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Historical Notes

The land for Dodger Stadium was purchased from local owners and inhabitants in the early 1950s by the city of Los Angeles using eminent domain with funds from the Federal Housing Act of 1949. The city had planned to develop the Elysian Park Heights public housing project, which included two dozen 13-story buildings and more than 160 two-story townhouses, in addition to newly rebuilt playgrounds and schools.

Historical Notes

Before construction could begin on the housing project, the local political climate changed greatly when Norris Poulson was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1953. By then, the proposed public housing projects like Elysian Park Heights lost most of their support. Following protracted negotiations, the city purchased the Chavez Ravine property back from the Federal Housing Authority at a drastically reduced price, with the stipulation that the land be used for a public purpose. It was not until June 3, 1958, when Los Angeles voters approved a "Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball" referendum, that the Dodgers were able to acquire 352 acres of Chavez Ravine from the city.

The Chavez Ravine controversy was a significant event in the history of Los Angeles. It was a complex situation that involved urban redevelopment, political maneuvering, and the displacement of an entire community.

Historical Notes

In the mid-1950s, Brooklyn Dodger team president Walter O'Malley had tried to build a domed stadium in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, but was unable to reach an agreement with city officials on land acquisition, and eventually reached a deal with the city of Los Angeles. The rest is history.

Historical Notes

The Brooklyn Dodgers' move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season was a major turning point in Major League Baseball history and part of a wave of team relocations during the 1950s and 1960s. The decision to leave Brooklyn came after years of challenges, including an outdated stadium, Ebbets Field, which lacked parking for the growing number of car-owning fans. Despite being financially successful, Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley wanted a new stadium but couldn't reach an agreement with New York officials. Instead, he began exploring opportunities in Los Angeles, a city with no MLB team and a booming population. On May 28, 1957, the National League approved the move, along with the New York Giants’ relocation to San Francisco, ensuring both teams would move to California together. The Dodgers officially announced the move on October 8, 1957, and played their first game in Los Angeles on April 18, 1958, drawing a crowd of 78,672 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The move was celebrated in Los Angeles as a boost to the local economy, but it left New York fans heartbroken. It also marked the first time Major League Baseball expanded to the West Coast, increasing the league's national presence.

Historical Notes

While Dodger Stadium was under construction, the Dodgers played in the league's largest capacity venue from 1958 through 1961 at their temporary home, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Click HERE to see the Dodgers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Historical Notes

A crowd estimated at more than 5,000 was on hand in the Chavez Ravine section of Los Angeles Sept. 17 as ground was broken for the Los Angeles Dodgers' new $12,000,000 baseball plant. White lines represent the approximate location of the diamond, with the plate at lower right. Dodger players took positions on the diamond, but were quickly swarmed over by autograph seekers.

Historical Notes

In a little less than 31 months, nineteen giant earthmovers relocated eight million cubic yards of earth, flattening hills and filling in gullies across the 300-acre site. At the highest point, a 726-foot promontory variously called Mount Lookout, Silverwood Hill, and O'Malley Hill, they amputated the peak and carved an amphitheater into the mountainside that would serve as the stadium's foundation.

Historical Notes

Some 40,000 cubic yards of concrete, including 78 precast frames, and 13 million pounds of reinforcing steel went into building the 124-foot grandstand.

Historical Notes

Because the largest precast pieces were too big to move by truck, a six-acre casting yard was built on the site. To assemble the pieces, the contractor imported a $150,000 crane from Germany that was then was the largest in North America.

Historical Notes

The grandstand's cantilevered design meant that each spectator enjoyed an unobstructed view of the action—a departure from older stadium designs that placed support structures between fans and the field.

Historical Notes

At the project's peak, there were 342 construction workers on the site. Total costs ran close to $23 million, including $4.47 million in city and county subsidies.

Historical Notes

Jerry Doggett broadcast Dodgers games from 1956-1987; Vin Scully has been broadcasting the games since 1950.

Historical Notes

They were the most dominating 1-2 pitching punch in Los Angeles history, combining during a five-year period from 1962-66 for 209 regular-season victories, 53 shutouts and four Cy Young Awards. And they only pitched for the Dodgers and manager Walter Alston, two of many parallels to the respective careers of Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

Johnny Podres spent most of his career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. He is perhaps best remembered for being named the Most Valuable Player of the 1955 World Series, pitching a shutout in Game 7 against the New York Yankees to help bring the Dodgers their only World Series title in Brooklyn before their move to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

Historical Notes

Like Drysdale, Sandy Koufax began his career in Brooklyn. Like Drysdale, he came into his own in L.A. And, like Drysdale, he retired because of an arm injury. Beginning in 1961, Koufax won 25 or more games three times and led L.A. to three World Series titles. One of the few elite Jewish athletes, he refused to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. With the Series tied at 3-3, Koufax pitched the seventh and deciding game on two days rest--and beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-0. The "Left Hand of God," indeed.

Koufax's career peaked with a run of six outstanding seasons from 1961 to 1966, before arthritis in his left elbow ended his career prematurely at age 30. He was named the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1963. He also won the 1963, 1965, and 1966 Cy Young Awards by unanimous votes, making him the first 3-time Cy Young winner in baseball history and the only one to win 3 times when the award was for all of baseball, not just one league. In each of his Cy Young seasons, Koufax won the pitcher's triple crown by leading the NL in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average. Koufax's totals would also have led the American League in those seasons.

Koufax was the first major leaguer to pitch four no-hitters (including the eighth perfect game in baseball history). Despite his comparatively short career, Koufax's 2,396 career strikeouts ranked 7th in history as of his retirement, trailing only Warren Spahn (2,583) among left-handers. Koufax and Nolan Ryan are the only two pitchers inducted into the Hall of Fame who had more strikeouts than innings pitched.

Historical Notes

When the Dodgers hired manager Walter Alston before the 1954 season, he signed a one-year contract. Some 23 year later, he continued to labor under those terms. Alston won four World Series and over 2,000 games before being replaced by Tommy Lasorda before the 1977 season. He died in 1984.

Historical Notes

Tommy Lasorda's first off-field assignment with the Dodgers was as a scout from 1961 to 1965. In 1966, he became the manager for the Pocatello Chiefs in the rookie leagues, then managed the Ogden Dodgers to three Pioneer League championships from 1966–68. He became the Dodgers AAA Pacific Coast League manager in 1969 with the Spokane Indians (1969–71) and remained in the position when the Dodgers switched their AAA farm club to the Albuquerque Dukes (1972). His 1972 Dukes team won the PCL Championship. Lasorda was also a manager for the Dominican Winter Baseball League team Tigres del Licey (Licey Tigers). He led the team to the 1973 Caribbean World Series Title in Venezuela with a series record of 5 wins and 1 loss.

In 1973, Lasorda became the third-base coach on the staff of Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston, serving for almost four seasons. He was widely regarded as Alston's heir apparent, and turned down several major league managing jobs elsewhere to remain in the Dodger fold.

Historical Notes

Bill Russell played his entire 18-year, 2,181-game career with the Los Angeles Dodgers as the starting shortstop for four National League pennant winners and one World Series champion. He also served as the team's manager from 1996 to 1998.

Historical Notes

Lopes spent nine seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers as their regular second baseman. Along with Steve Garvey (1B), Bill Russell (SS) and Ron Cey (3B), they formed the longest running infield in baseball history, which stayed together for eight and a half seasons.

Historical Notes

A page one story in the Oct. 29, 1981, Los Angeles Times reported:

Pedro Guerrero drove in five runs with a home run, triple and single and the Dodgers climaxed a remarkable series of playoff comebacks Wednesday night by routing the New York Yankees, 9-2, to win the 78th World Series at Yankee Stadium.

It was the fourth straight victory for the Dodgers after they had dropped the first two games at Yankee Stadium. Previously they had come from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 in the National League West divisional playoffs and had overcome Montreal, 3-2, after trailing 1-2, in the NL championship playoffs.

The result was the exact reversal of the 1978 World Series, when the Yankees lost the first two games at Dodger Stadium, then won the next four.

The victory gave Los Angeles its fourth world championship and its first since 1965 when they beat the Minnesota Twins. Previously, they won championships in 1959 over the Chicago White Sox and in 1963 over the Yankees.

Historical Notes

In 2009, Tommy Lasorda marked his sixth decade in one capacity or another with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers organization, the longest non-continuous (he played one season with the Kansas City Athletics) tenure anyone has had with the team, edging Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully by a single season. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 1997.

Historical Notes

Dodger Stadium is currently the third oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball (behind Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago) and is the largest ballpark by seating capacity. It has always held 56,000 fans, due to a conditional-use permit limiting its capacity. Every time the Dodgers add seats, they always remove an equal number of seats in the upper deck or in the pavilion to keep the capacity the same.

Historical Notes

Work began almost as soon as the groundbreaking ceremony adjourned. Contractor Del E. Webb, who happened to own part of the New York Yankees, had pledged to complete the $15.8 million stadium by the opening day of the 1966 season.

Historical Notes

The stadium was built on a parcel of about 160 acres of flat land originally used for agricultural purposes in the southeast portion of Anaheim.

Historical Notes

Consistent with many major-league sports stadiums built in the 1960s, Anaheim Stadium is located in a suburban area, though one that is host to major tourist attractions.

Historical Notes

Over a 20 month construction period, Del Webb's construction workers poured 42,000 cubic yards of concrete, laid 7 million pounds of reinforcing steel and 8 million pounds of structure steel, and installed 1,900 light bulbs.

Historical Notes

The stadium was built on a parcel of about 160 acres of flat land originally used for agricultural purposes by the Allec, Russell, and Knutzen families in the southeast portion of Anaheim.

Historical Notes

The field dimensions (333 feet instead of 347 or 350, for example) were derived from a scientific study conducted by the Angels. Based on the air density at normal game times (1:30 pm and 8 pm), the Angels tried to formulate dimensions that were fairly balanced between pitcher, hitter and average weather conditions. The Angels tinkered with those dimensions several times, expanding or contracting parts of the outfield by a few feet here and there, to try to refine that balance. 396 feet is the shortest center-field in the American League, and tied for 2nd-shortest in the major leagues with Petco Park behind only Dodger Stadium's 395 feet.

Historical Notes

The Big A 230-foot high scoreboard support cost $1 million and was unveiled in 1966. It was moved to the parking lot in 1980.

Historical Notes

Angel Stadium, the fourth oldest active Major League Baseball stadium, was selected to host the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The stadium also houses the studios and offices of the Angels' owned and operated flagship radio station, KLAA (830 AM).

Historical Notes

The design of the stadium was very similar to the popular Dodger Stadium, but without the outfield seats.  Outfield bleacher seats were not in demand, Anaheim being in Orange County did not fit the image of the traditional bleacher bum.  So no changes were necessary for this relatively new stadium.  However, a new tenant wanted to move in, the Los Angeles Rams, and changes would be required to make this a multi-purpose stadium.

Anaheim Stadium became a multi-purpose stadium between 1980 and 1996. When the deal was complete to bring the NFL Los Angeles Rams to Anaheim, major changes were needed.  The stadium needed to become enclosed.  Enclosing the stadium angered the baseball fans.  By building grand stands in the outfield, the views of the mountains and infamous Big A scoreboard were going to be lost.  The Big A scoreboard was moved to the parking lot. The additional stands increased the size of the stadium from 43,000 to 65,000.

Historical Notes

In his first season with the Angels, Ryan, given a chance to pitch regularly as a starter for the first time in his career, had a league-leading 329 strikeouts—nearly a third more than the AL runner-up, and to that point, the fourth-highest total of the 20th century. Within five seasons, the season would only be Ryan's fourth-highest strikeout total. He also set a still-standing Major League record by allowing only 5.26 hits per nine innings, breaking Luis Tiant's 5.30 in 1968, as well as posting a 2.28 earned run average that year, to date the second lowest in franchise history, trailing only Dean Chance's 1.65 in 1964. Though Ryan's actual winning percentage hovered only slightly over .500, his strikeouts and no-hitters brought him media attention.

Historical Notes

Reggie Jackson played 21 seasons and reached the post-season in 11 of them, winning six pennants and four World Series. His accomplishments include winning both the regular-season and World Series MVP awards in 1973, hitting 563 career home runs (sixth all-time at the time of his retirement), maintaining a .490 career slugging percentage, being named to 14 All-Star teams, and the dubious distinction of being the all-time leader in strikeouts with 2,597 (he finished with 13 more career strikeouts than hits). Jackson was the first major leaguer to hit one hundred home runs for three different clubs, having hit over 100 for the Athletics, Yankees, and Angels.

Historical Notes

Gene Mauch played in Major League Baseball as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944, 1948), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947), Chicago Cubs (1948–49), Boston Braves (1950–51), St. Louis Cardinals (1952) and the Boston Red Sox (1956–57).

Mauch was best known for managing four teams from 1960 to 1987. He is by far the winningest manager to have never won a league pennant, three times coming within a single victory. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies (1960-68), Montreal Expos (1969–75, Mauch was their inaugural manager), Minnesota Twins (1976–80), and California Angels (1981–82, 1985–87). His 1,902 career victories ranked 8th in major league history when he retired, and his 3,942 total games ranked 4th. He gained a reputation for playing a distinctive "small ball" style, which emphasized defense, speed and base-to-base tactics on offense rather than power hitting.

Mauch gained a reputation for being loyal to his players and became known as the Little General.

Historical Notes

The original Anaheim Stadium seated 43,204 (later 43,250). The stadium underwent construction in 1979-80 for additional seating to accommodate the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL. Upon completion in 1981, the stadium seated 65,158 (later 64,593) for baseball. The Rams left Anaheim for St. Louis, MO in 1995. The new Angel Stadium of Anaheim has a seating capacity of approximately 45,050 for the Los Angeles Angels.

Historical Notes

In the late 1970s, Anaheim Stadium tried to earn extra revenue any way it could. It staged more rock concerts, motocross events and brought in new (and briefly) successful tenants in soccer’s California Surf and the Southern California Sun of the short-lived World Football League. But just as they had wooed an unhappy Angels franchise out of Dodger Stadium 15 years earlier, local politicians were now sniffing out another disgruntled tenant in 1978 when they heard that the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams were looking to upgrade from their current situation at the ancient Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Anaheim and Orange County were hardly clandestine in their efforts to woo the Rams, even placing a full-page pitch to them in the Los Angeles Times. The ballpark would do more than just add 20,000 makeshift seats in right field, as had been planned for the Chargers back in 1966; this time the idea was to turn Anaheim Stadium into a fully enclosed, multi-purpose facility, tucking into the back of the second level 107 brand new luxury suites—all for the Rams to own and profit from. Like Gene Autry before him, Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom was happily on board with the concept and told Anaheim he’d be theirs.

Autry and the Angels were fine with the ambitious $33 million project to enclose and expand Anaheim Stadium to 67,000 seats, even if it meant wrecking the baseball ambience. Just to be sure there was no ill will, the Rams played nice and offered to buy Angels season tickets for every row that butted up against the front of the new luxury boxes. But when Autry discovered that the expansion pact also called for a high-rise business complex to be built for the Rams on part of the existing parking lot, smiles became snarls. The Angels sued Anaheim, triggering a 12-year battle in which the Angels, the Rams and the City of Anaheim all took turns suing one another over control of the parking lot. Finally, in 1994, it was ruled that the lots belonged to the city but needed to be fully used by the Angels, negating any chance for development.

Historical Notes

The Big A scoreboard was moved to the south end of the parking lot when Anaheim Stadium was enclosed in 1980.  Talk of bringing it back during the ballpark’s second makeover ended when it was determined it would be too costly to do so.

In 1998, the stadium was renamed Edison International Field of Anaheim after local utility Edison International reached a deal giving it naming rights over the stadium for 20 years, and during this time, the stadium was referred to as the Big Ed. However, after the 2003 season, Edison International exercised its option to exit the sponsorship deal. On December 29, 2003, the Angels announced that from then on the stadium would be known as Angel Stadium (in full, Angel Stadium of Anaheim), some locals can still be caught calling the venue by its original name; Anaheim Stadium as well. After the name change in 2004, its original nickname The Big A was restored. Despite efforts to cover them up with the Angels' halo insignia, Edison's insignia can still be found on the ends of seating rows throughout the ballpark.