History of LA Dodger 1st Basemen.

I write this as requested by one of our posters. And it is a subject that is easy to write about. There have been so many over the years. Some very good, some ok, others, not so good. One, Eddie Murray is in the Hall, another, Gil Hodges belongs there, but that is an argument for another day. Some were very good hitters: Garvey, Gonzalez, Murray, Hodges. Some were good fielders: Parker, Garvey, Hodges. Some were not: Dick Stuart. Others were just passing through on their way to careers elsewhere: Jim Gentile, Tom Hutton. But for a while, they all wore the blue with varying levels of success.

So let’s start at the beginning. 1958 when the team moved from Brooklyn, Gil Hodges was the primary 1st baseman. Gil was getting older, and was not as good defensively as he had been a few years earlier when he won the first 3 gold gloves given at the position, but he was more than serviceable. Gil tied with Charlie Neal for the team lead in HRs with 22. Carl Furillo, in his last full season, led the team in BA at .,290.

Gil had a few backups, Norm Larker, Jim Gentile, who would be traded to the Orioles, and Steve Bilko, the PCL star up for another shot at the bigs. He had a better season in 59, but in 60, he lost his job to Norm Larker. In 61 he went to the Mets in the expansion draft. Larker held the job for a couple of years, and he was replaced by Ron Fairly. Harkness, Moon, and Howard also saw some time there. Fairly was still the main guy in 63 when they won the World Series, but they had traded for Bill Skowron, and he saw most of the action in the series.

Dick Nen hit a memorable HR during the stretch run but was just a memory by the next season. Fairly was the man again in 64, but his replacement was already a member of the team, and in 1965, Wes Parker took over and the job would be primarily his for the next 9 years. Wes was not a great hitter, but he won 6 gold gloves at the position. In 1970, Wes had his best offensive season ever when he hit .,319 with 10 HRs and 111 RBI’s. The only time he topped those numbers. He retired after the 72 season citing the game was not fun anymore.

Bill Buckner took over for Wes, and many thought he would be there for years to come, but a scatter-armed 3rd baseman was moved to the position in 1974 to get his bat into the lineup, and Buckner was moved to the outfield. From 1974 to 1982, Steve Garvey would be the everyday guy. Garvey was a very good hitter and won the MVP award in 1974. He would finish out of the top 10 in MVP voting only twice in the next 8 seasons. He won 4 consecutive gold glove awards and was one of the more clutch bats in the league. Garvey left as a free agent after the 82 season, and his main replacement was highly touted rookie, Greg Brock.

Well, Brock was no Garvey and that was soon evident, he had some power, but was not close to being as consistent as Garvey was. He was backed up at various times by the likes of Sid Bream, who would later go to the Pirates and Braves and have a decent career. Franklin Stubbs, who would replace him as the starter in 1987. Stubbs held the job for a couple of years and then they traded for future Hall of Famer, Eddie Murray. Murray was not the same hitter he was in Baltimore, but he was above average while he was in LA.

His replacement was in the system, and in 1992, he took over and won the ROY: Eric Karros. For the next 11 years, Karros would put together some very good seasons, and when he left, he held the LA Dodger record for HRs with 270. Duke Snider holds the Dodger all-time record. Eric was not a great glove guy, but he was more than solid at the position for more than a decade. He was traded after the 2002 season to the Cubs with Mark Grudzelanek for Chad Hermansen and Todd Hundley, one of the worst deals they have made. Hundley played in only 21 games and was retired after the season. Hermansen played in only 11 games.

The primary 1st baseman in 2003 was the Crime Dog, Fred McGriff. McGriff was only in 86 games and was replaced some games by mid-season pick-up, Robin Ventura. Neither of them was very productive. Shawn Green spent the 2004 season as the primary guy, backed up by Ventura, Hee Sop Choi, and Olmedo Saenz. Over the next couple of years, 05 and 06, Choi was the main guy, and then Nomar Garciaparra took over in 06.

In 2007, another rookie was handed the job. He was James Loney. James would have some very good days with the team. Over the next 7 seasons, until August of 2012, Loney would man 1st base. He was a contact hitter with occasional power, and he did a decent job in the field. He was backed up by various veterans they would pick up along the way like Mark Sweeney, Jim Thome, Doug Mientkiewicz.

Then in August of 2012, the Dodgers made “The Trade”. Adrian Gonzalez was brought in and Loney was sent to the Red Sox in the deal. Gonzalez was a .280 hitter over his time in LA, and as Vinny described him, he became the Dodgers butter and egg man. In his full seasons in LA, he never drove in less than 90. And he won his 4th gold glove as a Dodger in 2014. He was backed up sometimes by Scott Van Slyke, and later by Rob Segedin.

But the Dodger farm was starting to produce again, and a young player who had a lot of speed and athletic ability was about to replace the veteran, who was having trouble staying on the field. And when Gonzalez went down with an injury early in 2017, young Cody Bellinger took his place and made Dodger history. Bellinger appeared in 132 games, won the ROY, and set the rookie record for HRs with 39 passing the mark of 36 set by Mike Piazza in 1993. He also drove in 97. He probably would have hit 40, but a 10-day stint on the IL set him back. He had a forgettable World Series but played well against the Cubs in the NLCS.

It looked for all practical purposes like the Dodgers had found their first baseman for the next several years. Cody was the main man again in 2018, but in 2019, a former A’s player who the Dodgers had picked up off of the trash heap became the 1st basemen for a majority of the games. Having players move to different positions as the need arose was the new mantra in LA. So Max Muncy, who brought surprising power to the team was installed there and Bellinger moved to CF, where he is also a gold glove caliber player. Muncy plays the position now a majority of the time, but he also gets moved around, and guys like Matt Beaty, Edwin Rios, and a few others have spelled Max.

Then early this season the team signed future Hall of Famer, Albert Pujols to play against LHP. Pujols has been reborn in LA. He has played very well, and despite his age, he still is very good with the glove. So there is kind of a thumbnail view of the 1st baseman who have manned the bag for the Dodgers. I only scanned most of them and gave deeper info on the ones who were at the position longest. But I would be remiss if I did not give some props to Dr. Strangeglove. The memorable Dick Stuart. Stuart was a decent hitter who 3 times hit more than 30 HR’s in his career and topped 100 RBI’s the same. His best season was 1961. He hit .301 with 35 HRs and 117 RBI’s. But it was not his bat most remember, it was his Iron glove.

Over 10 seasons Stuart compiled 169 errors playing 1st base, earning the moniker, Dr. Strangeglove. A take-off on the movie Dr. Strangelove. That means he made almost 17 errors a season there. Not exactly confidence-inspiring. He was signed as a free agent in July of 1966. He was a part of the 1966 World Series team but only had 2 at-bats without a hit. He actually hit pretty well with a .264 average over parts of 38 games with only 91 at-bats. He had 3 HRs and 9 RBI’s. He was released after the season, and despite a comeback try with the Angels in 1969 at age 36, his career was basically over.