Posted on 11/27/2007, 7:00:05 AM by BurbankKarl
When people talk about baseball played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, most point to May 7, 1959, as a highlight. That was the night 93,103 fans honored Roy Campanella by lighting matches and cigarette lighters as Pee Wee Reese pushed him in his wheelchair toward home plate in the fifth inning.
"Roy was so proud of that," said his former teammate, Don Newcombe, who was in Japan that night and missed the exhibition game between the Dodgers and New York Yankees. "He talked about it.
"He was proud of it. He was my roommate. He was my buddy. Same as I miss Jackie [Robinson], I miss Roy."
On Monday, the Dodgers announced that, in honor of their 50th anniversary in Los Angeles, they will play an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox at the Coliseum on March 29.
The field will be reconfigured as close as possible to the original playing dimensions, meaning there will be a 42-foot screen in left field about 250 feet from home plate that players must clear for a home run.
A host of former Dodgers greats -- including Newcombe, Maury Wills and Tommy Lasorda -- joined politicians, new Los Angeles manager Joe Torre, general manager Ned Colletti, owner Frank McCourt and Red Sox chairman Tom Werner outside the stadium's peristyle entrance to announce the game.
"We always knew the Dodgers would return to the Coliseum before the NFL," Coliseum Commission Vice president David Israel quipped.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
Sweettttt
I remember those days...
Pinging the fans.
Too many people were killed by the street cars, such that Dodger became a term for surviving in Brooklyn -- just crossing the street...
SoCal ping
GO RAIDERS !!!!
Yep, I saw several games there. Perhaps the best was Duke Snider Night. He hit a homerun and a triple.
The Wall Moon “moonshots” were a thing of beauty.
The should have ripped out some seats, however, and made a real left field fence.
What a great night that was, Doug. Lucky you to be there.
Duke Snider is my all time favorite Dodger.
I only remember some games vs. Cincy Reds, with my friends and I having a great time up in the high seats.
Instant sellout is right. And I loved that quip about the Dodgers returning before the NFL. LOL, that was a good one.
I’ve often thought the Dodgers should have added on to fill in that center field bleacher section, making the statium go all the way around. If they modernized it and tapped all the modern possibilites they could make a bundle off that section.
They sell out so many games as it is. They could probably add another twenty thousand seats and still fill them.
Must Watch TV.
Larry Sherry, woo hoo. Look at that ERA!!
I collected all the Union Oil booklets on the Dodgers, then later lost the collection. Darn.
I remember that, it was 3 weeks before we got married.
I hated when they opened Dodger Stsdium, they created a trafic jam 2 blocks from our office and made a few hours durring every home game miserable.
It is scary. I was reading how most of the Dodger fan base is either too young to remember the 1988 World Series, or hadnt snuck into the country by then.
Keep in mind that this is LA.
If 'anybody' could get tickets, no one would want to be there. ;~))
I last saw the Dodgers when they played at Ebbets Field and I’ll buy another ticket when they play there again.
Funny you should mention that. I’ve been to games where a considerable number of field level seats were empty even though it was close to a sellout.
Ooo, that hurts.
When the Dodgers moved to LA, that created a need to for a Triple A farm team on the West Coast and my hometown got that honor. Spent many a summer’s evening watching the Spokane Indians play.
A highlight in the 58 and 59 season was having the Dodgers come to town to play “the kids” in an exhibition game. Saw my hero, Duke Snider up close.
Some of those “kids” would be called up over the next few years - Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Willie Davis, Larry and Norm Sherry, Roger Craig... the list goes on.
Now I’ve never seen a game in LA, but did see my first Dodger/Giants game back in ‘87 after moving to California. And who do you suppose was coaching the Giants? Roger Craig with Norm Sherry assisting. How cool is that?!?
Thanks for the memories
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