which Dodger team was your favorite?
Great Teams
Since 2013, the Dodgers have surpassed the victory total of the best Brooklyn team, the 53-win squad, three times, and they fell one win short of tying it one other year. The 53 team won 105 games. The 2017 team just missed with 104 wins. In 19 and 21, they won 106 games, finishing second to the Giants in 21, who won 107. In 2022, they had their best season ever, 111-51. Not one of those teams won the championship. Even the Giants, who won 107 in 21, fell short of winning the title. LA had a little to do with that. As fans, we have all had our favorite players, and I have a favorite team.
For me, it was the 1963 Dodgers. A year after winning 102 games and losing to the Giants in a playoff, the Dodgers won 99 games, lost 63, and won the pennant by 6 games over the Cardinals. They were not a power-hitting team. They had just 110 homers. They scored just 640 runs. Their forte was pitching. The staff ERA was 2.85. Koufax led the league in wins, WAR, ERA, shutouts, strikeouts, FIP, WHIP, hits per 9 innings, and strikeout-to-walk ratio. Perranoski led in winning pct and games. Drysdale led in games started. Koufax would win the MVP and Cy Young awards.
At the plate, Tommy Davis won his second consecutive batting title with a .326 average. Maury Wills led the league with 40 stolen bases. Frank Howard hit 28 homers, leading the team. That was a third of the 108 hit by the position players. Fairly, 12, and Davis, 16, were the only other hitters in double figures. They were so-so defensively. Even the speedy CF Willie Davis made 8 errors; Tommy had 15. They had a .975 fielding pct as a team.
They beat the teams they had to beat but had losing records against the Braves and Phillies, and they broke even with the Giants. Their largest lead was 7.5 games on several occasions, but when they went to St. Louis for a three-game series in September, their lead was down to 1 game. They left St. Louis with a four-game lead and never looked back. That series started a five-game winning streak, and even though they went 3-4 over their last seven games, they clinched after game 158. There was an oddity, something you won't see in this era: they had a 3-3 tie with the Braves on May 29th, a game that went 7 innings.
In the winter of 62, LA made a few personnel changes. In November, they traded starting pitcher Stan Williams to the Yankees for Bill "Moose" Skowron. They then traded Larry Burright, a 2nd baseman and 1st baseman, Tim Harkness to the Mets for RHP Bob Miller. In January they traded a minor league pitcher to the Reds for Inf Don Zimmer. Then, just before the season started, they sold Duke Snider to the Mets. Zimmer would last until June, when he was sold to the Senators.
Of those players, Miller made the biggest contribution. The 24-year-old won 10 games and had a 2.89 ERA as the #4 starter behind the big 3, Koufax, Drysdale, and Podres. Richert was basically the #5 and had 12 starts and pitched 8 games out of the pen. Miller and Podres both recorded saves. So let's take a look at the 63 players.
First Base: Ron Fairly, 24 years old in his sixth MLB season, hit .271 with 12 homers and 77 RBIs. He played 119 of his 152 games at first and had a .995 fielding percentage. At 32, Bill Skowron was past his prime, and it showed during the regular season. He hit just .203 with 4 homers and 19 RBIs. He appeared in 66 games at first base and 1 at third base. The rest of his appearances were as a pinch hitter. Dick Nen, who hit a crucial homer against the Cardinals in the September sweep, was in 7 games. Photo is Fairly's catch of Pepitone's shot in the 9th inning of game four for the last out.
Second Base: 34-year-old Jim Gilliam was the primary second baseman in 63. Junior appeared in 142 games, 119 of them at second. He hit .282 with 6 homers and 49 RBIs. Gilliam was 6th in the MVP vote that year. Nate Olliver .236/1/9, in 65 games, Marv Breeding .167/0/1 in 20 games also saw time there.
Shortstop: The 1962 NL MVP did not repeat his 62 success. He hit for a higher average, .302 vs .299, but stole just 40 bases and was caught 19 times, leading the league in both categories. He made the All-Star team and was 17th in the MVP vote. Dick Tracewski was his backup, and he got into 104 games, 23 of them at short; he started just 5 games there.
Third Base: Rookie Ken McMullen, just 21 years old, started 71 of his 79 games at third base. He hit .236/5/28. Gilliam saw action in 45 games at third. Daryl Spencer played in 7 games at the hot corner.
Cather: John Roseboro, a 30-year-old veteran, was the primary catcher. 134 of his 135 appearances were as the catcher. He hit .233.9.49. His backup was Doug Camilli. Doug is the son of former Dodger, Dolph Camilli. Doug hit .162/3/10 in 49 games.
Left Field: Tommy Davis, now 24, won his second consecutive batting title with a .326/16/88 performance. Not as impressive as his 62 campaigns, nonetheless, he was an offensive catalyst for the team and was 8th in the MVP vote. Wally Moon, .262/8/48, was his main backup.
Center Field: Willie Davis, the 3-Dog. The speediest player on the team hit .2245/9/60 with 25 stolen bases, but he was caught 11 times. He played 156 games in center. Tommy Davis, Fairly, and Moon were his reliefs.
Right Field: Frank "Hondo" Howard. 107 of his 127 games came as the right fielder. He batted .273/28/64. Big Frank had a .518 slugging percentage and the team's highest OPS at .848.
Other players who saw time in the outfield include Al Ferrara, who appeared in six games. McMullen played left in one game. Just a note here: this player was covered in a profile on Mark's prior version of this site. Rookie OF Roy Gleason got in to 8 games in September but had only one plate appearance; he doubled. His career line 1-1 1.000 BA. He was drafted into the Army and was wounded in Vietnam. He returned to the Dodgers after Nam, but his speed and skills were affected by his wounds. The Dodgers let him go at age 26 after the 1969 season. He played for Jalisco in the Mexican League in 1970, hitting .228 in 52 games. He then retired from baseball.
Starting Pitchers: Johnny Podres was the team's oldest starting pitcher at 30. The hero of the 55 series was 14-12 3.54. Drysdale, 26 years old, was 19-17 2.63. 27-year-old Koufax was the Ace 25-5 1.88. The NL's Cy Young and MVP winner. Miller 24 and Richert 23 rounded out the staff. Nick Whilhite got 8 starts and went 2-3.
Relievers: The closer was Ron Perranoski, who had his best season as a Dodger, 16-3 with 21 saves in 69 games. Perry was 4th in the MVP vote. Larry Sherry 2-6 3 saves, Dick Calmus 3-1, Ed Roebuck 2-4, Ken Rowe 1-1 1 save, Dick Scott 0-0 2 saves, Jack Smith and Phil Ortega also pitched in relief.
The 1963 World Series: Game One: The 63 series opened at Yankee Stadium on October 2nd. It pitted the teams' aces against each other, the Yankees' Whitey Ford against Koufax. On paper, this series looked like a mismatch. They had the AL MVP in Elston Howard and three other Yankees with 20 or more homers. The oft-injured Mantle played in just 65 games. They won 104 under Ralph Houk and were going for the threepeat after winning in 61-62. Ford set LA down in order in the first but ran into trouble in the second. Howard doubled to left with 1 out. Skowron singled scoring Howard. Tracewski singled, and Roseboro then hit a 3-run homer, putting LA up 4-0. In the third, Skowron singled home Willie Davis to give the team a 5-0 lead. Ford went just five innings. Meanwhile, Koufax was cruising and striking out a lot of Yanks. The Yankees finally scored in the 8th when Kubek singled, and Tresh hit a 2-run homer with 2 outs to make it 5-2. Koufax struck out 15 Yankees, surpassing former Dodger Carl Erskine's 14-strikeout World Series record. Clete Boyer was the only Yankee regular not to strike out. Mantle, Tresh, and Kubek each struck out twice, and Bobby Richardson whiffed three times.
Game Two: LA started veteran LHP Johnny Podres, and the Yankees countered with LHP Al Downing, who would later win 20 games while pitching for Los Angeles. Wills and Gilliam singled in the first, and Willie D doubled them both home for a 2-0 lead. Skowron homered in the 4th. Downing left after the fifth and was replaced by Ralph Terry. Podres scattered 6 hits through 8.1 innings. Tommy Davis hit an RBI triple off of Terry in the 8th following another Willie D double. It was Davis's second triple of the game. After giving up a run with 1 out in the 9th, Perranoski relieved Podres and got the last two outs. LA headed home up 2-0.
Game Three: Don Drysdale started game three against the Yankees' Jim Bouton. Boutin had 21 wins and a 2.53 ERA during the season. He proved to be a tough customer and gave up just 4 hits in 7 innings. He walked Gilliam in the first, then uncorked a wild pitch, moving Gilliam to second, who then scored the only run of the game on a single by Tommy Davis. Drysdale, meanwhile, pitched a complete game 3-hitter, which Walter Alston called one of the greatest games he had ever seen pitched. All of the Yankee hits were singles, two by Kubek. Pepitone hit a long drive to right that was caught by Fairly right in front of the bullpen for the last out. LA led 3-0.
Game Four: The game one starters reprised their role in game four. Ford against Koufax. This time it was a pitcher's duel. The Dodgers scored first when Frank Howard hit a monumental blast down the line into the Loge level at Dodger Stadium. Watching the game, I could have sworn he hit that ball with just one hand. The Yankees tied it in the seventh when Mantle connected for the Yankees' second homer of the series. In the bottom of the seventh, Gilliam hit a high chopper to third; Boyer leaped to field it and fired to Pepitone at first. Pepitone lost the ball in the white-shirted background; it hit his arm and rolled all the way down the right-field line, allowing Gilliam to reach third. Willie D then hit a sac-fly, and Gilliam scored 2-1 LA. Sandy shut the Yanks down the rest of the way, and LA had their second championship since the move. It is still the only time in all 9 championships that LA has won at home.
Koufax received the MVP award for the series. Sport Magazine awarded Sandy a new car for his accomplishments. While he was in NYC receiving the award, a New York City cop put a parking ticket on the windshield. Bill Skowron, who had such a bad year at the plate, redeemed himself by hitting .385 with a homer and 3 RBIs and was second to Tommy Davis with 5 hits in the series. That is the 63 Dodgers. My all-time favorite team. If anyone would like their favorite Dodger team profiled, just let me know.
Discussion (33)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I loved all of the Dodger teams and their current run in post season greatness can make the current team your favorite, but mine is the 77,78 Dodgers under new manager Tommy Lasorda.
Coming in as the new manager following Walter Alston, Lasorda took on the mighty Big Red Machine and promptly took the Dodgers to two consecutive WS appearances losing both.
Tommy was a “breath of fresh air” with his “ I love the Dodgers” mantra with a lot of exuberance and excitement.
I’ve shared here before that I personally met Tommy in 1987 when my older brother was in the hospital awaiting a bone marrow transplant for recurring Hodgkin’s disease.
My brother was a police officer when some of his friends wrote the Dodgers a letter asking for a message of encouragement in his fight for life. Tommy did one better by personally asking me to pick him up at the visiting clubhouse at Candlestick Park and taking him to the hospital. Tommy visited with my brother and his wife for a couple of hours and showed great humility, compassion and care.
Tommy called my brother’s hospital room from Montreal (the next city on a long road trip) and left his Dodger Stadium phone number inviting my brother to call him when he was feeling better.
My brother did well and recovered calling Lasorda the next season. Tommy promptly picked up his phone which rang in his Clubhouse office. He left tickets at will call and we enjoyed a Dodgers vs Mets series as Tommy’s gracious guest.
He long remembered my brother for a couple of seasons even when we later visited him in ST in Vero Beach. My brother passed about ten years later but we often spoke about Tommy. The entire family loved Tommy, not only for being a great manager, but for being such a great human being who gave of his own time to Make a difficult situation better for someone he didn’t know.
I’m a life-long Dodger fan as are my kids and grandkids.
While I enjoyed the 1977 and 1978 teams as my favorite, I love every Dodger team and always will.
Can we three-peat? I hope so but if we don’t win I’ll be reminded of the VIN Scully quote “when Winter gives way to Spring rest assured it will be time for Dodger baseball.”
Go Dodgers!!!
Perhaps we should take a page out of the Yankee playbook. Like Judge, leave Ohtani off the playoff roster and force all the other guys to produce
Probably 2017. That team had it all. Every position covered. Until Rich Hill was taken out we had all the mojo in the world.
1959
My first year as a Dodger fan. Roy Campanella Night. 93,000 in the Coliseum. The lights were dimmed while matches and lighters were lit by thousands of fans. It was incredible. I was handed a lit match by my grandfather who several times that year came up with tickets close the Dodgers dugout. Game 5 of the World Series with Joe DiMaggio sitting directly behind me. It was a magical year for an 11 year old. Names like Joe Pignatano, Rip Repulski, Wally Moon, Don Demeter. Maury Wills came up that year. Johnny Roseboro was my first favorite player because I was a catcher my first year in Canoga Park Little League. Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, Charlie Neal, Jim Gilliam, Don Zimmer, Ron Fairly, Norm Larker. Carl Furillo was still playing and still had a rifle arm. Koufax, Drysdale, Podres, Roger Craig. Stan Williams, Clem Labine, Danny McDevitt. Larry Sherry was on that team. Frank Howard came up. I remember Vinny talking about how big he was. Wish I could remember his exact words.
Certainly one of the best memories of that year (and years to follow) is falling asleep on warm summer nights listening to Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett on the radio right next to my bed. The window next to the radio was always open and the soft sound of crickets blended comfortably with Vinny’s velvet voice.
That was 67 years ago but it all stands out in my memory more clearly than last week. That was the year and those were the moments baseball became a part of me.
For me it is the 1988 team. The ultimate underdog story. The Hershiser dominance. The Gibson HR.
So many good teams, it's hard to pick one... but I'll always have a soft spot for my first Dodger love, led by Sandy and Maury. Heck, I even loved the Bums, most of whom were Dodgers before I was born. If the current Dodgers get the three-peat, my heart could grow a bit.
Like everyone I liked all the teams, the good and the bad. I was told I liked the Dodgers in 1958, but I do not remember that team. But I do remember the 1959 team, and that is when I became a die-hard Dodgers fan. My favorite player was Junior Gilliam, but my first Dodgers hero was Larry Sherry.
I have been to at least 1 WS game for 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, and 1988.
But my all-time favorite team was 2017. Kersh, Wood, Hill, Jansen, Belli, Corey, JT, Kiké, CT3, Barnes, Utley…some of my all-time favorite Dodgers. I have 6 of those jerseys.
On August 25, 2017, the team was 91-36, arguably on their way to the most wins in a season. 35 games to go. Could they have won 26 of those 35 games? Instead, they lost 16 of their next 17 games. They still won 104 games.
I still remember writing here (in my early LADT years) about a reliever in ST who I said would become an integral member of the bullpen by June 1…Brandon Morrow. Mark questioned me on my early season comments. Morrow was a devastating lockdown setup reliever to KJ.
They swept the Dbacks in the NLDS and beat the Cubs 4-1 in the NLCS. After winning the first three games, the Dodgers lost to Jake Arrieta in Game 4, 3-2. The next game, the Dodgers ended it with an 11-1 win with Kiké Hernández accounting for 7 of those runs on a 3 HR game, his signature game.
We all remember the WS. That Game 7 loss sent me back to therapy (literally). I thought the 2005 Rose Bowl was my worst sporting event loss until the 2017 WS. I still do not understand why Alex Wood and Austin Barnes did not scream to everyone that Houston was doing something untoward. They changed their signs much more often in Game 4, and Wood was the most effective LAD pitcher in Houston. Alex Wood noted that they were "constantly changing" and estimated they did not go "more than eight or 10 pitches that whole time without changing".
So, while I love this year’s team, if they do not three-peat, I will be fine the day after, thanks to 2017.
Good job Bear. I also like the '63 team mainly because they swept the Yanks in the WS. Also because Hodges knocked in both runs in the 2-0 seventh game win with a single and a SF. Most people on this site won't remember that series but there's something about "The boys of summer" that makes great memories. I still love todays Dodgers and always will.
Who would you rather face? Braves or Phillies? Phillies have more depth in SP Braves have a better lineup
Unless the Phillies rally today from a 3-1 deficit in the top of the 8th inning, it looks like we will be playing the Braves on Saturday.
The 1988 team was my favorite Dodger team. Nobody including Bob Costas expected us to win the World Series against the mighty Oakland A's against their powerful lineup with the injured riddled team we put on the field, but Orel was amazing.
"The Los Angeles Dodgers could welcome back one of their better relief pitchers this October in right-handed flamethrower Edgardo Henriquez.
On Tuesday, the Dodgers officially activated RP Henriquez off the 15-day injured list, per the team's transaction log on MLB.com.Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said that Henriquez is "trending well" and there's a good chance he's on the team's roster for the National League Division Series".
2025
Heart of a champion to win that World Series.
I was at Game 3 and Game 4. I WAS exhausted after game 3 cant imagine how the players felt.
2020 was special too.
Ask me next year and it will be the 2026 squad....
Good stuff Bear. I really enjoy your strolls down memory lane.
You may remember the details of an event I have a vague recollection about from the past. If it's true at all: Do I remember Willie Davis making 3 errors on one play? He let a ball travel between his legs in the outfield, turned around as it ricocheted back by him again for error #2 and prompted air mailed his throw where elephants go to die from error #3. Am I hallucinating of did this, or something similar actually happen?
The Dodger Baseball Club is my favorite. I'm a fan of Dodger baseball. Every team, every year. Sure I've endured many heartbreaks. But the glorious feeling of a World Series victory more than makes up for it. I think right now, the Madres are the hungriest. And I've said for months that they scare me the most. Hopefully the next few weeks will be seat of the pants exhilarating. I sure hope the Boys want this. Because I can guarantee you that their competition does. Let's play ball! Book em
I have a tie. I became a fan in 77 as an 8 year old kid from South Dakota. Who wouldn’t love the 88 team.
I agree with NorCal. Too many great memories to pick a favorite, but if you put a gun to my head, the Drysdale/Koufax/Padres years when I was playing ball and attended Sandy's WS game in NY with my dad. I remember there were a lot of Dodger fans wearing "B" hats. Old loyalties die hard.
Thx Bear. Really stirred a lot of great memories. I didn’t get to CA until 1968 and wasn’t much of a fan until the 70’s. The 88 team was pretty special and I became a forever fan when Fernando came. He and Kersh are my fav players. I was in the left field bleachers with a bunch of buds when he first came up in September 1980
Boy did you start my day off right. the 63 team was also my favorite. Thank you for bringing back such a great time in my life. My dad had tickets for game 5. Thanks for the memories!
Blake Snell and Tarik Skubal are now best friends (Big Bro and Little Bro) and Miggy Ro made a video of them (AI-generated):
Open on www.instagram.comhttps://www.instagram.com/reel/DdsQ7DVpz0E/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==My favorite team is THIS ONE!
I enjoyed them all... even the bad ones.
2024 was my favorite moment... we all know what that was.
This had been my favorite until then:
I even loved them in 1992 when they were 63-99. The strangest thing about 1992 is that this wasn't some anonymous rebuilding club. Lasorda, Hershiser, Strawberry, Davis, Butler, Karros, Scioscia and Ramón Martínez were all there. On paper, there was plenty of recognizable talent.
Then came the kicker: the very next year, Mike Piazza arrived full-time, won Rookie of the Year, and the Dodgers improved to 81-81. By 1995, they were back in the postseason.