The Trolley Dodger

Just spent some time reliving one of the happiest nights of my life.

Woke up early this morning and found I’d fallen asleep with the MLB Network going last night. This probably explains why random Dodgers started showing up in my dreams just before I woke up to find the network was replaying the glorious 9/18/2006 Dodgers comeback against the Padres, also known as the “4+1″ game.

We were lucky enough to be there that night, and I wrote about it the next day: “11-10″.

The replay is up to the bottom of the 10th. Kenny Lofton is coming up. Nomar is on deck.

The Dodgers’ seven homeruns and the 11-10 final score is quite a contrast to last night’s Dodgers-Padres game and Russell Martin’s walk-off walk. It was also awesome to see all the “kids” celebrating who are now starting and excelling.

I miss Nomar. I hope he’ll have a role with the team once he decides to retire.

As I’m observing my 40th birthday this week, I thought I’d have a look see at the 1969 Dodgers season. This was the 7th year in Dodger Stadium and 11th in California.

100th anniversary celebrations for MLB saw the addition of four expansion teams in 1969: the KC Royals and Seattle Pilots in the AL, and the Padres and Montreal Expos in the NL.

Not a great finish for the Dodgers in 1969: 4th place in the newly formed National League West division. The teams in the NL West from 1969-1992:

• Atlanta Braves
• Cincinnati Reds
• Houston Astros
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• San Diego Padres
• San Francisco Giants

(Colorado was added in 1993, while the Braves, Reds, and Astros moved away in 1994. Arizona came in 1998.)

The Dodgers finished 85-77, eight games back from the division-winning Braves. The opening day Dodger starters:

• CF Willie Crawford
• RF Len Gabrielson
• 3B Bill Sudakis
• 1B Ron Fairly
• LF Andy Kosco
• C Tom Haller
• 2B Jim Lefebvre
• SS Ted Sizemore
• P Don Drysdale

That was April 7, 1969, at Cincy. LA won, 3-2. Don Drysdale won, with Bill Singer getting the save — the first official save in baseball history.

While the 4th-place finish wasn’t great, it was a bit of an improvement over their awful 76-86 and 73-89 performances the previous two years. One step closer to the glory years of the mid-to-late 1970s.

Two highlights from 1969:

• On January 21st, Roy Campanella was elected to the Hall of Fame.
• On August 11th, Don Drysdale retired. He was the last active Dodger who had also played in Brooklyn.

Transactions that year (from Wikipedia):

• March 30: Acquired Jimmie Schaffer from the Cincinnati Reds for Ted Savage
• April 17: Acquired Al McBean from the San Diego Padres for Tommy Dean and Leon Everitt
• June 5: Bob Randall was drafted by the Dodgers in the 2nd round of the 1969 Major League Baseball Draft (Secondary Phase).
• June 11: Acquired Maury Wills and Manny Mota from the Montreal Expos for Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich
• August 15: Acquired Jim Bunning from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Ron Mitchell, Chuck Coggin and cash
• September 1: Acquired Jack Jenkins from the Washington Senators for cash

More info:

• 1969 Dodgers at Wikipedia
• 1969 Dodgers at Retrosheet
• 1969 Dodgers at Baseball Reference
• 1969 Dodgers at Baseball Almanac
• 1969 MLB season at Wikipedia

You don’t want to get your hopes up, but you refuse to wallow in pessimism. You feel your heart leap with every bit of good news, and your stomach fall with every thing bad. You suffer from uncontrolled smiling and from random shivering. You declare you can’t watch the games, then wind up doing it anyway.

Yep, must be September.

It’s the 23rd today. The Autumnal Equinox has just passed, and we’re standing at the precipice of not only the playoffs but within hailing distance of winter. Being a baseball fan is like having some form of seasonal affective disorder, with irrational glee every spring, then (most years) glum resignation as the 162-game countdown finally runs out.

If your team is lucky, you get to play more games after that.

If your team is really lucky, you play in the last game of the playoffs.

If your team is astoundingly lucky, you win that last game.

See, there goes that shivering again.

The Dodgers have six more games to determine if they get to play more. They must cobble together some combination of five wins or Diamondback losses between tonight and Sunday to keep playing in October. They play three games against the Padres and three against the Giants, both of whom would simply adore destroying Dodger hopes and dreams this year.

There are wars and rumors of wars. The American economy is doing its best impression of a beached whale. Plagues of locusts and frogs are raining down across the land, and there’s probably some giant meteoroid headed our way.

Never mind all that. This is important.

You don’t want to watch.

But you will.