Talking Baseball

To understand the Dodgers, you have to begin at their birthplace. You have to return to Brooklyn. Since the 1850s, when America’s new game of baseball spread through New York City, Brooklyn had been represented by different teams. During the late 1880s, one of those teams was dubbed the Trolley Dodgers (which is what a Brooklynite became if he wanted to stay alive). The Trolley Dodgers joined the National League in 1890. They would later be called the Superbas and the Robins. Fortunately, the “Brooklyn Dodgers” stuck in the 1920s. Their home was Ebbets Field, built in 1913 on a garbage dump called Pigtown, in one of the poorest sections of the borough.

By 1956, with Walter O’Malley as the majority owner, the Dodgers had won their fourth pennant in five seasons, but had lost in the World Series for the fifth time to the powerful Yankees. The next year the Dodgers came in third and then left for Los Angeles, where they played in the Coliseum until their stadium was built.

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Duke Snider (Dodger outfielder, 1947-62): “My wife and I had tears in our eyes the day we packed up and moved. I was born in Los Angeles. But I was born in Brooklyn, baseball-wise.”

Pete Hamill (New York columnist): “O’Malley understood that airplanes and air-conditioning were changing the perception of the West. So there had to be a ballpark out there. To think that major league baseball would end at the

Mississippi was just nuts . . . But did you have to take our team?”

Bud Furillo (Los Angeles sports journalist): “Red Smith once said to me, ‘Bud, I have nothing against Los Angeles. I like Los Angeles. Tell me one thing. Where is it?’ So the city needed more identity.”

Joseph Siegman (producer): “Cary Grant. Bing Crosby. Bob Hope. Jack Benny. George Burns. Milton Berle. Nat King Cole. Danny Kaye. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. All of these stars came out to see the Dodgers.”

Milton Berle (comedian): “I became one of the Dodgers’ biggest boosters. My wife and I had season tickets. We had eight box seats between home plate and first. And we would take other performers. Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Neil Simon. Everyone wanted to go and see the Dodgers.”

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The Dodgers won the 1959 series against the White Sox with an easy 9-3 victory in Game 6 in Chicago. It was bedlam back in California. The Dodgers were World Champions, the Western Dodgers, mind you, this Los Angeles crew achieving in year No. 2 what it took the Brooklyn Dodgers 73 years to do.

Buzzie Bavasi (former Dodger general manager): “It was the worst club ever to win a World Series. But it’s also my favorite club. Those kids won on sheer courage and fortitude.”

Maury Wills (Dodger shortstop, 1959-66; ‘69-’72): “That was my rookie year. The winner’s share was $11,000! That was more than twice what I was making. Man, I was gonna retire, get that place in the country I always wanted.”

Larry Sherry (Dodger pitcher, 1958-63): “You saw what the Yankees just got for winning the series. $320,000 a man. While we got about $12,000. But what the hell, that team made history. We won the first World Series for L.A.”

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In 1962, Dodger Stadium opened and Maury Wills stole a record 104 bases.

Tim McCarver (sportscaster and former St. Louis Cardinals catcher): “We used to kid around that a Dodger rally consisted of a Maury Wills bunt for a single, Wills stealing second base, Wills moving to third on a sacrifice, and then Wills scoring on a wild pitch.”

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The following year the Dodgers won the pennant and were matched against the formidable Yankees, who had won the previous two World Series and six of their seven World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now, in the teams’ first transcontinental series, the Yankees were solidly favored (8-5) to triumph again. However, the Dodgers had a superior pitching staff led by Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. The two were different in many ways, not the least of which was Drysdale’s willingness to throw at batters.

Jeff Torborg (Dodger catcher, 1964-70): “You know how every hockey team has a policeman? Don was our policeman. And he always talked about that two-for-one thing. You knock down one of our hitters, and I’ll knock down two of yours.”

Roger Craig (Dodger pitcher, 1955-61): “If you were a rookie, you could expect it. First time you faced Drysdale, you went down.”

John Roseboro (Dodger catcher, 1957-67): “He was the meanest white boy in baseball.”

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Still, in his own way Koufax made the Yankees pay attention, and the Dodgers won the 1963 series in a shocking four-game sweep.

Roger Kahn (author of “The Boys of Summer”): “I remember Koufax taking the mound that [first] game. The second hitter for the Yankees was Bobby Richardson. The scouting report on him was, don’t throw him a high fastball. So Koufax threw Richardson three high fastballs. Three pitches, three strikes, sit down. Then Koufax looked straight into the Yankee dugout. I could see Sandy saying in that look, ‘I can pitch it to your power and I’ll still strike you out.’ ”

Bobby Richardson (former Yankee second baseman): “He had tremendous stuff. I base that on the fact that I didn’t strike out much. And he struck me out three times. After I struck out the third time, I walked by [Mickey] Mantle in the on-deck circle, and Mantle just said, ‘There’s no use for me to go up there.’ He got Mantle three times, too.”

John Roseboro: “One time Koufax struck out Mantle on three pitches. Mantle never took his bat off his shoulder. Then he turned around and said to me, ‘How the hell are you supposed to hit that . . . ?’ ”

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When the first game of the 1965 World Series fell on Yom Kippur, Koufax became the first man to refuse to pitch a World Series game.

Lou Johnson (Dodger outfielder, 1965-67): “You had to know Koufax. He always danced to his own music. And when his holiday fell on the opener, he put his faith first. Just like Muhammad Ali put his faith first.”

Hillel Silverman (Los Angeles rabbi): “I knew he was not that committed to formal religion. So my question was, ‘Why did you not pitch on the Day of Atonement?’ He answered, very humbly, that he felt he had a responsibility as a role model for many Jewish children. And being a role model, he wanted those children to know that it was important to respect their heritage. It was important for them to respect themselves. That made him, in my eyes, a big man. Because this was big business, you know. The World Series. And it took courage to say, ‘Hey, ‘I’m not pitching today.’ ”

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Koufax nonetheless pitched three games that series, including a three-hit, 10-strikeout shutout in the seventh and final game on two days’ rest.

Ron Fairly (Dodger outfielder/first baseman 1958-69): “When he didn’t pitch on Yom Kippur, there were some people who criticized him. But I think they shut up when he was named World Series MVP.”

Steve Garvey debuted at first base on June 23, 1973. By then Ron Cey was already starting at third, Davey Lopes at second, and Bill Russell at shortstop. Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey would play together for the next eight seasons. They would help win four pennants and one World Series. They would also, at times, not be terribly friendly toward one another.

Scott Ostler (San Francisco Chronicle columnist): “Garvey was kind of a god in Southern California . . . I think some of the players were jealous of him. I remember traveling with the Dodgers. The bus would pull up to a hotel at 11 o’clock at night in New York, and there might be 30 autograph seekers waiting. Everyone from the bus would brush past these autograph seekers except Garvey. Garvey would always stop and sign for them. Now the anti-Garvey faction took the basic position that he was a kiss-ass. He’s out there trying to make points. My position would be, what kind of point is he going to make at 11 at night in New York with a bunch of scruffy autograph seekers?”

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1977: An exuberant Tommy Lasorda won five minor league pennants for the Dodgers and spent four years as their major league third-base coach before he succeeded a taciturn Walt Alston as manager.

Steve Yeager (Dodger catcher, 1972-85): “You got 180 degrees difference there. Walt was very quiet and Tommy is very loud, flamboyant and enthusiastic. Tommy yelled and screamed. Tommy blew up. Tommy cursed. Most of the time we laughed. We had grown up with Tommy in the minors. Tommy was just Tommy.”

Tommy John (Dodger pitcher, 1972-78): “Walt Alston had no confidence in me as a pitcher. Every time I got into the sixth or seventh inning, and I’d get guys on base, boom, I was done. Alston would take me out. First time I got in that situation with Tommy? He came out and said, ‘Look at the bullpen.’ I said, ‘There’s nobody in it.’ Tommy said, ‘That’s right. And I’m not Walt Alston. You’re gonna pitch yourself out of this jam.’ ”

Reggie Smith (Dodger outfielder, 1976-81): “Lasorda came to me and said, ‘I need you.’ No one in baseball ever said that to me. So how could I let him down? The other thing that stood out was his attitude. Tommy was willing to fight at the drop of a hat. That kind of spirit suited me just fine.”

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1980: Steve Howe, one of baseball’s best relievers the past three years, had a 95-mph fastball, a wicked slider, and the seemingly fearless swagger so commonplace to great closers. Howe also had a nasty cocaine habit. He was using sporadically in 1980, when he earned 17 saves, breaking the Dodger record for rookie relievers. That November, he received a phone call.

Steve Howe (Dodger pitcher, 1980-85): “They said, ‘You got 20 minutes to make it down to Little Joe’s. You have been made Rookie of the Year.’ Uh? What? The mad scramble was on. Then I walk into a room. There are cameras and lights and the hugest lineup of reporters I’d ever seen. But there was only one chair, and that was for me . . . You want to talk about scared to death? I started to get dry-heaves. I went into the bathroom. Am I going to make a fool of myself? Am I going to sound arrogant? One of our players comes in. ‘You nervous, kid?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Here, try this.’ What do you think it was? The next day the paper said they loved me. I made a connection. Every time I felt uncomfortable. Every time I felt fear I could take this. I was 21 years old. My problem really wasn’t on the field. The problem was everyday life. I couldn’t cope. I was scared even when I pitched in high school. Scared of not being perfect. Scared to fail.”

Tommy Lasorda (Dodger manager, 1977-96): “Steve Howe broke my heart. We were very close. But why in the hell would you take drugs? It’s against the law. It’s harmful to your body. It will lead you down the path of destruction. You can’t tell me it’s a disease. I never believed that. Never did, never will. How can it be a disease when you deliberately put something inside your body? That, to me, is a weakness. I don’t care what anybody says.”

Steve Howe: “Tommy was very frustrated and angry at me. Tommy used to make this statement: ‘I’d look at a pack of cigarettes and ask who’s stronger . . . the cigarettes or me?’ Then he’d say, ‘That’s how I quit smoking.’ That tells you a lot about why he’d be angry. If he could put that down, then why couldn’t anyone else?”

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In 1981, Fernando Valenzuela was baseball’s biggest story. He wasn’t supposed to start on opening day, but with [Jerry] Reuss and [Burt] Hooton injured, the chubby 20-year-old shut out the Astros. By the night of May 14--when he was 8-0 with five shutouts and an ERA of 0.50--Fernandomania had gripped the public.

Scott Ostler: “It was the perfect story. This kid grew up in a tiny Mexican village that had no plumbing or pavement. Then he just starts mowing down the opposition.”

Mark Cresse: (Dodger coach, 1975-98): “The first time we ever saw him, we were staying at a fancy hotel in Atlanta. I saw him walk into the lobby. He had a scruffy haircut and terrible clothes on. I could speak pretty good Spanish, so I went over to welcome him. Then I said goodbye and came back through the lobby an hour later. Fernando was still sitting in the same chair. He was waiting for his suitcase. He had no clue what a bellman was, or that his suitcase was already in his room. He was green as grass. The next thing you knew, he was this big star.”

Jaime Jarrin (broadcaster): “It was always a madhouse. In Chicago, for instance, the tickets were sold out as soon as they announced that he was pitching. And Chicago was the first game he didn’t finish. He got hit hard. We lost. Then after the game they said, ‘Please, Jaime, take Fernando back out on the field.’ Because the people didn’t want to leave. It was almost two hours since he had left the game in the sixth inning, and 25,000 people were chanting, ‘Fernando, Fernando.’ So he went out, waved, said good night and people left. Now it’s about 38% Hispanics who come to our park. In my opinion, he created more baseball fans than anyone in the game. We even went to the White House together that season. When we walked upstairs to the dining room, the Marine Corps Band was playing the most exquisite Mexican songs. People who had the world in their hands were in line waiting to get a signature of this Mexican kid, 19 years old, who couldn’t speak any English.”

Steve Yeager: “Well, he said he didn’t speak English. But you’d call him a couple names and he knew what the hell you were talking about.”

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After 1987’s Opening Day game, general manager Al Campanis appeared from the Astrodome on ABC’s “Nightline,” which was honoring the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s rookie year with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Campanis and Robinson had been roommates. Host Ted Koppel asked Campanis why baseball had no black managers or general managers. Campanis’ response led to his downfall: “. . . I truly believe they may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or perhaps, a general manager.”

Jim Campanis (Al’s son): “My father had never shown any prejudice. In his office for 20 years, he had three pictures. He had a picture of Sandy Koufax, who is Jewish, a picture of Roberto Clemente, who is Latin, and a picture of Jackie Robinson. In a way, that summed up my dad. Only thing he cared about was if you could hit, run, field and throw.”

Ted Koppel (host of ABC’s “Nightline”): “First of all, you gotta understand why I even asked him the question. Rachel Robinson (Jackie’s widow) had been interviewed and was part of the set-up piece. And someone had said to her, ‘What do you think? How much progress has there been since Jackie’s day?’ And Rachel said something to the effect of, ‘There’s been a lot of progress on the field, but there hasn’t been much progress in the front office.’ So I just said to Al Campanis, ‘What do you think?’ At first I thought he maybe had misunderstood, or was using the word ‘necessities’ in some way that I didn’t quite understand. So I re-asked the question and then it was quite clear. He was saying what I thought he was saying. Then I tried, again, to give him a chance to back away from it.”

Bill Dwyre (Los Angeles Times sports editor): “A lot of people said, ‘He didn’t have a racist bone in his body.’ Well, there’s a difference between racism and malicious racism. So what those people meant was, he didn’t have a malicious bone in his body. I would agree with that. Al was like everyone’s grandpa. But his thought process was of a day and age that was long gone.”

Davey Lopes (Milwaukee Brewers manager and Dodger infielder, 1972-81): “I had the utmost respect for Mr. Campanis. And I backed him up when it happened. But I didn’t like what he said. And even to this day, there are people in the game who think that way. They think we, as minorities, have a smaller brain, we’re less articulate, we’re less intuitive, we’re less creative, we’re just a little better than an animal. Now, did he hurt a lot of people? Yes, he did. But why is it that the people who seemed most hurt had never dealt with this man? I found it very ironic that Spike Lee and Jesse Jackson and all the other activists were coming down so hard on Al. They didn’t know Al from a hole in the wall.”

John Roseboro: “The Urban League, Jesse Jackson, everybody was jumping on the Dodgers. Then the Dodgers and the Phillies each hired a black for their front office. And that stopped the movement. Man, that really bothered me, because that was a good example of one of the problems that black people have in this country. Even when our so-called leaders get into positions of authority, they suddenly become tongue-tied and lack aggression. This was a perfect example of that. A threat to boycott baseball was eliminated by hiring two people. Talk about a mediocre thing.”

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1988 World Series: With Kirk Gibson’s clutch hitting and Orel Hershisher’s record-breaking pitching, the Dodgers went to the series against the heavily favored Oakland A’s. The tables turned in the ninth inning of Game 1, not long after Vin Scully broadcast what everyone thought would prove true: The injured Gibson would not play.

Jay Howell (Dodger pitcher, 1988-92): “We got four or five regulars hurt besides Kirk Gibson. We’re just sticking together with bubble gum. We got no chance of winning. That’s the perception.”

Mark Cresse: “The last time I saw Kirk Gibson before the game, he was in his underpants, eating spaghetti, back in Tommy’s room. I had to get him a fork, because he couldn’t walk 10 feet to get it.”

Kirk Gibson: (Dodger outfielder, 1988-90): “I was getting wrapped in ice, and getting a couple cortisone injections. So I was watching the game from the clubhouse, and they kept scanning our dugout with their cameras. They said, ‘No, there’s still no Kirk Gibson. He’s unable to play.’ I said, ‘My ass.’ ”

Tommy Lasorda: “I knew Gibson was gonna hit for the pitcher, but I didn’t let him go in the on-deck circle. I put Dave Anderson out there. I was using him as a decoy, because I knew if they saw Gibson, they’d pitch differently to Mike Davis. So they pitched too carefully and walked Mike Davis, because they wanted Dave Anderson to hit. After they walked Davis, I said to Gibson, ‘Now get out there!’ And, God, I got goosebumps when I heard the reaction.”

Franklin Stubbs (Dodger outfielder/first baseman 1984-89): “Oh man, what a moment. Gibson limps out of the dugout. The crowd is going crazy. But he can barely walk to home plate.”

Jay Howell: “Gibson is so lame, he almost falls down on his first swing. We’re thinking, ‘This is a joke. Why is he even up there?’ ”

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Gibson, on crippled legs, simply could not get around on [Dennis] Eckersley’s fastball, which he kept fouling off. But after Davis stole second, and the count reached 3-and-2, Eckersley made a monumental error. Instead of another fastball--his best pitch--he threw Gibson a slider.

Jay Howell: “I’m warming up in the bullpen. Gibson hits this rocket. But it doesn’t look like it’s out. It looks like it’s a gapper. Then the crowd goes bananas. You can almost feel the stadium shaking. The hair on the back of your neck is standing up.”

Steve Sax (Dodger second baseman, 1981-88): “The dugout’s going crazy. Tommy’s kissing and hugging everybody.”

Bob Costas (sportscaster): “It wasn’t this chest-bumping stuff that you see now. They were jumping up and down like Little Leaguers.”

Mickey Hatcher (Dodger utility player, 1979-80; ‘87-’90): “It was just plain magic. We send a cripple up there in a wheelchair, and he hits a home run to win a World Series game. I mean, come on.”

Tot Holmes (Dodger historian): “I was in the stands, and nobody went home. It was like a block party. Everybody just milled around and hugged people they didn’t know.”

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In 1997, the news out of Dodger Stadium came without warning. Peter O’Malley, the patriarch of baseball’s oldest family dynasty, was putting up a “For Sale” sign on the Dodgers. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch bought the Dodgers for $311 million, which was then the most ever paid for a sports franchise. The team received another jolt the following summer, when Mike Piazza was traded after he and his agent rejected the Dodgers’ last contract offer of six years at $80 million.

Tim Kurkjian (ESPN baseball reporter): “If I were Mike Piazza, I might not have accepted that money either. As greedy as that sounds, that is what free agency is there for. It was built for guys like Mike Piazza to go out on the open market and see what they’re actually worth. But I also don’t think Mike Piazza was very happy being a Dodger by then.”

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Now, what will become of this fabled franchise? Will it regain its stability, repair its tattered image, and resume winning World Series? Nobody can predict the future. But that didn’t faze Tommy Lasorda, the irrepressible Dodger since 1949, who showed he still had the touch by leading the U.S. baseball team to an unexpected gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Tommy Lasorda: “There isn’t any doubt in my mind we can come back. No doubt about it. We got great leadership. We got people now who have made every effort to bring in the type of players that we need. This organization has a great tradition. And if we all gather around and pull together, I think we can do it. We can bring this club back to where it belongs.”