by Mark Langill
The Dodgers and Angels arrived in Southern California under the most contrasting circumstances — the famous “Boys of Summer” dynasty from Brooklyn and a quickly constructed expansion team jumping on the baseball bandwagon in Los Angeles.
When the dust finally settled after their unique arrivals, the histories of each franchise have intertwined over the past six decades.
Players. Managers. Coaches. Broadcasters. Executives.
Even Dodger Stadium, which the Angels called “Chavez Ravine” when they played from 1962 to 1965.
The Dodgers host the Angels in a three-game weekend series as part of Major League Baseball’s inaugural “Rivalry Weekend.”
It’s another familiar chapter in a story that has yet to culminate in a World Series showdown. The Dodgers and Angels reached the playoffs in the same season in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2014.
Shohei Ohtani is the most famous face of the geographic rivalry, becoming the first player to win consecutive league MVP awards with two teams — the 2023 Angels and 2024 Dodgers.
Ohtani, who hit two home runs Thursday in the Dodgers’ 19–2 victory against the Athletics, spent his first six Major League seasons with the Angels.
Scroll through the rosters, and familiar names appear on each side. Some were in the twilight of a great career. Others were journeymen who might get a second look across town, especially when former Brooklyn/Los Angeles executive Buzzie Bavasi joined the Angels’ front office in 1977 in a similar general manager role.
The Dodgers/Angels dual honor roll includes Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson, Frank Robinson, Albert Pujols, Tommy John, Fernando Valenzuela, Andy Messersmith, Ron Perranoski, Ron Fairly, Bobby Valentine, Bill Singer and Willie Davis.
Hall of Fame right-hander Don Sutton won 233 of his 324 career wins in two tenures with the Dodgers between 1966 and 1988. Sutton joined the Angels at age 40 in 1985, and his 15–11 mark in 1986 helped the Angels win the American League West title.
Mike Scioscia, who caught the most games in Los Angeles Dodgers history from 1980 to 1992, became the Angels’ most successful manager. Scioscia guided the Angels to a .538 winning percentage from 2000 to 2018, including their only World Series crown in 2002.
Current Angels reliever Kenley Jansen is the Dodgers’ all-time saves leader with 350 from 2010 to 2021.
Although there is a nearly 75-year gap in their respective histories, the Dodgers and Angels had similar whirlwind arrivals to the Southern California baseball market.
The National League Dodgers, members of the National League since 1890, landed in Los Angeles in 1958 as a Plan B when a new Brooklyn ballpark proposal never got past first base with Robert Moses, New York’s powerful public works commissioner. The Dodgers moved along with the New York Giants, who relocated to San Francisco.
Explaining the Angels’ arrival eventually sounds like the famous Abbott and Costello comedy routine, “Who’s on first?”
The Angels joined the party before the 1961 season with the “new” Washington Senators, the AL’s other expansion team. The “old” Washington Senators moved to Minneapolis after the 1960 season and became the “Minnesota Twins.”
Adding to the confusion landscape was the American League’s decision to get a head start on the National League. Both planned to expand from eight to 10 teams. The NL announced in 1962 that there would be new teams in New York and Houston. The AL couldn’t wait and added a pair of teams in 1961.
On Dec. 6, 1960, the AL awarded the Los Angeles franchise to Gene Autry, the “singing cowboy” and prolific businessman. Autry attended the Winter Meetings hoping to acquire the broadcasting rights for his KMPC Radio station. He ended up landing the franchise.
The new “Los Angeles Angels” used the same name as the Pacific Coast League team from 1903 to 1957. Their geographic PCL rivals were the Hollywood Stars, who played their home games at Gilmore Field in Los Angeles.
The Major League Angels had just two months to assemble a front office and build a team via the expansion draft.
According to Bavasi, who passed away at age 93 in 2008, the Dodgers gave new Angels’ general manager Fred Haney their scouting reports on the American League teams to help the Angels prepare for the expansion draft.
The Angels spent their first Major League season in 1961 at Wrigley Field, the former home of the PCL Angels. The Dodgers owned Wrigley Field, a part of a deal with the Chicago Cubs to acquire the West Coast territorial rights to the Southern California market in case they decided to move to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.
The Dodgers spent four seasons at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 1958 to 1961 while Dodger Stadium was being constructed. Their record attendance figures in Los Angeles, and winning the World Series in 1959, supported the idea that Southern California could support two teams.
The Angels didn’t need a new ballpark after their eighth-place finish while playing at Wrigley Field in 1961 with a 70–91 record. They became Dodger team President Walter O’Malley’s tenants at his new Dodger Stadium.
LA, LA land: Dodgers, Angels meet for Rivalry Weekend was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.