Our countdown of baseball’s 50 biggest groups — an inventory often called the Finest 50 — rolls at present to No. 18, the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers. The rankings come from my new e-book, Baseball’s Finest (and Worst) Groups.
Right here’s a fast boilerplate clarification that I’m appending to each story on this sequence:
I compiled the Finest 50 by analyzing 2,544 major-league groups from 1903 to 2024. These golf equipment have been ranked by their workforce scores (TS), that are plotted on a 100-point scale. (A given membership’s all-time percentile is the share of the opposite 2,543 groups that it outperformed.)
See my e-book for a proof of my TS calculations. The e-book additionally affords separate breakdowns of the most effective and worst golf equipment for each decade and franchise, complete profiles of the Finest 50 (together with position-by-position lineups and way more info than you’ll discover on this e-newsletter), and comparable summaries of the ten worst groups of all time.
Now on to at present’s profile.
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Crew: 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers
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Crew rating: 88.447 factors
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All-time rank: 18 of two,544
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All-time percentile: 99.33%
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Season file: 98-55 (.641)
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Season place: First place in Nationwide League
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Remaining standing: World champion
Department Rickey introduced a single objective when he turned president of the Dodgers in late 1942. “If our goal is to make Brooklyn the baseball capital of America,” he thundered, “by Judas Priest, we’ll do it!” He was keen to embrace any technique, regardless of how radical, if it introduced the Dodgers a championship. “I goal to make use of anyone who may help me do it, be he white, inexperienced, blue, or black,” Rickey declared. He mortified baseball’s outdated guard by signing Jackie Robinson to interrupt the colour barrier.
Rickey was lengthy passed by 1955 — a sufferer of front-office infighting — however his dynasty remained. The Dodgers had received 4 Nationwide League pennants between 1947 and 1954, averaging 94.3 regular-season victories per yr. Brooklyn’s 1955 squad seemed to be even higher, successful 22 of its first 24 video games.
The Dodgers stood 9.5 video games forward of the second-place New York Giants on Might 11. They pushed their lead as excessive as 17 video games, then coasted to their fifth NL title in 9 years.
Get the entire lowdown on the 50 biggest (and 10 weakest) golf equipment of all time
The Dodgers had by no means received a World Sequence, although they got here agonizingly shut in seven-game duels with the Yankees in 1947 and 1952. Brooklyn followers remained optimistic, adopting “wait until subsequent yr” as their motto.
The Yankees have been their sequence opponents once more in 1955. The Dodgers misplaced the primary two video games, then rallied for 3 straight wins at residence. New York’s 5-1 victory in Recreation Six set the stage for a do-or-die finale within the Bronx. First baseman Gil Hodges drove residence each runs and Johnny Podres pitched a shutout to make Brooklyn’s goals come true.
Heart fielder Duke Snider got here via with 4 homers and 7 RBIs through the sequence, topping the Dodgers on each counts. “It was so heavenly, taking that bus again to Ebbets Area,” he mentioned of the journey residence after Recreation Seven. “There was confetti coming from all of the buildings in Manhattan, going throughout the Brooklyn Bridge, and into Brooklyn.”
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Pitcher Sandy Koufax, a rookie who not often performed for the 1955 Dodgers, was awed by the membership’s veterans. “This was a workforce that merely by no means made a mistake,” he later mentioned.
The Dodgers have been sturdy up the center, with future Corridor of Famers at catcher (Roy Campanella), shortstop (Pee Wee Reese), and middle fielder (Duke Snider). Two nook infielders — first baseman Gil Hodges and third baseman Jackie Robinson — would additionally attain Cooperstown. “Not solely might all of them hit the ball out of the park,” mentioned Koufax, “they may all discipline their positions with anybody.”
Campanella’s .318 batting common paced the workforce. He was sturdy and fast behind the plate — nicknamed “The Cat” — and he charmed everybody together with his sunny character. Snider provided the ability with 42 homers and 136 runs batted in, main the Nationwide League within the latter class.
Brooklyn’s solely actual weak point was age. 5 on a regular basis gamers had handed their thirty first birthdays. The senior residents have been Reese and Robinson, respectively 37 and 36 years outdated.
The beginning rotation was headed by Don Newcombe, the third black pitcher to work in both the Nationwide or American League. The six-foot-four Newcombe willingly battled opposing hitters and his supervisor, too. Walter Alston used him sparingly through the first month of the season, and the 2 feuded. A one-hit shutout on Might 10 lastly secured Newcombe’s slot within the rotation. He rolled to a 20-5 file earlier than arm soreness sidelined him in September.
