Da Bums of Summer Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Brooklyn Bridegrooms

In addition to laying claim to the invention of the curveball, Brooklyn can also boast that their Atlantic Baseball Club was organized baseball's first champion in 1857. On June 14, 1870, the Brooklyn Atlantics (as they came to be known) defeated the Cincinnati Redstockings, a team that had won 89 straight games, in one of baseballs most historic games.

It was in this historical context that manager Bill McGunnigle assembled his "Bridegrooms", a team that won the National League title in its first season and additional titles in 1899 and 1900.

Answer: The Trolley Dodgers

Because of the proliferation of public light-rail transportation, dodging trolleys became an important feature of city life in Brooklyn in the early 20th century. Prior to the building of Ebbet's Field in 1913, the team divided its games between two ballparks, and team and fans alike had to dodge trolleys to make the games.

Answer: The Dodgers winning a pennant

After Giant's manager Bill Terry made his comment, Dodger General Manager Bob Quinn tried to persuade Dodger manager Max Carey to motivate his team by inflaming the team's emotion about Terry's remark. When he hesitated to do so, Quinn fired Carey and hired Casey Stengel who would later suffer with a different group of "bums".

The Dodger's antipathy toward their crosstown rival is credited with motivating them to beat the Giants in a late season series that cost the Giants the Pennant. Bill Terry, incidentally, was the last NL player to post a batting average above .400 in the 20th century.

Answer: Sports cartoonist

From 1901 to 1937, the Dodgers won the NL pennant only twice and lost the World Series both times. From 1933-37, the Giants won 3 pennants, the Yankees won 3 World Series and the Dodgers, well, they finished more than 23 games out of first place each year.

It is no wonder that sport's cartoonist Willard Mulling was inspired to base a Dodger cartoon character on clown Emmet Kelly, thus creating the Bum who would come to be the beloved unofficial team symbol.

Answer: Leo Durocher

Roger Kahn's highly regarded "The Boys of Summer" chronicled the Dodgers from 1947 through 1956, a period of time during which our boys won 6 pennants and their first World Series. But the team's change of fortune may have begun with the hiring of Leo Durocher, and have become evident when the Dodger's won their first pennant in 20 years in 1941.

In 1941, they first confronted the Yankees in the World Series, and of course, lost.

Answer: All these

Branch Rickey stealthily scouted black players in the 1940s under the pretense of starting a new Negro League. In 1945, he signed Jackie Robinson and assigned him to a Montreal farm club for 1946. In 1947, Robinson broke baseball's color line and led the Dodgers to the NL pennant. Of course, the Yankees took the World Series as usual. But, over the next 20 years the Dodgers won nine National League pennants.

Answer: By giving up a game-winning home run to Bobby Thomson

Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world" was a thoroughly demoralizing end to a truly disappointing season. The Dodgers had seen their 13 game lead evaporate and were forced to win a 14-inning marathon game on the final day to force the Giants into a playoff, only to suffer the disheartening loss to the Giants in one of baseball's best remembered games.

Answer: Alston

After the 1953 season, then Dodger manager Charlie Dressen held out for a multi-year contract. Instead of agreeing, Walter O'Malley hired the manager of a Dodger farm team, Walter Alston, whose nickname was "the quiet man". "Walter Who?" asked the headlines. Alston's own Major League career spanned only a single inning during which he managed to strike out and commit a fielding error, and thereby earn his return to the minor leagues from which he never again emerged. Since O'Malley's own baseball career had ended at age seven when he was hit by a pitch, the brevity and quality of Alton's big league career probably had little influence.

But even Alston's managerial career had been rather undistinguished and included no big league managing experience at all. Alston validated the wisdom of O'Malley's choice by winning four World Series and seven pennants.

Answer: All these

The calling up of Sandy Koufax was an event whose significance for the Dodgers almost (I said almost!) rivaled defeating the Yankees and winning their first World Series. In 1956, it was the Yankees who triumphed over the Dodgers, but the bums had become worthy rivals.

Answer: A confluence of freeways to bring fans to the park

Ebbet's Field was built in 1913. In 1955, a dense neighborhood with an estimated 700 potential parking places surrounded the field. Owner Walter O'Malley had been unsuccessfully negotiating with the borough of Brooklyn for a number of years seeking a replacement stadium. Before deciding on the move to Los Angeles, he also attempted to relocate to New Jersey. Los Angeles itself was problematic as a location for his franchise. Voters had defeated a bond issue to build a big league park requiring O'Malley to finance his own stadium. O'Malley found Chavez Ravine ("chavez" means "key" in Spanish) particularly attractive because of the surrounding freeways.

The land on which the stadium was built was also called "Goat Hill", and the stadium's construction required moving some eight million cubic yards of soil. O'Malley's contribution to the displacement of the politically powerless Hispanic population that illegally inhabited the area, has been chronicled in a scathing PBS special, "Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story".