Transcript Brooklyn Dodgers PowerPoint Presentation

Brooklyn
• 71 square miles lsnd area and water area
of 26 square miles (67 km2), Kings County
is the fourth-smallest county in New York
State by land area and third-smallest by
total area
• 2.6 million people
• Brooklyn would rank as the fourth most
populous city in the U.S., behind only the
other boroughs of New York City
combined, Los Angeles, and Chicago
The Brooklyn Dodgers 1947-56
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Baseball is a game of failure
The best hitter is out 65% of the time
The best team loses 40% of its games
Baseball is more random than any other
sport
• The current playoff system renders
outcomes meaningless
Randomness
• Baseball resembles a coin toss
• Odds of heads or tales coming up 4 times
in a row 12.5%
• When I tried, it happened on the third
series of tosses
2014 Season - NL
2014 Season - AL
Before Current Playoff System
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8 teams in each league vs 15 today
400 players vs 750 active today
Basketball and football less popular then
If one team is 10% better than another it
takes 216 games to be 95% sure that the
better team will lead the other in the final
standing (The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives Leonard Mlodinow)
1954 Cleveland Indians
1954 NY Giants
• 1995-96 Chicago Bulls 72-10 (88%)
• 1972 Miami Dolphins 17-0 (100%)
Giants won the 1954 World Series 4-0
Statistics and Confusion
• Baseball is a game stuffed with statistics
• Yet important personnel decisons are made
on the basis of random outcomes
• Consider Joe Torre
• 6 Pennants and 4 World Series wins with
the Yankees ( first 8 seasons)
• None thereafter despite always in the
playoffs
• Fired
Dodger 1947-56
The Robinson Years
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Won Pennant 6 times
Lost on the last day of the season twice
Finished second an additonal season
Third once
We'll come to the World Series later
Stan the Man
Pitchers
• Preacher Roe - Spitball, 22-3 (1951)
• Johnny Podres - 1955 World Series MVP
• Don Newcombe - Rookie of the Year, MVP, Cy
Young Award , 27-7 (1956, mostly drunk) Still living
• What I have done after my baseball career and
being able to help people with their lives and getting
their lives back on track and they become human
beings again — means more to me than all the
things I did in baseball.
Catcher - Roy Campanella
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Campy - The sunniest Dodger
Three time MVP
Great hitter
He threw out 57% of the base runners who
tried to steal a base on him, the highest by
any catcher in major league history
• Hall of Fame
• Paralyzed
Campanella and Robinson
1st Base - Gil Hodges
• A klutz as a catcher
• Nijinsky as a first baseman
• 2nd player to hit 4 HRs in a 9 inning game
(1950)
• Best fielding first baseman of the 50s
• 3 consecutive Golden Glove awards
• 8 time All Star
• First Dodger to hit 40 HRs in a season
• Best player not in the Hall fo Fame
Gil Hodges
• Set career record for grand slam HRs - 14
• Managed the Miracle Mets to a World
Series win - 1969
• Died suddenly of a heart attack at age 47
Shortstop - Pee Wee Reese
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Dodger Captain
Hall of Fame
Born 1918
ML debut 1940
Three years in the Navy
Entire career with the Dodgers
Robinson and Reese
3rd Base - Billy Cox
Billy Cox
• Best fielding 3rd baseman in the game
• Had the strongest arm
• A lifetime .262 hitter
Carl Furillo - RF
• 2nd best player not in the Hall of Fame
• The Reading Rifle
• On August 27, 1951, he threw out
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Mel Queen by
two feet at first base after Queen had
apparently singled into right field.
Carl Furillo
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Cataract Sugery 1952
Won batting title - .344 1953
Owned the RF field wall
8th grade education
Had trouble interacting with other players
Walter O'Malley and Furillo
The Duke of Flatbush
• All 3 NY CFs in the Hall of Fame
• Only regular left handed hitter on the team
• 40 or more home runs in five consecutive
seasons (1953–57)
• Only player to hit four home runs (or more)
in two different World Series (1952, 1955)
• One of only two major leaguers with over
1,000 RBI during the 1950s. The other Gil Hodges.
Duke Snider
Left Field Always a Problem
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Al Gionfriddo
Andy Pafko
Gene Hermanski
Sandy Amoros
George Shuba
Cal Abrams
1951
Shot Heard Round the World
The World Series
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1947-56
Lost 5 of 6 Series to the Yankees
1955 was the breakthrough year
Were the Yankees better?
Or were these series games another of
baseball's random events?
Bevins loses no hitter and game on his last pitch
The Catch - 1
The Catch 2
Robinson and Rickey 1946
Jackie Robinson
• Jackie Robinson an athletic hero who
really was a hero
• UCLA's first 4 letter man
• Baseball was his worst game
• A 28 year old rookie
• Dodgers highest paid player
• Never made more than 30K/yr
• Clayton Kershaw makes 32M/yr
UCLA Bruins.com
As UCLA's shortstop in 1940, statistics indicate that
baseball was the sport with which he had the most
trouble. Robinson posted a .097 batting average the one
year he played baseball for the Bruins. He excelled at
the three other sports, earning All Pac-10 honors in
football, being named the West Coast Conference MVP
in basketball, and establishing a long jump record (NCAA
champion in 1940).
Nevertheless, due to his slick fielding and keen
baserunning, fans found Robinson in the starting lineup
the majority of the season.
Jackie Robinson
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100 yards
220
440 relay
220 hurdles
Pole vault
Broke 90 the first time he golfed
College football's leading rusher 1939
(11.4 yards/carry)
Jackie Robinson
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Badminton
Boxed
World's best long jumper
Probably America's best all-around athlete
First Game in the Majors
Durocher and Robinson
Robinson Stealing Home
Yogi Insists He Was Out
1947 Rookie of the Year
1949 MVP
Hall of Fame
On 3rd Base
1957
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Robinson traded to Giants
He retired rather than play for them
The era was over
Walter O'Malley falsely pleaded poverty
And then they were gone
Three Worst Men of the 20th Century
• Adolf Hitler
• Joseph Stalin
• Walter O'Malley
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