100 Fun Facts About Dodgers

The Dodgers' name comes from Brooklyn pedestrians who dodged what?

Sportswriter Charles Dryden coined 'Trolley Dodgers'; the word did not appear on a jersey until 1932.

In which year did the Dodgers play their first game in Los Angeles?

Owner Walter O'Malley moved the franchise after 68 seasons in Brooklyn; the first LA game was a 6-5 win over the Giants on 18 April.

Where did the Dodgers play their first four seasons in Los Angeles before Dodger Stadium opened?

A 1959 exhibition there to honour Roy Campanella drew 93,103 fans, a record crowd for a major league game at the time.

Jackie Robinson broke baseball's colour line at Ebbets Field on 15 April of which year?

He played first base that day before 26,623 fans and won the first-ever Rookie of the Year award that season.

Which Dodgers executive signed Jackie Robinson, wanting a player 'with guts enough not to fight back'?

Robinson's number 42 was retired across all of Major League Baseball in 1997, a first for any professional athlete.

Which Dodgers catcher won three NL MVP awards in the 1950s before a car accident ended his career?

His car hit ice in January 1958 and left him paralysed; he entered the Hall of Fame in 1969.

The Dodgers won their first World Series in 1955 by beating which team?

Brooklyn had lost the 1941 Series and several others to the same opponent before finally winning it all.

Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 to 1957, was replaced on its site by what?

Demolition began in February 1960 and the Ebbets Field Apartments opened in 1962.

Dodger Stadium was built in which Los Angeles neighbourhood, controversially cleared of residents?

The $23 million park opened in 1962 as the first fully privately financed MLB stadium since the original Yankee Stadium.

With about 56,000 seats, the Dodgers' home ground holds what distinction?

It is also the third-oldest active MLB park after Fenway and Wrigley, and it hosted Olympic baseball in 1984.

Which other major league team shared Dodger Stadium from 1962 to 1965?

The expansion club left for Anaheim after four seasons.

Sandy Koufax pitched his perfect game against which team on 9 September 1965?

It was the last of his four no-hitters, a record at the time, in a season when he struck out 382 batters.

Why did Sandy Koufax decline to start Game 1 of the 1965 World Series?

He came back to win Games 5 and 7; arthritis forced him to retire a year later at 30, and he became the youngest Hall of Famer at 36.

How many Cy Young Awards did Sandy Koufax win, each by unanimous vote?

In 1963, 1965 and 1966 only one award was given for both leagues, which makes the sweep more remarkable.

Don Drysdale set a modern National League record for what?

He plunked 154 hitters in his career; he also threw six straight shutouts and 58 2/3 scoreless innings in 1968.

Vin Scully called Dodgers games for how many seasons?

From 1950 to 2016, the longest run of any broadcaster with one team; he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in his final year.

Which broadcasting legend mentored the young Vin Scully in Brooklyn?

Barber taught him to stay impartial rather than root openly for the home team.

Walter Alston managed the Dodgers from 1954 to 1976 on how many consecutive one-year contracts?

'The Quiet Man' won four World Series and had exactly one big-league at-bat as a player, a strikeout.

Fernando Valenzuela became the only player to win which two awards in the same season, in 1981?

He started the year 8-0 with five shutouts and an ERA of 0.50, throwing a screwball few pitchers still used.

Fernando Valenzuela was named the 1981 Opening Day starter as a rookie because which pitcher was injured?

He shut out Houston 2-0; the Dodgers retired his number 34 in 2023 even though he is not in the Hall of Fame.

Kirk Gibson's famous 1988 World Series homer came off which Oakland closer?

Hobbled by a hamstring and a swollen knee, Gibson hit a 3-2 backdoor slider for the walk-off in his only at-bat of the Series.

Before baseball, Kirk Gibson was an All-American in which sport at Michigan State?

He set receiving records as a wide receiver and joined the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

Orel Hershiser's 1988 record streak of consecutive scoreless innings reached what number?

He broke Don Drysdale's mark of 58 2/3 and swept the Cy Young, NLCS MVP and World Series MVP the same season, a unique treble.

Which manager gave Orel Hershiser the nickname 'Bulldog'?

Lasorda thought he was too timid on the mound and showed hitters too much respect.

The Dodgers' 1976-96 manager, who 'bled Dodger blue', led which country to Olympic baseball gold in 2000?

The man who 'bled Dodger blue' beat Cuba in Sydney four years after ending his 1976-96 run as manager.

Which uniform number did the Dodgers retire in 1997 for their manager of 1976 to 1996?

Number 24 belongs to Walter Alston; Lasorda entered the Hall of Fame the same year.

Clayton Kershaw's 2014 NL MVP made him the first NL pitcher to win the award since which Cardinals ace?

Gibson had won it in 1968; Kershaw added a no-hitter that June and his third Cy Young.

Clayton Kershaw was drafted by the Dodgers with which overall pick in 2006?

He spent all 18 seasons in Los Angeles, recorded his 3,000th strikeout in July 2025 and retired after that season with three rings.

Shohei Ohtani's record 2023 contract with the Dodgers was worth how much over ten years?

It was the biggest deal in sports history at the time, and he was a unanimous NL MVP in his first Dodgers season.

In 2024 Shohei Ohtani founded the 50-50 club with how many home runs and stolen bases?

He did it as a full-time designated hitter while his elbow healed, then won the World Series in his first postseason.

Which group bought the Dodgers in 2012 for a North American record price of about $2 billion?

The ownership team included Magic Johnson, and the club has since become a perennial big spender.

Through the 2025 season, how many World Series titles have the Dodgers won?

1955, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988, 2020, 2024 and 2025, plus a record 26 National League pennants.

Which honour have Dodgers pitchers taken home 12 times, more than any other franchise?

Eight different Dodgers have won it, from Don Newcombe in 1956 to Clayton Kershaw's three.

The Dodgers hold the record for the most winners of which award, with 18?

That is twice as many as the next club; Jackie Robinson won the very first one in 1947.

Which team did the Dodgers beat in the pandemic-shortened 2020 World Series?

The six-game win ended a 32-year title drought stretching back to 1988.

The Dodgers and Giants first met in a postseason series in which year?

Their 1951 and 1962 pennant tiebreakers were regular-season playoffs; the 2021 NLDS was the first true postseason meeting, won by LA 3-2.

Which Giants pitcher struck Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat in 1965?

The incident became one of the ugliest moments in a rivalry that began in New York in 1890.

Bobby Thomson's 1951 'Shot Heard 'Round the World' came off which Dodgers pitcher?

The Giants had come back from 13 1/2 games behind to force the tiebreaker.

Which team did the Dodgers beat in seven games in the 1965 World Series?

Two years earlier they had swept the Yankees in four.

In 1998 the Dodgers became the first MLB team to do what?

Peter O'Malley had begun clinics in China and South Korea in 1980, and the club was the first to start a South Korean player, Chan Ho Park.

Which South Korean pitcher was the first Korean-born player to start for the Dodgers?

He debuted in 1994; Hyun-jin Ryu followed as a Dodgers starter nearly two decades later.

Number 39 was retired by the Dodgers in 1972 alongside the numbers of which two players?

Robinson's 42 and Koufax's 32 went up the same day, 4 June 1972, beside Campanella's 39.

Sandy Koufax became the youngest player elected to the Hall of Fame at what age?

He was inducted in 1972, six years after arthritis in his elbow forced him to quit at 30.

Vin Scully's Ford C. Frick Award from the Hall of Fame came in which year?

Fans later voted his call of Gibson's 1988 home run as his most memorable.

Which sportswriter coined the nickname 'Trolley Dodgers' for the Brooklyn club?

The team had no official nickname until 1932, also going by Bridegrooms, Superbas and Robins.

The 'Robins' nickname honoured which Hall of Fame manager who led Brooklyn from 1914 to 1931?

Most historians now refer to the pennant-winning 1916 Brooklyn team as the Robins.

Cartoonist Willard Mullin depicted 'Dem Bums' using the likeness of which famous clown?

Kelly himself served as a club mascot during the 1950s.

In 1956 and 1957 the Dodgers played seven home games a year at Roosevelt Stadium. Where was it?

The rent was $10,000 a year; Ebbets Field was demolished in 1960.

Where did the Dodgers hold spring training from 1948 to 2008 at a complex known as Dodgertown?

It became the first fully integrated spring training site in the South; the team moved to Camelback Ranch in 2009.

Who was the first Taiwanese player to start for the Dodgers?

The Dodgers were also the first team to start a South Korean player, Chan Ho Park.

Which pitcher won the first-ever World Series MVP award, for Brooklyn in 1955?

His 2-0 shutout in Game 7 came on the heels of a complete-game win on his 23rd birthday in Game 3; the prize was a red two-seater Corvette.

The first televised major league game, in 1939, saw Brooklyn beat which team at Ebbets Field?

Brooklyn won 6-1 on 26 August 1939 under general manager Larry MacPhail, who also brought night baseball to the borough.

Pee Wee Reese's nickname came from his childhood prowess at what?

A 'pee wee' is a small marble. As Brooklyn's captain from 1950, he rather than the manager carried out the line-up card.

In 1950 Gil Hodges matched which Yankee's feat of four homers in a nine-inning game?

He hit them off four different Boston Braves pitchers, the first coming off Warren Spahn.

Don Newcombe became the first Black pitcher to do what, in 1949?

He came from the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League and was the first pitcher ever to collect top-rookie, MVP and Cy Young honours.

The franchise won its first championship in 1889 as a member of which league?

It jumped to the National League the next year and won that pennant too, the first club to take titles in two leagues in consecutive seasons.

Ebbets Field was built on a former garbage dump known by what name?

Charles Ebbets quietly assembled the 5.7-acre site, and the park opened in April 1913 with seating for about 24,000.

Which Giants player-manager sneered "Is Brooklyn still in the league?" in 1934?

Casey Stengel's Dodgers answered by beating the Giants twice at the Polo Grounds on the final weekend to knock them out of the pennant race.

Brooklyn's 1920s "Daffiness Boys" once left three runners standing on which base?

Dazzy Vance, Chick Fewster and Babe Herman all arrived together; Herman led the club in both hitting and zaniness.

Dazzy Vance led the National League in strikeouts for how many consecutive seasons, still a record?

A late bloomer who did not pitch a full season until 31, he won the 1924 pitching Triple Crown and the MVP award.

Which Dead Ball era outfielder is still the franchise leader in games, hits, doubles and triples?

He won the 1918 batting title and hit .317 over 19 seasons with a corkscrew swing, his hands held down near the knob.

Which 1953 rookie award winner had his number retired two days after his death in 1978?

'Junior' had spent 28 years in the organisation and was still a Dodgers coach when he died; the club otherwise reserves the honour for Hall of Famers.

Duke Snider was nicknamed "the Duke of" which Brooklyn neighbourhood?

His father gave him the 'Duke' name at age five for his swagger; he reached 400 home runs in 1963 and the Hall of Fame in 1980.

Which reliever was MVP of the 1959 World Series, the fifth straight pitcher to take the award?

He went 2-0 with two saves and a 0.71 ERA; second baseman Charlie Neal hit .370 in the Series but was passed over.

Maury Wills' record 104 steals in 1962 broke a modern-era mark set by whom in 1915?

Giants manager Alvin Dark had his grounds crew water the basepaths into mud to slow him down; Wills was named MVP anyway.

Who holds the Dodgers franchise record for pitching wins, with 233?

He won 324 games in all, pitched 58 shutouts and spent his later years as a long-time Braves broadcaster.

Steve Garvey holds the National League record for consecutive games played. How many?

He started the 1974 All-Star Game as a write-in vote and was MVP of both that game and the season.

Ron Cey's nickname "the Penguin" referred to what?

College coach Chuck 'Bobo' Brayton coined it; the Dodgers traded him to the Cubs after 1982 so Pedro Guerrero could move to third.

The 1981 World Series produced the first shared MVP award. How many Dodgers split it?

Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager shared it as the Dodgers beat the Yankees in six games.

Which Dodger with one homer all season hit a two-run shot in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series?

Kirk Gibson's walk-off later that night overshadowed it; the Dodgers upset the heavily favoured Athletics in five games.

The manager who led the Dodgers to the 1981 and 1988 titles was born in which Pennsylvania town?

He compiled 1,599 wins, four pennants and eight division titles in two decades running the club.

Which minor-league club's winningest pitcher, at 107-57, went on to manage the Dodgers for 20 years?

The record earned him a place in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006; he had pitched for Brooklyn in 1954-55.

Dodger Stadium's terraced parking lot was designed so that fans could do what?

Ridge tops were shaved off to fill Sulfur and Cemetery Ravines, and the old Palo Verde Elementary School was simply buried beneath the lot.

Dodger Stadium was originally designed to be expandable to how many seats?

The plan was to extend the upper decks over the outfield pavilions; the Dodgers never pursued it.

Which pope celebrated Mass at Dodger Stadium in 1987?

The ballpark has also hosted the Three Tenors in 1994 and an NHL Stadium Series game in 2014.

Which singer's two sold-out 1975 shows at Dodger Stadium are among his most famous concerts?

The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Beyoncé are among the other acts to have played the ballpark.

Which Pirates slugger hit two of the nine home runs ever hit completely out of Dodger Stadium?

His 507-foot blast off Alan Foster in 1969 cleared the right field pavilion and struck a bus parked outside.

The classic Dodger Dog is a 10-inch wiener made from which meat?

Concessions manager Thomas Arthur first sold it as a 'Foot Long' before deciding truth in advertising was the better path.

As a player, Dave Roberts' famous 2004 postseason stolen base came for which team?

The steal in the ALCS extended Boston's postseason, which ended in a championship weeks later.

Which Hall of Famer was drafted by the Dodgers in the 62nd round as a favour to his father?

He was the 1,390th of 1,395 players picked in 1988; the Dodgers manager who made the pick was his younger brother's godfather.

Hideo Nomo threw the only no-hitter in the history of which notoriously hitter-friendly ballpark?

His 'tornado' windup carried him to the 1995 top-rookie award and two strikeout titles.

For how many straight seasons from 1992 did a Dodger win the NL's top rookie award?

A second streak of four in a row had already run from 1979 to 1982.

Éric Gagné's record streak of consecutive saves converted, set in 2002-04, reached what number?

He converted all 55 chances in 2003 and won the Cy Young Award, with more than half his outs coming by strikeout.

Which Cuban outfielder did Vin Scully nickname "the Wild Horse"?

He defected in 2012, signed a seven-year, $42 million deal and made his debut in June 2013.

Mookie Betts competes professionally in which second sport?

He rolled a perfect game at the 2017 World Series of Bowling and was Tennessee's Boys Bowler of the Year in 2010.

Freddie Freeman's 2024 Game 1 walk-off was a World Series first of what kind?

He homered in the first four games, tied the Series record with 12 RBIs and was named MVP.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was born on which island?

The son of a US Marine and an Okinawan mother, he became the first manager of Asian heritage to win a World Series.

After winning 2020 World Series MVP with LA, Corey Seager won it again in 2023 with which team?

He left on a 10-year, $325 million deal and is the only player to win the award in both leagues; his brother Kyle played for the Mariners.

Two years after his 2017 rookie award, Cody Bellinger won which major honour?

He added a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger that season, a year after his extra-innings walk-off single made him NLCS MVP.

Who was MVP of the 2025 World Series, with three wins and a 1.02 ERA?

He pitched the final 2 2/3 innings of Game 7 one day after throwing 96 pitches in Game 6.

The Dodgers won the 2025 World Series in seven games against which team?

Game 7 went to extra innings, and the Dodgers became the first back-to-back champions since the 2000 Yankees.

The entire 2020 World Series was played at which neutral-site ballpark?

Crowds in Arlington were capped at 11,500, and it was the first Series since 1944 held in a single ballpark.

The Dodgers' 2017 World Series defeat came against which team, later exposed for stealing signs?

George Springer hit five homers to tie a Series record; a 2019 league investigation revealed the illegal sign-stealing system.

Jaime Jarrín, the Dodgers' Spanish-language voice from 1959 to 2022, was born in which country?

He had never seen a baseball game when he arrived in Los Angeles, and later served as Fernando Valenzuela's interpreter.

Which phrase became Brooklyn's unofficial slogan after five straight World Series defeats?

Next year finally arrived in 1955, when the ageing Boys of Summer beat the Bronx Bombers in seven.

After his playing days, Gil Hodges managed which team to a shock 1969 World Series title?

The Dodgers retired his number 14 in 2022, the year he finally entered the Hall of Fame, fifty years after his death.

The only unassisted triple play in postseason history was turned against Brooklyn in 1920 by whom?

Cleveland's second baseman did it in Game 5 of a best-of-nine Series that the Indians won five games to two.

Which Dodgers manager was suspended for the whole 1947 season by Commissioner Happy Chandler?

Brooklyn won the pennant anyway under interim skipper Burt Shotton, a scout.

Jackie Robinson long refused to let the Dodgers retire his number because of a grudge against whom?

He relented only after O'Malley handed control of the club to his son Peter in 1970; the ceremony followed in 1972.

Kenley Jansen was signed by the Dodgers in 2004 to play which position?

The Curaçao native converted to relief pitching in the minors and passed 450 career saves in 2025.