1955: The Best Brooklyn Bums (Dodgers) Team

1955: The Best Brooklyn Bums (Dodgers) Team

For me, the story of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers World Series win is truly a magical story which would capture the imagination of any sports fan around the world. This was a team which had already lost the World Series 7 times already, 5 times to the opponents that they faced on that day, The New York Yankees.

The Dodgers endured years of being in the ‘wilderness’ in the 1920s and 1930s, there was a change in the wind first in the shape of manager Larry MacPhail and then Branch Rickey. With players such as Jackie Robinson in the squad, pennants were won in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953, however these victories were all followed by failures to the New York Yanks in the subsequent World Series. Because of this end of season disappointment, the slogan ‘Wait ‘till next year!’ became an unofficial slogan.

Finally, Next Year Came…

The core of the Dodgers team had become of age by 1955, and finally ‘Next year’ came. Catcher Roy Campanella won the 1955 National League Most Valuable Player award which was his third in five years. Center fielder Duke Snider led the league in runs batted in and was second in the MVP voting. Legends such as Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese were 36 and still playing well. The team finished 13.5 games ahead in the National League pennant race, leading the league in both runs scored and fewest runs allowed. This put them in good stead for the World Series game with The New York Yankees.

Unbelievably, this victory was even more impressive because they lost the first two games in the series at the Yankee Stadium. It was in fact the first time in history that a team had lost the first two games and then gone on to win the World Series. The New York Yanks did force the game into a tense 7^th game tie break, but young Johnny Podres, only 22 became the hero of the 1955 World Series by shutting out the Yankees in the seventh game.

This is a true story of a team suffering years of heartache and then battling to glory. It helps that the squad had just the right balance and probably had an element of luck to it. This is shown as the following year they lost once again to The New York Yankees. It was the only World Series win the Brooklyn Dodgers would have as the the team’s owner decided he’d rather play in nicer area, so he moved the team to California. The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the championship five times however it is the 1955 team which will remain in the memory of many.

Here are the regular starters from that magical 1955 season:

Roy Campanella

Gil Hodges

Jim Gilliam

Pee Wee Reese

Jackie Robinson

Sandy Amorós

Duke Snider

Carl Furillo

 

Do you have a piece of 1955 World Series Memorabilia? Maybe a 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers team signed baseball? If so, please contact us today – we are always looking for memorabilia from this special team!