A Look at the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers

Throughout the history of professional sports, we have seen that one team who has a strong season, looks good enough to win the whole thing, is often favored to win it all, but fizzles out when it counts. My dad has a nickname for such teams: "fool ya teams." Each league has at least one. Smart aleck hockey fans would say that the Toronto Maple Leafs fit the bill, but the actual main "fool ya team" in the NHL is the Edmonton Oilers. The biggest such team in the NBA has to be the Philadelphia 76ers, though the Los Angeles Clippers are close, and regarding the NFL, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Minnesota Vikings definitely seem to fit the bill.

Regarding MLB, the current "fool ya teams" are the New York Mets and the Minnesota Twins, but many moons ago, it was the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers' attempt to win the big one could be summed up in four simple words:

"Wait 'til next year."

The Dodgers were among the top teams in the National League for many years, winning their share of pennants during the early decades of the modern era, but they just couldn't win the big one. Their first World Series appearances saw them lose to the Babe Ruth-led Boston Red Sox (1916) and the Cleveland Indians (1920), but in the 1940s and 1950s, the Dodgers had one team plaguing them: the New York Yankees. The team's next five trips to the Fall Classic ended in the same fashion: defeated by the Bronx Bombers at every turn. Heartbroken Brooklyn fans uttered those four words, "Wait 'til next year," so much that it became a slogan, while they also referred to the team as the "Bums," due to their inability to win when it counted.

At the time, the Dodgers' most recent pennant came in 1953, but 1954 saw them finish in second place--five games behind that year's pennant winners, the New York Giants. 1955 would see a huge tear for the Dodgers, as they flat out dominated the National League, capitalizing on a decline from the Giants. The lineup was loaded with legends such as Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Roy Campanella, along with Tommy Lasorda, Johnny Podres, and the iconic Sandy Koufax. The team had three playes with 100+ RBIs, with the leader being Snider with 136. Snider also led the team in HRs with 42, with Campanella close behind with 32.

Regarding pitching, Don Newcombe was the top ace for the Dodgers, finishing with a 20-5 record (the first Black starting pitcher to win 20 games in a season), a 3.20 ERA, and 143 strikeouts. Johnny Podres was second on the team in strikeouts with 114, and 1955 was Sandy Koufax's first season of his illustrious career, going 2-2 with a 3.02 ERA and 30 strikeouts. The Dodgers ran away with the National League pennant, going 98-55 and winning the pennant by 13.5 games over the Milwaukee Braves. They won their eighth pennant in the modern era (11th overall), and their opponents in the World Series? You guessed it, the New York Yankees, who had won all of their five previous Fall Classic meetings with the Dodgers.

The Yankees had home-field advantage in the 1955 World Series, and Game One went to the Bronx Bombers; a game that saw Elston Howard, who broke the Yankees' color barrier that year, hit a two-run homer in the second inning. The Yankees would take Game Two to take a 2-0 Series lead into Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, but that's where the Dodgers completely took over. The Dodgers took Game Three behind a complete game outing from Johnny Podres, they defeated Don Larsen in Game Four, and they won Game Five behind two Duke Snider home runs. Brooklyn had the chance to clinch the Series in Game Six, but the Yankees would score five runs in the first inning, and that led to a 5-1 win to force Game Seven. On that afternoon in The Bronx, Gil Hodges had an RBI single in the fourth, and a sac fly in the sixth. The Yankees couldn't get a thing off Johnny Podres, and when Elston Howard grounded out in the last of the ninth, a huge weight was off the Dodgers' shoulders. Next year finally came!

The Brooklyn Dodgers clinched their first World Championship in franchise history on October 4, 1955. That year saw the first-ever World Series MVP named, and that honor went to Johnny Podres (1932-2008), who went 9-10 in the regular season, but in the Fall Classic, Podres won both starts, pitching complete games both times, and shutting out the Yankees in the all-important Game Seven. The Dodgers defeated the Yankees in a World Series for the first time ever, and 1955 would be the franchise's only championship in Brooklyn. After losing on the following year to the Yankees, the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958, and they would win six more World Series. Regarding Podres, he was on four Dodgers championship teams, and played 13.5 seasons for the team before being traded to the Detroit Tigers. Podres ended his MLB career with the San Diego Padres during the team's expansion year in 1969. His career numbers: 148-116 record, 3.68 ERA, and 1,435 strikeouts.

The Dodgers finally got over the hump on an October afternoon in The Bronx, and that had to feel so good. They had been that team for years; great lineups, great regular seasons, but couldn't get it done when it counted. Nearly seven decades have passed, and Brooklyn hasn't had much to celebrate in sports lately. However, Brooklyn's 1955 World Series Championship is, and always will be, part of forever.