The Story of Los Angeles Dodgers

Yes, we are talking baseball.  It is still baseball season with the World Series in full swing.  What is it about baseball?  Well, you have the Los Angeles Dodgers, a major league baseball team that play at Dodger Stadium in, of course, Los Angeles, California.  From April to October they played 162 regular season games, and they have won the National League Pennant.  They are now playing World Series of which they have succeeded in winning a few times, and they hope to defeat the Boston Red Sox to become World Series Champions again.

Now some of you are saying, “I love baseball.  It is one of the most unique sports ever played.  As for the Los Angeles Dodgers, they are a baseball team, and I am not a Dodgers fan, and they have nothing to do with railroads.  Therefore, I will be dodging the Los Angeles Dodgers as I have always done.”

That is a very interesting thought.  The question is where the name ‘Dodgers’ came from.  For some people, it would not be a name that you would choose for any sports team.

Some of you are saying, “Maybe they came up with the name because they had to dodge things that were being thrown at them, or maybe it is named after a man or pet named Dodger.”

Those are a good answers, but neither one is the correct answer.  Where did the name come from?

They are the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they were not always in Los Angeles.  The team moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, New York, and it is here where the name originates.  The original name was the ‘Trolley Dodgers’ because people were dodging the trolleys as they came down the streets of Brooklyn.  The name was eventually shortened to Dodgers, and they have had that name ever since.  They did win the 1955 World Series, but their time in Brooklyn was short as they had a hard time finding a spot for a new stadium, and they were up against two other local baseball teams (Giants and Yankees).  In 1957, they played their last season in Brooklyn, and the team was moved to Los Angeles the next year.  You can say that the team moved from a city with streetcars to a city that has lots of streets with lots of cars.

Next time you are watching baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers are playing, think about a team that derived from the streetcars of Brooklyn.