The Forgotten Man Before Justin Turner, the Dodgers had another redhead. He played 1st and the outfield and spent 12 years of his 21-year MLB career as a Dodger. And in the overall scheme of things, he is somewhat of a forgotten man. Ronald Ray Fairly was born on July 12, 1938, in Macon, Georgia. He was the son of Carl and Marjorie Fairly. Ron’s dad had a 10-year career…
Wallace Wade Moon, born 4/3/1930 in Bay Arkansas, was the son of Henry Albert Moon and the former Margie Leona Vernon. He was the second of their three children. Bay is a swampy hamlet by some railroad tracks. Henry was a factory worker who later became mayor of Bay. Henry would read every sports page he could get his hands on. Wally was named after Alabama football coach, Wallace Wade….
Recently I was asked by a friend of mine who reads this blog if I would do a story about Willie Davis. I thought that was a good idea, but since their careers started so close together, I thought I would just add Tommy to the story too. I hope it is something you all will be interested in. …
I got to thinking about this, and for most, it is a long and happy marriage, kids, grandkids, and just living the good life. When you break it down for sports fans, it is the years that their team is on top of the heap in their sport. Rams fans never celebrated a championship in LA. They got one in Cleveland and one in St. Louis. Kings fans got treated…
WAR, what is it? Simply a tool used to judge a player’s value to the franchise. It stands for Wins Above Replacement. WAR simply meaning how many wins this player is better than the guy who has replaced him. No Dodger in team history has a WAR higher than Kershaw’s 71.8. That was almost 72 games better than his replacements. There are currently 31 players who finished with a WAR…
Since the deadline is just a few days away, I thought it might be fun to look back on some of the trades the Dodgers have made over the years. Some were significant in helping the team win, others, well they just were not all that good or popular. Winter: 1958 On the 4th of December, the Dodgers sent Gino Cimoli to the Cardinals for OF Wally Moon and P…
Well, spring training is here. Right now it is dominated by the sound of balls hitting mitts with amazing velocity. There is plenty of optimism, and from each camp, you hear that this guy looks amazing, and his pitches are jumping out of his hand. All that will change in the next few days when the rest of the squad reports and soon the crack of the bat will join…
This season, our long drought ended, and the Dodgers brought home the trophy. What a great feeling. And over the last few years we have come close, and just fell short. But in the days before the present system was set up and league expansion, there were only 2 winners. No second chance at a title. Just two teams battling it out for MLB supremacy. Four times in their history,…
I am limiting this to L.A. Dodgers history simply to keep it from being more than a post long. We shall travel in our way back machine to 1958 when they traded Gino Cimoli to the Cardinals for Wally Moon. Cimoli had a nice career without being a big star. He ended up playing for 6 more teams over the last 8 seasons of his career. Moon, who became so…
This is a follow up to the best that have ever played in my estimation. Some I never saw. Others I saw many times. It will consist of the starting 8, a pitching staff of 12 and the bench players. Not an easy thing to do. Starters 1st Base Easiest pick for me. Gil Hodges. 370 lifetime homers as a Dodger First to win the Gold Glove when they were…