegrooms: the newly married club won the American Association pennant in 1889, switched leagues, and won the National League pennant in 1890.

Ebbets Field was built on a former garbage dump known by what name?

Pigtown: Charles Ebbets bought the land lot by lot in great secrecy, because sellers would have raised their prices had they known a ballpark was coming.

How did Brooklyn answer the Giants' 'still in the league' jibe?

Cost them the pennant: Bill Terry's Giants were level with St. Louis going into the 1934 season's final two games, both against Brooklyn, and lost them both.

Brooklyn's 1920s "Daffiness Boys" once left three runners standing on which base?

Third base: in 1926 Babe Herman famously 'doubled into a double play' when Dazzy Vance, Chick Fewster and Herman himself all ended up standing on third base.

Which Yankee pitched a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series?

Don Larsen retired all 27 Dodgers in Game 5, two years after he had lost 21 games in a single season for Baltimore.

Which Dodgers outfielder hit four home runs and set a record with 19 total bases in one game in 2002?

Shawn Green went 6-for-6 in Milwaukee, breaking a record of 18 total bases that Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves had set against the Dodgers in 1954.

Duke Snider was nicknamed "the Duke of" which Brooklyn neighbourhood?

Flatbush, the Brooklyn neighbourhood around Ebbets Field: Snider's father called him 'Duke' at five for his swagger, and Brooklyn fans made him the Duke of Flatbush; he reached the Hall of Fame in 1980.

The Dodgers won their first World Series as a Los Angeles team in 1959 by beating which club?

The White Sox lost in six games, with reliever Larry Sherry named Series MVP, only a year after the Dodgers' losing first season in Los Angeles.

Who holds the Dodgers franchise record for pitching wins, with 233?

Don Sutton won 233 games for the Dodgers; opponents so often claimed he scuffed the ball that umpires took to checking him for sandpaper.

Which Dodgers first baseman played a National League record 1,207 straight games?

Steve Garvey played every game for nearly eight years, until he injured his thumb in a collision at home plate in July 1983, after he had left the Dodgers.

Which Dodgers third baseman of the 1970s was nicknamed 'the Penguin'?

Ron Cey got the name from his college coach at Washington State, Chuck Brayton, who thought he waddled like a penguin when he ran.

Which piece of catcher's equipment was invented for the Dodgers' Steve Yeager after a 1976 on-deck accident?

The throat protector: a team-mate's bat shattered and drove splinters into Yeager's neck as he waited on deck, so the Dodgers' trainer devised a flap that hangs from the mask.

Which Dodger with one homer all season hit a two-run shot in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series?

Mickey Hatcher, standing in for the injured Kirk Gibson, had hit only one homer all season, then hit two in the Series, starting with that shot off Dave Stewart.

Whose 11th-inning home run won Game 7 of the 2025 World Series for the Dodgers?

Will Smith's homer came only because Miguel Rojas, a light-hitting infielder, had tied the game in the ninth, when the Dodgers were two outs from losing the Series.

Jackie Robinson spent 1946 with which Dodgers farm club, the year before he reached Brooklyn?

Montreal Royals: Robinson led them to the Little World Series title, and jubilant fans chased him all the way to his train as he left the city.

Dodger Stadium's terraced parking lot was designed so that fans could do what?

Park near the level of their seats: the hillside lots are cut into 21 terraces at different heights, so fans walk in at their own tier with little climbing of ramps inside.

Which band played Dodger Stadium in August 1966?

The Beatles, on their last tour, could not leave for about two hours afterwards, because thousands of fans broke through the fencing and blocked their armoured van.

Which pope celebrated Mass at Dodger Stadium during a visit to Los Angeles?

John Paul II used the Mass, in September 1987, to celebrate the city's immigrants, telling the crowd that in Los Angeles Christ is Anglo and Hispanic, Chinese and Black, Vietnamese and Irish.

Which singer's two sold-out 1975 shows at Dodger Stadium are among his most famous concerts?

Elton John wore a sequinned Dodgers uniform designed by Bob Mackie in 1975, and returned to the same ballpark 47 years later for three shows on his farewell tour.

Which Pirates slugger twice hit home runs completely out of Dodger Stadium?

Willie Stargell hit the first ball ever to leave Dodger Stadium in 1969 and another in 1973, both as a visitor; no Dodger cleared his own ballpark until 1997.

As a player, Dave Roberts' famous 2004 postseason stolen base came for which team?

Boston Red Sox: sent in to pinch-run in the ninth inning of an elimination game against the Yankees, Roberts stole second, and Boston's season ran on to a World Series title.

Which catcher did the Dodgers draft in the 62nd round as a favour to his father?

Mike Piazza was a first baseman who learned to catch in the minors, at Tommy Lasorda's suggestion, to improve his chances, and went on to hit a record 396 home runs as a catcher.

Hideo Nomo's 1996 no-hitter for the Dodgers came at which notoriously hitter-friendly ballpark?

Coors Field: Nomo no-hit a Rockies lineup with three 40-homer hitters in Denver's thin air on 17 September 1996, and through 2025 it is still the only no-hitter thrown there.

Which first baseman began the Dodgers' run of five straight Rookies of the Year in 1992?

Eric Karros, only a sixth-round draft pick, started the run and hit 270 home runs for the club, still the most by a Los Angeles Dodger through 2025.

Which Dodgers closer converted a record 84 consecutive save chances between 2002 and 2004?

Éric Gagné had shuttled between the rotation and the bullpen without success until the Dodgers made him their closer in 2002; a year later he won the Cy Young Award.

Which Dodgers outfielder did Vin Scully nickname 'the Wild Horse'?

Yasiel Puig got the name from Scully for his headlong style of play after arriving in June 2013, a year after he signed a seven-year, $42 million contract.

Mookie Betts has competed in professional events in which second sport?

Bowling: Betts is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association and rolled a perfect game at its World Series of Bowling in 2017.

Freddie Freeman's 2024 Game 1 walk-off was a World Series first of what kind?

A grand slam: with the Dodgers down to their final out in the tenth, the Yankees walked Mookie Betts on purpose to load the bases, and Freeman hit the first walk-off slam in Series history.

Dave Roberts, who managed the Dodgers to the 2020 title, was born on which island?

Okinawa: Roberts's father, a US Marine, was stationed on the island and married a Japanese woman, Eiko; the family then moved from one military base to the next throughout his childhood.

After winning 2020 World Series MVP with LA, Corey Seager won it again in 2023 with which team?

Texas Rangers: Seager left Los Angeles for a 10-year, $325 million contract, and two seasons later he was Series MVP again, only the fourth player to win the award twice.

Which Dodger followed his 2017 rookie award with the 2019 NL MVP, only to be let go three years later?

Cody Bellinger hit .165 in an injury-ruined 2021, and after another poor year the Dodgers declined to offer him a contract.

Who was MVP of the 2025 World Series, with three wins and a 1.02 ERA?

Yoshinobu Yamamoto won twice as a starter, then came out of the bullpen with no day of rest to close out Game 7.

The Dodgers won the 2025 World Series in seven games against which team?

Toronto Blue Jays: the Dodgers were two outs from losing Game 7, tied it in the ninth and won in the 11th, the first repeat champions since the Yankees of 1998 to 2000.

The entire 2020 World Series was played at which neutral-site ballpark?

Globe Life Field: because of the pandemic the whole Series was staged at one new ballpark in Arlington, the first since 1944 played in a single park, with crowds capped near 11,500.

The Dodgers lost the 2017 World Series in seven games to which team?

Houston Astros: MLB found that Houston had decoded signs from a live camera feed in 2017 and banged on a trash can to tip off its batters; the club was fined the maximum $5 million.

Sandy Koufax played which other sport at the University of Cincinnati before pitching there?

Basketball: as a teenager Koufax was better known for it than for baseball, joining his high school team only in his senior year, as a first baseman, and he had pitched very little when the Dodgers signed him.

Which phrase became Brooklyn's unofficial slogan after repeated World Series defeats?

'Wait 'til next year!' was the cry after each October loss, until next year finally arrived in 1955 with Brooklyn's first and only championship.

After his playing days, Gil Hodges managed which team to a shock 1969 World Series title?

New York Mets: in the clinching game Hodges showed the umpire a ball marked with shoe polish to prove a pitch had struck Cleon Jones on the foot, and Jones was waved to first base.

Bill Wambsganss stunned Brooklyn in the 1920 World Series with which feat, never repeated in the postseason?

Unassisted triple play: Cleveland's second baseman caught Clarence Mitchell's line drive, stepped on second to retire one runner and tagged another arriving from first.

Which Dodgers manager was suspended for the whole 1947 season by Commissioner Happy Chandler?

Leo Durocher was suspended for 1947 by Commissioner Happy Chandler for 'conduct detrimental to baseball', including associations with gamblers; Brooklyn won the pennant anyway under interim skipper Burt Shotton.

The Dodgers won a franchise-record 111 games in 2022, then lost the Division Series to which rival?

San Diego Padres: a team that had finished 22 games behind the Dodgers in the division knocked them out in four games.

Which Dodgers closer of the 2010s began his professional career as a catcher?

Kenley Jansen, from Curaçao, even caught for the Netherlands at the 2009 World Baseball Classic before the Dodgers moved him to the mound; he passed 450 career saves in April 2025.