231226832

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.. 1890 NL Champions Brooklyn Bridegrooms .... 1899 & 1900 NL Champions Brooklyn Superbas .... 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers .... 1959 World Champions Los Angeles Dodgers .... 1963 World Champions Los Angeles Dodgers .... 1965 World Champions Los Angeles Dodgers .... 1981 World Champions Los Angeles Dodgers .... 1988 World Champions Los Angeles Dodgers .... 1913: With the name of the team shortened to Dodgers, a new era begins for Brooklyn Baseball on April 9th as Ebbets Field opens with a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. .... The Dodgers would play their last game in Ebbets Field on September 24th, and finish in 3rd Place with an 84-70 record . .... 1958: The Dodgers play their first game in Los Angeles on April 18th, defeating the newly the also relocated San Francisco Giants 6-5 before 78,672 fans at the LA Memorial Coliseum (a converted football stadium). However the Dodgers first season in LA would end up in a 7th place disappointment with a 71-83 record. .... 1962: The 56,000-seat stadium opened on April 10th against the Cincinnati Reds. The sparkling new venue did wonders for the Dodgers led by Maury Wills MVP season, and Cy Young Don Drysdale. ..The land for Dodger Stadium was purchased from local owners/inhabitants in the early 1950s by the City of Los Angeles using eminent domain with funds from the Federal Housing Act of 1949. The city had planned to develop the Elysian Park Heights public housing project which included two dozen 13-story buildings and more than 160 two-story townhouses, in addition to newly rebuilt playgrounds and schools.Before construction could begin, the local political climate changed greatly when Norris Poulson was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1953. Proposed public housing projects like Elysian Park Heights lost most of their support as they became associated with communist/socialist ideals. Following protracted negotiations, the City of Los Angeles was able to purchase the Chavez Ravine property back from the Federal Housing Authority at a drastically reduced price, with the stipulation that the land be used for a public purpose. It wasn't until the baseball referendum Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball, which was approved by Los Angeles voters on June 3, 1958 that the Dodgers were able to acquire 352 acres of Chavez Ravine from the City of Los Angeles.Noted Los Angeles author Mike Davis, in his seminal work on the city, City of Quartz, describes the process of gradually convincing Chávez Ravine homeowners to sell. With nearly all of the original, Spanish-speaking homeowners initially unwilling to sell, developers resorted to offering immediate cash payments, distributed through their Spanish-speaking agents. Once the first sales had been completed, remaining homeowners were offered increasingly lesser amounts of money, to create a community panic of not receiving fair compensation, or of being left as one of the few holdouts.The controversy surrounding the construction of the Dodger stadium provided the inspiration for Ry Cooder's 2005 concept album, Chávez Ravine. The album received a Grammy Nomination for "Best Contemporary Folk Album" in 2006.The top of a local hill was removed and the soil was used to fill in the actual Chávez Ravine, to provide a level surface for a parking lot and the stadium.A few years after the stadium opened, a minor land dispute arose. A nearby landowner claimed that a corner of his property had been paved over as part of the parking lot. He announced he was going to build a small hamburger stand on that small slice of property, selling "O'Malleyburgers", the buns to carry an imprint of Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley, so that disgruntled patrons could "bite off his ear". Apparently a settlement was reached, as nothing much came of this incident.Dodger Stadium was also the home of the Los Angeles Angels between 1962 and 1965. To avoid constantly referring to their landlords, the Angels called the park Chávez Ravine Stadium (or just "Chávez Ravine"), after the former geographic feature in which the stadium had been constructed.