Dem Dodgers

After dominating the National league from the late 40's through the mid 60's the Dodgers fell back into the middle of the pack after one Sandy Koufax retired at the end of the '66 season.  LA compounded the loss of the best pitcher on the planet by trading their offensive catalyst Maury Wills to Pittsburgh.  For the next 4 seasons the Dodgers dropped out of contention while slowly rebuilding a team for another dominant run.  In 1971 the young Dodgers challenged the veteran Giants and came up short by 1 game.  They built on that over the next two season and finally put it all together with a breakout 104 win season in 1974.  The young guns arrived, but fell right into the claws of a dynasty Oakland A's team that beat them in 5 games.  LA came up on the short side of 4 one run games in that series that the A's called their toughest challenge yet.  This is high praise considering that the two previous seasons they needed 7 games to defeat the Red and the Mets respectively.  The Dodgers played well the next 2 seasons, but the Reds were in the middle of a mini-dynasty run and LA would have to settle for second best.  After the Reds took a step back to the pack in 1977 the Dodgers assumed the mantle of the dominant team in the NL by winning consecutive pennants only to lose to their dreaded rival, the Yankees, in the World Series.

LA had stars all over the field.  In fact their infield became known as the "Million Dollar Infield" because of their contracts, but more so because of their true value to the team.  Cey, Russell, Lopes and Garvey played together for nearly a decade and each in their own right was an All-Star.  The "Penguin", Ron Cey had a slick glove and a nice power bat.  Bill Russell was the glue.  Davey Lopes was an accomplished base stealer who's success % was one of the highest in baseball history. Steve Garvey, known as Popeye for his huge forearms, was a 200 hit / 30 home run a year star, who finally found his niche in 1974 when he was moved to 1st base to make room for Cey at 3rd.  Garvey responded with an MVP season and a write in election to the All-Star team.  In 1977 the Dodgers sported 4 hitters who hit over 30 homers, which was a first in history and even more impressive when one takes into consideration that Dodgers Stadium is a pitcher's paradise.

Speaking of pitchers, the Dodgers had themselves one of the best staffs in all of baseball.  Don Sutton was a HOF'er in the making.  Claude Osteen, Andy Messersmith and Tommy John could have been aces on almost any other staff.  Once you got past the starters you had to contend with their array of bullpen stars.  Mike Marshall, the 1974 Cy Young Award winner, appeared in the most games in the history of major league baseball during that season in the sun.  Jim Brewer was a lefty reliever who gave all hitters fits.  Charlie Hough tantalized hitters with his knuckle ball and Al Downing and Burt Hooton could be first line starters on almost every other team in the league.  The Dodgers were deep.

Walt Aston spent 23 years managing the Dodgers.  After the 1976 season he handed the reigns over to Tommy Lasorda, who spent over 20 years himself as the Dodger skipper.  Continuity was definitely a given here.