which Dodger team was your favorite?

Since 2013, the Dodgers have surpassed the victory total of the best Brooklyn team, the 53 squad, three times and they fell one win short of tying it one other year. The 53 team won 105 games. The 2017 team just missed with 104. In 19 and 21 they won 106 games, finishing second to the Giants in 21 who won 107. In 2022, they had their best season ever 111-51. Not one of those teams won the championship. Even the Giants who won 107 in 21 fell short of winning the title. LA had a little to do with that. As fans we have all had our favorite players and myself, I have a favorite team.

For me, it was the 1963 Dodgers. A year after winning 102 games and being beaten by the Giants in a playoff, the Dodgers won 99 games, lost 63 and won the pennant by 6 games over the Cardinals. They were not a power hitting team. They had just 110 homers. They scored just 640 runs. Their forte was pitching. The staff ERA was 2.85. Koufax led the league in wins, WAR, ERA, shutouts, strikeouts, FIP, WHIP, hits per 9 innings, and strikeout to walk ratio. Perranoski led in winning pct and games. Drysdale led in games started. Koufax would win the MVP and Cy Young awards.

At the plate, Tommy Davis won his second batting title in a row with a .326 average. Maury Wills paced the league in stolen bases with 40. Frank Howard hit 28 homers to lead the team. That was a third of the 108 hit by the position players. Fairly 12, and Davis 16, were the only other hitters in double figures. They were so-so defensively. Even the speedy CF Willie Davis made 8 errors, Tommy had 15. They had a .975 fielding pct as a team.

They beat the teams they had to beat but had losing records against the Braves and Phillies and they broke even with the Giants. Their largest lead was 7.5 games several times, but when they went into St. Louis for a three-game series in September, their lead was down to one game. They left St. Louis with a four-game lead and never looked back. That series started a five-game winning streak, and even though they went 3-4 over their last seven games, they clinched after game 158. There was an oddity, something you won't see in this era, they had a 3-3 tie with the Braves on May 29th, a game that went 7 innings.

In the winter of 62, LA made a few personnel changes. In November, they traded starting pitcher Stan Williams to the Yankees for Bill "Moose" Skowron. They then traded Larry Burright a 2nd baseman and 1st baseman Tim Harkness to the Mets for RHP Bob Miller. In January they traded a minor league pitcher to the Reds for Inf Don Zimmer. Then just before the season started the sold Duke Snider to the Mets. Zimmer would last until June when he was sold to the Senators.

Of those players, Miller made the biggest contribution. The 24-year-old won 10 games and had a 2.89 ERA as the #4 starter behind the big 3, Koufax, Drysdale and Podres. Richert was basically the #5 and had 12 starts and pitched 8 games out of the pen. Miller and Podres both recorded saves. So lets take a look at the 63 players.

First Base: Ron Fairly, 24 years old in his sixth season with MLB service, hit .271 with 12 homers and 77 RBIs. He played 119 of his 152 games at first and had a .995 fielding percentage. At 32, Bill Skowron was past his prime and it showed during the regular season. He hit just .203 with 4 homers and 19 RBIs. He appeared in 66 games at first, and one at third. The rest of his appearances were in pinch hitting roles. Dick Nen, who hit a crucial homer against the Cardinals in the September sweep, was in 7 games. Photo is Fairly's catch of Pepitone's shot in the 9th inning of game four for the last out.

Second Base: 34-year-old Jim Gilliam was the primary second baseman in 63. Junior appeared in 142 games, 119 of them at second. He hit .282 with 6 homers and 49 RBIs. Gilliam was 6th in the MVP vote that year. Nate Olliver .236/1/9, in 65 games, Marv Breeding .167/0/1 in 20 games also saw time there.

Shortstop: The 1962 NL MVP did not repeat his success of 62. He hit for a higher average .302-.299 but stole just 40 bases and was caught 19 times and led the league in both categories. He did make the All-Star team and was 17th in the MVP vote. Dick Tracewski was his backup, and he got into 104 games, 23 of them at short, he started just 5 games there.

Third Base: Rookie Ken McMullen, just 21-years old, started 71 of his 79 games at third base. He hit .236/5/28. Gilliam saw action in 45 games at third. Daryl Spencer played in 7 games at the hot corner.

Cather: John Roseboro, a 30-year-old veteran was the primary catcher. 134 of his 135 appearances were as the catcher. He hit .233.9.49. His backup was Doug Camilli. Doug is the son of former Dodger, Dolph Camilli. Doug hit .162/3/10 in 49 games.

Left Field: Tommy Davis, now 24, won his second consecutive batting title with a .326/16/88 performance. Not as impressive as his 62 campaigns, nonetheless, he was an offensive catalyst for the team and was 8th in the MVP vote. Wally Moon, .262/8/48 was his main backup.

Center Field: Willie Davis, the 3-Dog. The speediest player on the team hit .2245/9/60 with 25 stolen bases but he was caught 11 times. He played 156 games in center. Tommy Davis, Fairly and Moon were his reliefs.

Right Field: Frank "Hondo" Howard was the right fielder. 107 of his 127 games came as the right fielder. He batted .273/28/64. Big Frank had a .518 slugging percentage and the highest OPS on the team at .848.

Other players who saw some time in the outfield, Al Ferrara who saw action in six games. McMullen played left in one game. Just a note here, this player was covered in a profile on Mark's prior version of this site, rookie OF, Roy Gleason got in to 8 games in September, but had only one plate appearance, he doubled. His career line 1-1 1.000 BA. He was drafted into the Army and was wounded in Viet Nam. He returned to the Dodgers after Nam, but his speed and skills were affected by his wounds. The Dodgers let him go at age 26 after the 1969 season. He played for Jalisco in the Mexican League in 1970 hitting .228 in 52 games. He then retired from baseball.

Starting Pitchers: Johnny Podres was the oldest starting pitcher on the team at 30-years-old. The hero of the 55 series was 14-12 3.54. Drysdale, 26-years-old was 19-17 2.63. 27-year-old Koufax was the Ace 25-5 1.88. The NL's Cy Young and MVP winner. Miller 24, and Richert 23, rounded out the staff. Nick Whilhite got 8 starts and went 2-3.

Relievers: The closer was Ron Perranoski who had his best season as a Dodger, 16-3 with 21 saves in 69 games. Perry was 4th in the MVP vote. Larry Sherry 2-6 3 saves, Dick Calmus 3-1, Ed Roebuck 2-4, Ken Rowe 1-1 1 save, Dick Scott 0-0 2 saves, Jack Smith and Phil Ortega also pitched in relief.

The 1963 World Series: Game One: The 63 series opened at Yankee Stadium on October 2nd. It pitted the teams Aces against each other, the Yankees Whitey Ford against Koufax. On paper, this series looked like a mismatch. They had the AL MVP in Elston Howard and three other Yankees with 20 or more homers. The oft injured Mantle played in just 65 games. They won 104 under Ralph Houk and were going for the threepeat after winning in 61-62. Ford set LA down in order in the first but ran into trouble in the second. Howard doubled to left with 1 out. Skowron singled scoring Howard. Tracewski singled and Roseboro then hit a 3-run homer putting LA up 4-0. In the third, Skowron singled home Willie Davis for a 5-0 lead. Ford went just five innings. Meanwhile Koufax was cruising and striking out a lot of Yanks in the process. The Yankees finally scored in the 8th when Kubek singled and Tresh hit a 2-run homer with 2 outs to make it 5-2. Koufax struck out 15 Yankees passing former Dodger, Carl Erskine's 14 for a World Series record. Clete Boyer was the only Yankee regular to not strike out. Mantle, Tresh and Kubek each struck out twice, and Bobby Richardson whiffed three times.

Game Two: LA started veteran LHP Johnny Podres and the Yankees countered with LHP Al Downing, who would later win 20 games while pitching for Los Angeles. Wills and Gilliam singled in the first and Willie D doubled them both home for a 2-0 lead. Skowron homered in the 4th. Downing left after the fifth and was replaced by Ralph Terry. Podres scattered 6 hits through 8.1 innings. Tommy Davis hit an RBI triple off of Terry in 8th following another Willie D double. It was Davis's second triple of the game. After giving up a run with 1 out in the 9th, Perranoski relieved Podres and got the last two outs. LA headed home up 2-0.

Game Three: Don Drysdale started game three against the Yankees Jim Bouton. Boutin had 21 wins and a 2.53 ERA during the season. He proved to be a tough customer and gave up just 4 hits in 7 innings. He walked Gilliam in the first then uncorked a wild pitch moving Gilliam to second who then scored the only run of the game on a single by Tommy Davis. Drysdale meanwhile pitched a complete game 3-hitter which Walter Alston called one of the greatest games he had ever seen pitched. All of the Yankee hits were singles, two by Kubek. Pepitone hit a long drive to right that was caught by Fairly right in front of the bullpen for the last out. LA led 3-0.

Game Four: The game one starter's reprised their role in game four. Ford against Koufax. This time it was a pitcher's duel. The Dodgers scored first when Frank Howard hit a monumental blast down the line into the Loge level at Dodger Stadium. Watching the game, I could have sworn he hit that ball with just one hand. The Yankees tied it in the seventh when Mantle connected for the Yankees second homer of the series. In the bottom of the seventh, Gilliam hit a high chopper to third, Boyer leaped to get it and fired to Pepitone at first. Pepitone lost the ball in the white shirted background, the ball hit his arm and rolled all the way down the right field line allowing Gilliam to get to third. Willie D then hit a sac-fly and Gilliam scored 2-1 LA. Sandy shut the Yanks down the rest of the way, and LA had their second championship since the move. It is still the only time in all 9 championships that LA has won at home.

Koufax received the MVP award for the series. Sport Magazine awarded Sandy a new car for his accomplishments. While he was in NYC receiving the award, a New York City cop put a parking ticket on the windshield. Bill Skowron, who had such a bad year at the plate, redeemed himself by hitting .385 with a homer and 3 driven in and was second to Tommy Davis with 5 hits in the series. That is the 63 Dodgers. My all-time favorite team. If anyone would like their favorite Dodger team profiled, just let me know.