Los Angeles Dodgers tickets

ALTHOUGH THEY HAD FOUND A LUCRATIVE new home in Los Angeles, things were looking bleak for the Dodgers in the late 1950s. The Brooklyn dynasty that had won six pennants in ten years was in shambles. Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, among others, were retired. Roy Campanella was paralyzed in a car accident. Don Newcombe was a Cincinnati Redleg. Carl Furillo was 37 years old and reduced to pinch-hitting duty. Duke Snider and Gil Hodges were part-time players, each enjoying the last productive season of his career. The leg-ends were gone and a new crop of stars was trying to take their place, including catcher Johnny Roseboro, second baseman Charlie Neal, outfielder Wally Moon, and pitcher Don Drysdale.
 
The Dodgers ended the National League season with 86 victories, a total that in most years would be good for third place. But in 1959 it was enough to tie the Braves for first. The Dodgers swept a best-of-three playoff and were on their way to the World Series. Their .564 winning percentage made them the worst team to reach the Series to that point. Their opponents, the speedy and fundamentally sound Chicago White Sox, were favored to win. The "Go-Go Sox" stole 113 bases that year, 29 more than any other major league team. (In fact, Luis Aparicio's 56 steals were, by themselves, better than the total for ten of the other fifteen teams.) Second baseman Jacob "Nellie" Fox, though he stole only five bases, was named league MVP after batting .306 and playing spectac¬ular defense.

The White Sox won the first game with power, not speed, as aging slugger Ted Kluszewski, who had hit only four homers all season, hit two in the game and tied a World Series record with five RBI. Pitcher Early Wynn was just as good, holding the Dodgers scoreless in an 11-0 thrashing. The Series had started off as expected, but Sox manager Al Lopez knew better than to relax. `They didn't win that pennant over there," he said, "by playing like that."
The second game was much closer, as the White Sox took a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning. But Chuck Essegian, a pinch hitter who had homered just once all year. went deep to tie the game. Then, after a walk. scrawny Charlie Neal, Los Angeles' I36-pound second baseman, hit his second homer of the day to give the Dodgers the lead. Larry Sherry, a rookie who had become the Dodgers' ace reliever over the course of the season, nailed the door shut with help from left fielder Wally Moon and shortstop Maury Wills, who executed a per¬fect relay to nail a runner at home and end a Chicago rally.