I was alive when they won it all in 1963 (I was born the summer of 63). I was too young to know when they won in 1965.
The Dodgers had some very good teams in the 1970s but they came up on the short end against the A's (1974) and the Yankees (1977 and 1978).
I remember 1978 game 2 when Bob Welch struck out Reggie Jackson to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead in the series. But the Dodgers would drop the next four.
The baseball script writers would turn the tables in 1981 when the Dodgers were down 2-0 and went on to win the next four against the Yankees to win the series.
1988. Arguably the most memorable home run in baseball history was hit by Kirk Gibson to win Game 1. The Dodgers would finish off the heavily favored A's in five behind Hershiser and a cast of role players on the field and on the mound.
The Kirk Gibson home run video clip has run since then on one hand invoking great memories but on the other hand a reminder of how hard it is to get to the World Series and the decades of frustration for the Dodger organization and its fans.
The Dodger franchise experienced incredible futility for the next 20 years. Making the playoffs only four times and being swept in the NLDS in 1995, 1996, and 2006. They lost in four to the Cardinals in the 2004 NLDS.
Another decade of frustration would follow.
I attended NLCS game 5 in 2008. Under-estimating traffic, I arrived late and the Dodgers were already down and showed no signs of life and were eliminated by the Phillies in five.
I attended NLDS game 2 in 2009. There is nothing like the atmosphere of playoff baseball especially in a close game. We barely sat down for the final half of the game which the Dodgers would win 3-2 and take the series at St. Louis in game 3. However, in the NLCS, the dreaded Phillies would finish off the Dodgers in five once again.
More heartache would follow in 2013 when the Cardinals won the NLCS in six. The Cardinals would defeat the Dodgers again in 2014 in the NLDS in four. The Dodgers would be defeated in five by the Mets in the 2015 NLDS followed by losing in six in the 2016 NLCS to the Cubs.
And now, after 162 regular season games, three NLDS games (Arizona), five NLCS games (Chicago), and six World Series games (Houston) it comes down to one game.
A small number of fans were alive to see the Dodgers win in 1955 when they were in Brooklyn. Some Angelinos were around in 1959, 1963, and 1965 for the Koufax and Drysdale era. Many fans following the Dodgers today weren't even born in 1981 or when Gibson hit the homer played on endless loop since 1988.
But tonight, together, generations of Dodger fans will root and cheer and when it is over there will be disappointment or jubilation.
Win or lose, thank you to #ThisTeam the 2017 edition of the LA Dodgers!
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Some excerpts from LA Times coverage ....
Baxter:
Dodger Stadium has played host to a Pope and the Kings. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Three Tenors have performed there. So did the Harlem Globetrotters. But baseball’s third-oldest ballpark, which opened in 1962, has never seen Game 7 of a World Series played there. Until today. [......] “Game 7,” Dodger President Stan Kasten said. “It’s the greatest thing in sports. And Game 7 for the first time at Dodger Stadium? It literally does not get any better.”
Hernandez:
The words were simple, but Yu Darvish found the sentiment behind them to be particularly heartwarming. “We’re going to get this one for you.” That’s what Darvish said he was told by the other Dodgers in the team’s pregame huddle the day after he lived a nightmare in his first start in a World Series. [.......] When Turner returned to the clubhouse after the game Tuesday, he made it a point to speak to Darvish. “I came in here after the game, gave him a big hug and told him his time was tomorrow,” Turner said. And if it’s Darvish’s time, it will be the Dodgers’, too.
Plaschke:
A dozen outs from the end of their season, pushed by a raucous Halloween crowd and fueled by their own desperation, the Dodgers dug deep. They trailed by one run. They had one hit. They were leaning on a tattered bullpen. The night was cooling. The sky was spitting. Winter was coming. But then, in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the World Series against the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night, it happened, the wondrous realization of a nightly cry that brought back summer. It was time for Dodger baseball........
Shaikin:
There is a time to stand up for your teammates, for justice, for what you believe to be right. This, presumably, was not that time. This was the World Series, and an elimination game at that. So that might have been the greatest testament to what Rich Hill did Tuesday: He put his sense of right and wrong ahead of winning and losing, at least for a few moments. It had been four days since Yuli Gurriel of the Houston Astros had slanted his eyes and used a racial slur to mock Yu Darvish, the Dodgers’ Japanese-born pitcher. Hill still was bothered that Commissioner Rob Manfred had decided not to suspend Gurriel during the World Series. [.......] And Hill was Gustavo Dudamel, with a ball rather than a baton, silently conducting the crowd, pausing time and again to let a cascade of boos rain down upon Gurriel. Hill stepped off the mound so the crowd could jeer, made a pitch, stepped off the mound for another round of jeers, made another pitch. He turned into a veritable Pedro Baez, lingering between pitches so the crowd could rev up its vocal cords once again. “I think the one thing was just to let the crowd speak their mind,” Hill said. “I didn’t think anything else would be as loud as that. The people spoke. I left it to that, and that was it. “That was the best way to go about it, not hitting him or doing anything like that, but making sure that things like this shouldn’t happen.”
McCullough:
“You got this?” manager Dave Roberts asked. Jansen stared at his manager. He had blown one save and lost one game to these Houston Astros. He understood that the Dodgers resided on the brink of elimination because of it. His gaze was firm. His answer was brief, biting and unequivocal. “Yes,” Jansen replied, and he walked away. Roberts needed to hear no more. Jansen climbed the stairs for the ninth. He refused to relinquish the baseball. And he refused to wilt, slamming the door shut in a 3-1 victory that guaranteed something that has never happened at Dodger Stadium. World Series, Game 7. Could you expect any less? Could you ask for any more? The baseball gods might not answer letters, but they do allow dreams to flourish. The Dodgers kept theirs alive Tuesday, 48 hours after an excruciating Game 5 defeat, by playing like the team that ran away with the National League West and bulldozed the other contenders for the pennant. [......] After the chaos of this series, in which homers soared in record numbers and bullpen decisions endured unceasing scrutiny, a winner will be crowned Wednesday. The Dodgers couldn’t wait. “We never stopped believing in ourselves, that we can win a championship,” Jansen said. “So here we are.”
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As a sports fan, have to tip my hat to the Houston Astros for winning the 2017 World Series. They led in almost every statistical category in offense during the regular season. In the end, Dodger pitching won games 1, 4, and 6 and Houston hitting won games 2,3,5, and 7. Congratulations to the Astros. Hope springs alive again for all the clubs at next year's spring training!
As a Dodger fan, there is disappointment of course but also great memories of an incredible season. #ThisTeam gave fans who were old enough to see them win in 1955 to those who weren't even born in 1988 a wild ride of a good season filled with the entrance to the stage of new stars and the consistent efforts of veteran ballplayers. Generations of fans linked in the shared disappointments and jubilations of a season culminating in the first World Series appearance in a long time.
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