History of the Brooklyn Dodgers - wikipedia History of the Brooklyn Dodgers `` Brooklyn Dodgers '' redirects here. For other teams named Brooklyn Dodgers, see Brooklyn Dodgers ( disambiguation ). For the history of the team from 1958 onward, see History of the Los Angeles Dodgers. For information on the franchise in general, see Los Angeles Dodgers. Brooklyn Dodgers Team Photograph, 1913 The Brooklyn Dodgers were an American Major League baseball team, active primarily in the National League ( founded 1876 ) from 1884 until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, California, where it continues its history as the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team moved west at the same time as its longtime rivals, the New York Giants, also in the National League, relocated to San Francisco in northern California as the San Francisco Giants. The team 's name derived from the reputed skill of Brooklyn residents at evading the city 's trolley streetcar network. The Dodgers played in two stadiums in South Brooklyn, each named Washington Park, and at Eastern Park in the neighborhood of Brownsville before moving to Ebbets Field in the neighborhood of Flatbush in 1913. The team is noted for signing Jackie Robinson in 1947 as the first black player in the modern major leagues. Contents 1 Early Brooklyn baseball 1.1 The origin of the Dodgers 1.2 Nicknames 2 Rivalry with the Giants 2.1 `` Uncle Robbie '' and the `` Daffiness Boys '' 3 Breaking the color barrier 4 `` Wait ' til next year ! '' 5 Move to California 6 References 7 Other reading Early Brooklyn baseball The first convention of the National Association of Base Ball Players ( NABBP ) were from Brooklyn, including the Atlantic, Eckford, and Excelsior clubs that combined to dominate play for most of the 1860s. Brooklyn helped make baseball commercial, as the locale of the first paid admission games, a series of three all star contests matching New York and Brooklyn in 1858. Brooklyn also featured the first two enclosed baseball grounds, the Union Grounds and the Capitoline Grounds ; enclosed, dedicated ballparks accelerated the evolution from amateurism to professionalism. Despite the early success of Brooklyn clubs in the National Association of Base Ball Players ( NABBP ), which were officially amateur until 1869, they fielded weak teams in the succeeding National Association of Professional Base Ball Players ( NAPBBP ), the first professional league formed in 1871. The Excelsiors no longer challenged for the amateur championship after the Civil War ( 1861 - 1865 ) and never entered the professional NAPBBP ( aka NA ). The Eckfords and Atlantics declined to join until 1872 and thereby lost their best players ; the Eckfords survived only one season and the Atlantics four, with losing teams. The National League ( NL ) replaced the NAPBBP in 1876 and granted exclusive territories to its eight members, excluding the Atlantics in favor of the New York Mutuals who had shared home grounds with the Atlantics. When the Mutuals were expelled by the league, the Hartford Dark Blues club moved in, changed its name to The Brooklyn Hartfords and played its home games at Union Grounds in 1877 before disbanding. The origin of the Dodgers The team currently known as the Dodgers was formed as the Brooklyn Grays in 1883 by real estate magnate and baseball enthusiast Charles Byrne, who convinced his brother - in - law Joseph Doyle and casino operator Ferdinand Abell to start the team with him. Byrne arranged to build a grandstand on a lot bounded by Third Street, Fourth Avenue, Fifth Street, and Fifth Avenue, and named it Washington Park in honor of first president George Washington. The Grays played in the minor level Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs that first season. Doyle became the first team manager, and they drew 6,431 fans to their first home game on May 12, 1883 against the Trenton, New Jersey team. The Grays won the league title after the Camden Merritt club in New Jersey disbanded on July 20 and Brooklyn picked up some of its better players. The Grays were invited to join the two year old professional circuit, the American Association ( founded 1882 ) to compete with the eight year old NL for the 1884 season. After winning the American Association league championship in 1889, the Grays ( by then nicknamed the Bridegrooms ) moved to the competing older National League ( 1876 ) and won the 1890 NL Championship, being the only Major League team to win consecutive championships in both professional `` base ball '' leagues. They lost the 1889 championship tournament to the New York Giants and tied the 1890 championship with the Louisville Colonels. Their success during this period was partly attributed to their having absorbed skilled players from the defunct New York Metropolitans and Brooklyn Ward 's Wonders. In 1899, most of the original old Baltimore Orioles NL stars from the legendary Maryland club which earlier won three consecutive championships in 1894 - 1895 - 1896, moved to the Grays ( Bridegrooms ) along with famed Orioles manager Ned Hanlon who became the club 's new manager in New York / Brooklyn under majority owner Charles Ebbets, who had by now accumulated an 80 % share of the club. The new combined team was dubbed the `` Brooklyn Superbas '' by the press and would become the champions of the National League in 1899 and again in 1900. Nicknames Logo of the Brooklyn Dodgers / Superbas from 1910 through 1913 The team name, Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, was coined in 1895. The nickname was still new enough in September 1895 that a newspaper could report that `` ' Trolley Dodgers ' is the new name which eastern baseball cranks ( fans ) have given the Brooklyn club. '' In 1895, Brooklyn played at Eastern Park, bounded by Eastern Parkway ( now Pitkin Avenue ), Powell Street, Sutter Avenue, Van Sinderen Street, where they had moved early in the 1891 season when the second Washington Park burned down. Some sources erroneously report that the name `` Trolley Dodgers '' referred to pedestrians avoiding fast cars on street car tracks that bordered Eastern Park on two sides. However, Eastern Park was not bordered by street - level trolley lines that had to be `` dodged '' by pedestrians. The name `` Trolley Dodgers '' implied the dangers posed by trolley cars in Brooklyn generally, which in 1892, began the switch from horse - power to electrical power, which made them much faster, and were hence regarded as more dangerous. The name was later shortened to Brooklyn Dodgers. The `` Trolley Dodgers '' name was later adopted by the team for the 1911 and 1912 seasons, and the `` Dodgers '' name was used in 1913. Other team names used by the franchise that finally came to be called `` the Dodgers '' were the Atlantics ( 1884, not directly related to the earlier Brooklyn Atlantics ), Bridegrooms or Grooms ( 1888 - 1898 ), Ward 's Wonders, the Superbas ( 1899 - 1910 ), and the Robins ( 1914 - 1931 ). All of these nicknames were used by fans and newspaper sports writers to describe the team, often concurrently, but not in any official capacity. The team 's legal name was the Brooklyn Base Ball Club. However, the `` Trolley Dodgers '' nickname was used throughout this period, along with other nicknames, by fans and sports writers of the day. The team did not use the name in a formal sense until 1932, when the word `` Dodgers '' appeared on team jerseys. The `` conclusive shift '' came in 1933, when both home and road jerseys for the team bore the name `` Dodgers ''. Examples of how the many popularized names of the team were used interchangeably are available from newspaper articles from the period before 1932. A New York Times article describing a game the Dodgers played in 1916 starts out by referring to how `` Jimmy Callahan, pilot of the Pirates, did his best to wreck the hopes the Dodgers have of gaining the National League pennant '', but then goes on to comment, `` the only thing that saved the Superbas from being toppled from first place was that the Phillies lost one of the two games played. '' Most baseball statistics sites and baseball historians generally now refer to the pennant - winning 1916 Brooklyn team as the Robins. A 1918 New York Times article used the nickname Robins in its title `` Buccaneers Take Last From Robins '', but the subtitle of the article reads `` Subdue The Superbas By 11 To 4, Making Series An Even Break ''. Space - conscious headline writers still used `` the Flock '' ( derived from `` Robins '' ) during the Dodgers ' last decade in Brooklyn. Another example of the interchangeability of different nicknames is found on the program issued at Ebbets Field for the 1920 World Series, which identifies the matchup in the series as `` Dodgers vs. Indians '', despite the fact that the Robins nickname had been in consistent usage at this point for around six years. Rivalry with the Giants Main article : Dodgers -- Giants rivalry The historic and heated rivalry between the Dodgers and the Giants is more than a century old. It began when the Dodgers and Giants faced each other in the 1889 World Series, the ancestor of the Subway Series, and both played in separate cities ( the Dodgers in Brooklyn and the Giants in New York City Manhattan ). When both franchises moved to California after the 1957 season, the rivalry was easily transplanted, as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have long been rivals in economics, culture, and politics. `` Uncle Robbie '' and the `` Daffiness Boys '' Manager Wilbert Robinson, another former Oriole, popularly known as `` Uncle Robbie '', restored the Brooklyn team to respectability. His `` Brooklyn Robins '' reached the 1916 and 1920 World Series, losing both, but contending perennially for several seasons. Charles Ebbets and Ed McKeever died within a week of each other in 1925, and Robbie was named president while still field manager. Upon assuming the title of president, however, Robinson 's ability to focus on the field declined, and the teams of the late 1920s were often fondly referred to as the `` Daffiness Boys '' for their distracted, error - ridden style of play. Outfielder Babe Herman was the leader both in hitting and in zaniness. The signature Dodger play from this era occurred when three players -- Dazzy Vance, Chick Fewster, and Herman -- ended up at third base at the same time. ( The play is often remembered as Herman `` tripling into a triple play '', though only two of the three players were declared out and Herman was credited with a double rather than a triple. ) Herman later complained that no one remembered that he drove in the winning run on the play. The incident led to the popular joke : `` The Dodgers have three men on base ! '' `` Oh, yeah ? Which base ? '' After his removal as club president, Robinson returned to managing, and the club 's performance rebounded somewhat. When Robinson retired in 1931, he was replaced as manager by Max Carey. Although some suggested renaming the `` Robins '' the `` Brooklyn Canaries '', after Carey, whose last name was originally `` Carnarius '', the name `` Brooklyn Dodgers '' returned to stay following Robinson 's retirement. It was during this era that Willard Mullin, a noted sports cartoonist, fixed the Brooklyn team with the lovable nickname of `` Dem Bums ''. After hearing his cab driver ask, `` So how did those bums do today ? '', Mullin decided to sketch an exaggerated version of famed circus clown Emmett Kelly to represent the Dodgers in his much - praised cartoons in the New York World - Telegram. Both image and nickname caught on, so much so that many a Dodger yearbook cover, from 1951 through 1957, featured a Willard Mullin illustration of the Brooklyn Bum. Perhaps the highlight of the Daffiness Boys era came after Wilbert Robinson left the dugout. In 1934, Giants player / manager Bill Terry was asked about the Dodgers ' chances in the coming pennant race and cracked infamously, `` Is Brooklyn still in the league ? '' Managed then by Casey Stengel, who played for the Dodgers in the 1910s and went on to greatness managing the New York Yankees, the 1934 Dodgers were determined to make their presence felt. As it happened, the season entered its final games with the Giants tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the pennant, with the Giants ' remaining games against the Dodgers. Stengel led his Bums to the Polo Grounds for the showdown, and they beat the Giants twice to knock them out of the pennant race. The `` Gashouse Gang '' Cardinals nailed the pennant by beating the Cincinnati Reds those same two days. One key development during this era was the 1938 appointment of Leland `` Larry '' MacPhail as Dodgers ' general manager. MacPhail, who brought night games to Major League Baseball as general manager of the Reds, also started night baseball in Brooklyn and ordered the successful refurbishing of Ebbets Field. He also brought Reds voice Red Barber to Brooklyn as the Dodgers ' lead announcer in 1939, just after MacPhail broke the New York baseball executives ' agreement to ban live baseball broadcasts, enacted because of the fear of the effect of radio calls on the home teams ' attendance. MacPhail remained with the Dodgers until 1942, when he returned to the Armed Forces for World War II. He later became one of the Yankees ' co-owners, bidding unsuccessfully for Barber to join him in the Bronx as announcer. The first major - league baseball game to be televised was Brooklyn 's 6 -- 1 victory over Cincinnati at Ebbets Field on August 26, 1939. Batting helmets were introduced to Major League Baseball by the Dodgers in 1941. Breaking the color barrier Jackie Robinson. For most of the first half of the 20th century, no Major League Baseball team employed a black player. A parallel system of Negro Leagues developed, but most of the Negro League players were denied a chance to prove their skill before a national audience. Jackie Robinson became the first African - American to play Major League baseball in the 20th Century when he played his first major league game on April 15, 1947 as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson 's entry into the league was mainly due to General Manager Branch Rickey 's efforts. The deeply religious Rickey 's motivation appears to have been primarily moral, although business considerations were also present. Rickey was a member of the Methodist Church, the antecedent denomination to the United Methodist Church of today, which was a strong advocate for social justice and active later in the Civil Rights Movement. Besides selecting Robinson for his exceptional baseball skills, Rickey also considered Robinson 's outstanding personal character, his UCLA education and rank of captain in the U.S. Army in his decision, since he knew that boos, taunts, and criticism was going to be directed at Robinson, and that Robinson had to be tough enough to withstand abuse without attempting to retaliate. The inclusion of Robinson on the team also led the Dodgers to move its spring training site. Prior to 1946, the Dodgers held their spring training in Jacksonville, Florida. However, the city 's stadium refused to host an exhibition game with the Montreal Royals -- the Dodgers ' own farm club -- on whose roster Robinson appeared at the time, citing segregation laws. Nearby Sanford similarly declined. Ultimately, City Island Ballpark in Daytona Beach agreed to host the game with Robinson on the field. The team traveled to Havana, Cuba for spring training in 1947, this time with Robinson on the big club. Although the Dodgers ultimately built Dodgertown and its Holman Stadium further south in Vero Beach, and played there for 61 spring training seasons from 1948 through 2008, Daytona Beach renamed City Island Ballpark to Jackie Robinson Ballpark in his honor. This event marked the continuation of the integration of professional sports in the United States, with professional football having led the way in 1946, with the concomitant demise of the Negro Leagues, and is regarded as a key moment in the history of the American civil rights movement. Robinson was an exceptional player, a speedy runner who sparked the team with his intensity. He was the inaugural recipient of the Rookie of the Year award, which is now named the Jackie Robinson award in his honor. The Dodgers ' willingness to integrate, when most other teams refused to, was a key factor in their 1947 -- 1956 success. They won six pennants in those 10 years with the help of Robinson, three - time MVP Roy Campanella, Cy Young Award winner Don Newcombe, Jim Gilliam, and Joe Black. Robinson eventually became the first African - American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. `` Wait ' til next year ! '' After the wilderness years of the 1920s and 1930s, the Dodgers were rebuilt into a contending club first by general manager Larry MacPhail and then the legendary Branch Rickey. Led by Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Gil Hodges in the infield, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo in the outfield, Roy Campanella behind the plate, and Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, and Preacher Roe on the pitcher 's mound, the Dodgers won pennants in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953, only to fall to the New York Yankees in all five of the subsequent World Series. The annual ritual of building excitement, followed in the end by disappointment, became a common pattern to the long suffering fans, and `` Wait ' til next year ! '' became an unofficial Dodger slogan. While the Dodgers generally enjoyed success during this period, in 1951 they fell victim to one of the largest collapses in the history of baseball. On August 11, 1951, Brooklyn led the National League by an enormous 131⁄2 games over their archrivals, the Giants. While the Dodgers went 26 -- 22 from that time until the end of the season, the Giants went on an absolute tear, winning an amazing 37 of their last 44 games, including their last seven in a row. At the end of the season the Dodgers and the Giants were tied for first place, forcing a three - game playoff for the pennant. The Giants took Game 1 by a score of 3 -- 1 before being shut out by the Dodgers ' Clem Labine in Game 2, 10 -- 0. It all came down to the final game, and Brooklyn seemed to have the pennant locked up, holding a 4 -- 2 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning. Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson, however, hit a stunning three - run walk - off home run off the Dodgers ' Ralph Branca to secure the NL Championship for New York. To this day Thomson 's home run is known as the Shot Heard ' Round The World. In 1955, by which time the core of the Dodger team was beginning to age, `` next year '' finally came. The fabled `` Boys of Summer '' shot down the `` Bronx Bombers '' in seven games, led by the first - class pitching of young left - hander Johnny Podres, whose key pitch was a changeup known as `` pulling down the lampshade '' because of the arm motion used right when the ball was released. Podres won two Series games, including the deciding seventh. The turning point of Game 7 was a spectacular double play that began with left fielder Sandy Amorós running down Yogi Berra 's long fly ball, then throwing to shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who relayed to first baseman Gil Hodges to double up a surprised Gil McDougald to preserve the Dodger lead. Hank Bauer grounded out and the Dodgers won 2 -- 0. Although the Dodgers lost the World Series to the Yankees in 1956 during which the Yankees pitcher Don Larsen pitched the only World Series perfect game in baseball history and the only post-season no - hitter for the next 54 years, it hardly seemed to matter. Brooklyn fans had their memory of triumph, and soon that was all they were left with -- a victory that was remembered decades later in the Billy Joel single `` We Did n't Start the Fire '', which included the line, `` Brooklyn 's got a winning team. '' Move to California Real estate businessman Walter O'Malley had acquired majority ownership of the Dodgers in 1950, when he bought Rickey 's 25 percent share of the team and secured the support of the widow of another equal partner, John L. Smith. Before long, O'Malley was working to buy new land in Brooklyn for a new, more accessible and better ballpark than Ebbets Field. Beloved as it was, Ebbets Field had grown old and was not well served by infrastructure, to the point where the Dodgers could not `` sell out '' the park to maximum capacity even in the heat of a pennant race, despite dominating the league from 1946 to 1957. New York City Construction Coordinator Robert Moses, however, sought to force O'Malley into using a site in Flushing Meadows, Queens -- the eventual location of Shea Stadium, the home of the future New York Mets. Moses ' vision involved a city - built, city - owned park, which was greatly at odds with O'Malley's real - estate savvy. When O'Malley realized that he was not going to be allowed to buy a suitable parcel of land in Brooklyn, he began thinking of team relocation. O'Malley was free to purchase land of his own choosing but wanted Robert Moses to condemn one parcel of land along the Atlantic Railroad Yards in downtown Brooklyn under Title I authority, after O'Malley had bought the bulk of the land he had in mind. Title I gave the city municipality power to condemn land for the purpose of building what it calls `` public purpose '' projects. Moses ' interpretation of `` public purpose '' included public parks, public housing and public highways and bridges. What O'Malley wanted was for Moses to use Title I authority, rather than to pay market value for the land. With Title I the city via Robert Moses could have sold the land to O'Malley at a below market price. Moses refused to honor O'Malley's request and responded, `` If you want the land so bad, why do n't you purchase it with your own money ? '' Meanwhile, non-stop transcontinental airline travel had become routine during the years since the Second World War, and teams were no longer bound by much slower railroad timetables. Because of civil aviation advances, it became possible to locate teams farther apart -- as far west as California -- while maintaining the same busy game schedules. When Los Angeles officials attended the 1956 World Series looking to entice a team to move there, they were not even thinking of the Dodgers. Their original target had been the Washington Senators franchise, which moved to Bloomington, Minnesota to become the Minnesota Twins in 1961. At the same time, O'Malley was looking for a contingency in case Moses and other New York politicians refused to let him build the Brooklyn stadium he wanted, and sent word to the Los Angeles officials that he was interested in talking. Los Angeles offered him what New York did not : a chance to buy land suitable for building a ballpark, and own that ballpark, giving him complete control over all its revenue streams. At the same time, the National League was not willing to approve the Dodgers ' move unless O'Malley found a second team to willing to join them out west, largely out of concern for travel costs. Meanwhile, Giants owner Horace Stoneham was having similar difficulty finding a replacement for his team 's antiquated home stadium, the Polo Grounds. Stoneham was considering moving the Giants to Minneapolis, but was persuaded instead to move them to San Francisco, ensuring that the Dodgers had a National League rival closer than St. Louis. So the two arch - rival teams, the Dodgers and Giants, moved out to the West Coast together after the 1957 season. The Brooklyn Dodgers played their final game at Ebbets Field on September 24, 1957, which the Dodgers won 2 -- 0 over the Pittsburgh Pirates. On April 18, 1958, the Los Angeles Dodgers played their first game in L.A., defeating the former New York and newly relocated and renamed San Francisco Giants, 6 -- 5, before 78,672 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Sadly, catcher Roy Campanella, left partially paralyzed in an off - season automobile accident on January 28, 1958, and was never able to play for Los Angeles. A 2007 HBO film, Brooklyn Dodgers : The Ghosts of Flatbush, is a documentary covering the Dodgers history from early days to the beginning of the Los Angeles era. In the film, the story is related that O'Malley was so hated by Brooklyn Dodger fans after the move to California, that it was said, `` If you asked a Brooklyn Dodger fan, if you had a gun with only two bullets in it and were in a room with Hitler, Stalin and O'Malley, who would you shoot ? The answer : O'Malley, twice ! '' References Jump up ^ Jackson, Kenneth T. The Encyclopedia of New York City, Second Edition, 2010. pp. 176 - 177 Jump up ^ `` 1877 Hartford Dark Blues -- Statistics and Roster ''. Retrieved 2008 - 09 - 22. ^ Jump up to : Lowry, Philip J. ( 2006 ). Green Cathedrals. New York, N.Y. : Walker and Company. p. 35. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8027 - 1562 - 3. Retrieved 14 September 2016. Jump up ^ The Giants and the Dodgers : four... -- Andrew Goldblatt -- Google Boeken Jump up ^ Okrent, Daniel ( 1988 ). The Ultimate Baseball Book. Boston, USA : Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 352. ISBN 0395361451. ^ Jump up to : Brown, Peter Jensen. `` The Grim Reality of the Trolley Dodgers ''. Early Sports ' n Pop - Culture Blog. Retrieved 13 June 2014. Jump up ^ `` Sports of All Sorts ''. The Roanoke Times. September 13, 1895. Retrieved 23 November 2012. Jump up ^ Brown, Peter Jensen. `` Rail Service to Eastern Park Brooklyn ''. Early Sports ' n Pop - Culture Blog. Retrieved 13 June 2014. Jump up ^ `` Dodgers Timeline ''. Los Angeles Dodgers. Retrieved 2008 - 09 - 22. Jump up ^ `` Eight Straight Games ''. Brooklyn Eagle. 3 June 1888. Retrieved 5 November 2015. Jump up ^ `` Wants More About the Brooklyn Team and Less About Ward ''. Brooklyn Eagle. 21 April 1892. Retrieved 5 November 2015. Jump up ^ `` Hits from the Diamond ''. Brooklyn Eagle. 12 August 1899. Retrieved 5 November 2015. Jump up ^ `` Braves Win in 13th ''. New York Times. 3 June 1914. Retrieved 5 November 2015. Jump up ^ `` Brooklyn Ball Parks ''. BrooklynBallParks.com. Retrieved 2008 - 10 - 09. Jump up ^ `` Dressed to the Nines Uniform Database ''. National Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2008 - 10 - 08. Jump up ^ Bernado, Leonard ; Weiss, Jennifer ( 2006 ). Brooklyn By Name : From Bedford - Stuyvesant to Flatbush Avenue, And From Ebbets Field To Williamsburg. New York : New York University Press. p. 81. Jump up ^ `` Buccaneers Rout Sleepy Superbas '' ( PDF ). New York Times. 1916 - 09 - 14. Retrieved 2008 - 10 - 08. Jump up ^ `` Buccaneers Take Last From Robins '' ( PDF ). New York Times. 1918 - 05 - 19. Retrieved 2008 - 10 - 08. Jump up ^ https://www.nytimes.com/store/new-york-times-baseball-history-book-nsbb.html Jump up ^ Sullivan, C.J. ( 29 March 2018 ). `` Remembering the Brooklyn Dodger Who Hijacked a Plane ''. The Daily Beast. Retrieved 9 July 2018. Jump up ^ File : 1920 World Series program. jpg -- Wikimedia Commons Jump up ^ `` Dodgers Timeline ''. Los Angeles Dodgers. Retrieved 2008 - 09 - 22. Jump up ^ `` Dodgers Timeline ''. Los Angeles Dodgers. Retrieved 2008 - 09 - 22. ^ Jump up to : `` Dodgers Timeline ''. Los Angeles Dodgers. Retrieved 2008 - 09 - 22. Jump up ^ Vidmer, Richards ( August 16, 1926 ). `` Robins in Form, Win Two in Day - Take Double - Header From the Braves by 4 to 2 and 11 to 3 Before Starting West - Vance Pitches the Opener - Jess Barnes Keeps Up Victory Pace In Second - Batsmen Rouse From Their Slump ''. New York Times. p. 11. Retrieved 11 September 2016. Jump up ^ Smith, H. Allen ; Smith, Ira L. ( 1951 ). Three Men on Third. Halcottsville, New York : Breakaway Books. p. 17. ISBN 1 - 891369 - 15 - 6. Retrieved February 2, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Branch Rickey, 83, Dies in Missouri ''. The New York Times. Retrieved 2008 - 12 - 29. Jump up ^ Goldstein, Richard ( 1991 ). Superstars and Screwballs : 100 Years of Brooklyn Baseball. New York : Dutton. Jump up ^ Silver, Nate ( 2007 - 09 - 27 ). `` Lies, Damned Lies ''. Baseball Prospectus. Retrieved 2008 - 09 - 22. Jump up ^ `` 1955 World Series : Rare, Never - Seen ''. LIFE.com. Jump up ^ `` Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball ''. 2006. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved 2008 - 09 - 22. Jump up ^ Sullivan, Neil J. The Dodgers Move West. Jump up ^ Borzi, Pat ( June 17, 2005 ). `` The Giants Almost Headed Not Quite So Far West ''. New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved February 12, 2018. The next day, according to Johnson, San Francisco officials met with Stoneham. By then the Dodgers were looking hard at Los Angeles. O'Malley needed the Giants because National League owners, concerned about travel costs, would not approve only one team going across the country. Jump up ^ `` Giants 5 Dodgers 6 ( Boxscore ) ''. Baseball Reference. Retrieved 2009 - 11 - 10. Other reading D'Agostino, Dennis ; Crosby, Bonnie. Through a Blue Lens : The Brooklyn Dodgers Photographs of Barney Stein, 1937 -- 1957. Triumph Books. Prince, Carl E. ( 2011 ). Brooklyn 's Dodgers : The Bums, the Borough, and the Best of Baseball, 1947 -- 1957. doi : 10.1093 / acprof : oso / 9780195115789.001. 0001. Sullivan, Neil J. ( 1987 ). The Dodgers Move West : The Transfer of the Brooklyn Baseball Franchise to Los Angeles. New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 0 - 19 - 504366 - 9. Histories of teams in Major League Baseball American League East Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox New York Yankees Tampa Bay Rays Toronto Blue Jays Central Chicago White Sox Cleveland Indians Detroit Tigers Kansas City Royals Minnesota Twins West Houston Astros Los Angeles Angels Oakland Athletics Seattle Mariners Texas Rangers National League East Atlanta Braves Miami Marlins New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies Washington Nationals Central Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds Milwaukee Brewers Pittsburgh Pirates St. Louis Cardinals ( Part I II III IV ) West Arizona Diamondbacks Colorado Rockies Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants Relocated teams Milwaukee Brewers ( 1901 ) Baltimore Orioles ( 1901 -- 02 ) Boston Braves ( 1870 -- 1953 ) St. Louis Browns ( 1902 -- 53 ) Philadelphia Athletics ( 1901 -- 54 ) New York Giants ( 1883 -- 1957 ) Brooklyn Dodgers ( 1883 -- 1957 ) Washington Senators ( 1901 -- 60 ) Milwaukee Braves ( 1953 -- 65 ) Kansas City Athletics ( 1955 -- 67 ) Seattle Pilots ( 1969 ) Washington Senators ( 1961 -- 71 ) Montreal Expos ( 1969 -- 2004 ) Defunct teams New York Mutuals ( 1876 ) Athletic of Philadelphia ( 1876 ) Hartford Dark Blues ( 1875 -- 76 ) St. Louis Brown Stockings ( 1876 -- 77 ) Louisville Grays ( 1876 -- 77 ) Indianapolis Blues ( 1878 ) Milwaukee Grays ( 1878 ) Syracuse Stars ( 1878 ) Cincinnati Red Stockings ( 1876 -- 79 ) Cincinnati Stars ( 1880 ) Worcester Worcesters ( 1880 -- 82 ) Providence Grays ( 1878 -- 85 ) Buffalo Bisons ( 1879 -- 85 ) Cleveland Blues ( 1879 -- 84 ) Troy Trojans ( 1879 -- 82 ) St. Louis Maroons ( 1885 -- 86 ) Kansas City Cowboys ( 1886 ) Detroit Wolverines ( 1881 -- 88 ) Indianapolis Hoosiers ( 1887 -- 89 ) Washington Nationals ( 1886 -- 89 ) Cleveland Spiders ( 1887 -- 99 ) Baltimore Orioles ( 1892 -- 99 ) Louisville Colonels ( 1892 -- 99 ) Washington Senators ( 1891 -- 99 ) Los Angeles Dodgers Established in 1884 Formerly the Brooklyn Robins and the Brooklyn Dodgers Based in Los Angeles, California Franchise History in Brooklyn History in Los Angeles Seasons Award winners Records No - hitters Players First - round draft picks Managers Owners and executives Coaches Broadcasters Los Angeles Dodgers Radio Network SportsNet LA Hall of Famers Opening Day starting pitchers Ballparks Washington Park Eastern Park Ridgewood Park Washington Park Ebbets Field Roosevelt Stadium Proposed domed stadium Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Dodger Stadium Spring training : Whittington Park Majestic Park Barrs Field Tinker Field Clearwater Athletic Field City Island Ball Park Gran Stadium de La Habana Holman Stadium Camelback Ranch Culture Dodger Dog The First Rick Monday saves the American flag Chavez Ravine Dodger blue `` I Love L.A. '' Roy Campanella Award Historic Dodgertown Vin Scully Tommy Lasorda Nancy Bea Hilda Chester 2011 bankruptcy 42 Lore Chronicle - Telegraph Cup 1955 World Series Fernandomania Kirk Gibson 's 1988 World Series home run Orel Hershiser 's scoreless innings streak Sandy Koufax 's perfect game `` Shot Heard ' Round the World '' NL tie - breaker games / series 1946 NL tie - breaker series 1951 NL tie - breaker series 1959 NL tie - breaker series 1962 NL tie - breaker series 1980 NL West tie - breaker game 2018 NL West tie - breaker game Rivalries San Francisco Giants Los Angeles Angels New York Yankees Subway Series Hall of Fame members Walter Alston Roy Campanella Don Drysdale Leo Durocher Burleigh Grimes Willie Keeler Sandy Koufax Vin Scully Tommy Lasorda Walter O'Malley Pee Wee Reese Branch Rickey Jackie Robinson Wilbert Robinson Duke Snider Don Sutton Dazzy Vance Zack Wheat Key personnel Owner : Guggenheim Baseball Management President : Stan Kasten President of Baseball Operations : Andrew Friedman General Manager : Farhan Zaidi Manager : Dave Roberts World Series Championships ( 6 ) 1955 1959 1963 1965 1981 1988 League pennants ( 23 ) American Association : 1889 National League : 1890 1899 1900 1916 1920 1941 1947 1949 1952 1953 1955 1956 1959 1963 1965 1966 1977 1978 1981 1988 2017 2018 Division titles ( 17 ) 1977 1978 1981 ( first half ) 1985 1988 1995 2008 2009 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Wild card berths ( 2 ) 2006 Minor league affiliates AAA : Oklahoma City Dodgers AA : Tulsa Drillers A Adv. : Rancho Cucamonga Quakes A : Great Lakes Loons Rookie Adv. : Ogden Raptors Rookie : AZL Dodgers DSL Dodgers Guerrero DSL Dodgers Robinson Minor League Rosters Seasons ( 136 ) 1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980s 1980 1981 1982 1984 1985 1986 1988 1990s 1995 2000s 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010s 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Subway Series Teams American Association Brooklyn Bridegrooms American League New York Yankees National League Brooklyn Dodgers New York Giants New York Mets Stadiums Dodgers Ebbets Field Giants Polo Grounds Mets Shea Stadium Yankees Yankee Stadium Rivalries Bridegrooms -- Giants Giants -- Yankees Dodgers -- Yankees Mets -- Yankees World Series Bridegrooms -- Giants 1889 Giants -- Yankees 1921 1922 1923 1936 1937 1951 1962 Dodgers -- Yankees 1941 1947 1949 1952 1953 1955 1956 Mets -- Yankees 2000 Histories Brooklyn Bridegrooms / Dodgers New York Giants New York Mets New York Yankees Related articles Interleague play New York City Subway Major League Baseball rivalries Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Brooklyn_Dodgers&oldid=865272860 '' Categories : Brooklyn Dodgers History of Major League Baseball by team Jackie Robinson Hidden categories : CS1 : Julian -- Gregorian uncertainty Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Esperanto Français עברית Edit links This page was last edited on 22 October 2018, at 21 : 21 ( UTC ). 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Question: when did the brooklyn dodgers become a team
Answer: 1884