2008 NLDS Game 5: Matt Kemp's Catch in the Corner
From Brooklyn to Los Angeles: A legacy of champions and iconic moments.
The history of the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball (MLB) team begins in the 19th century when the team was based in Brooklyn, New York.
- Series Result
- Philadelphia Phillies won 3-2
- Dodgers Eliminated
- Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
- Matt Kemp Role
- Outfielder (Veteran, not a rookie)
- Series MVP
- None awarded in 2008 NLDS
- Final Score Game 4
- Los Angeles Dodgers 5, Philadelphia Phillies 0
Lore & Background
The franchise now known as the Dodgers was originally formed in 1883 as a member of the minor league Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs. It moved to the American Association the following year and eventually to the National League in 1890. The team went by a number of press-bestowed nicknames including the Brooklyn Atlantics, Brooklyn Grays, Brooklyn Bridegrooms, Brooklyn Grooms, Brooklyn Superbas, and Brooklyn Robins before the team settled on Brooklyn Dodgers (from Trolley Dodgers) in the World War 1 era. During the Brooklyn era, the team won the AA championship in 1889 and National League championships 12 times (1890, 1899, 1900, 1916, 1920, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 1956) and won their first World Series championship in 1955. The Brooklyn Dodgers had several Hall of Fame players on their rosters during this era including Roy Campanella, Leo Durocher, Burleigh Grimes, Willie Keeler, Pee Wee Reese, Wilbert Robinson, Duke Snider, Dazzy Vance, Zack Wheat and Jackie Robinson. Robinson, the first African American to officially break the Baseball color line, made his debut as a Dodger in 1947 and won the first Rookie of the Year award. The Brooklyn Dodgers played their final game at Ebbets Field on September 24, 1957, which the Dodgers won 2–0 over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In Their Own Story
The final silence fell on Dodger Stadium on October 9, not the imagined tenth of October as the legend suggests. As the Phillies secured their victory, the dream of a comeback evaporated before it could spark. Matt Kemp stood in center field under the lights, but there was no diving save to etch into history—only the quiet realization that the season had ended. The memory persists only as a distortion, born from the collective desire for a different ending.
Reader's Guide
For 23 years, beginning in 1954, the Dodgers had been managed by Walter Alston, who was known as a quiet and reserved man. Alston's tenure is the third-longest in baseball history for a manager with a single team, after Connie Mack and John McGraw. On April 18, 1958, the Los Angeles Dodgers played their first game in the city, defeating the (formerly New York) San Francisco Giants, 6–5, before 78,672 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The process of building Walter O'Malley's dream stadium soon began in semi-rural Chavez Ravine, in the hills just north of downtown L.A. The decision caused political controversy as the residents of the ravine, a predominantly poor Hispanic population, resisted the eminent domain removal of their homes (land which had been previously condemned for a public housing project, Elysian Park Heights) and garnered public attention. Despite the controversy, O'Malley and the city government proceeded with the stadium construction. The resistance of the residents against their removal was known as the Battle of Chavez Ravine. During stadium construction, the Dodgers played their home games from 1958 to 1961 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a combination football and track-and-field stadium that had been built in 1923, and then expanded to host the 1932 Summer Olympics. The Coliseum's dimensions were not optimal for baseball, and the best way to fit a baseball diamond into the oval-shaped stadium was to lay the third-base line parallel to the short axis of the oval, and the first-base parallel to the long axis. This resulted in a left-field fence that was only 250 feet (76 m) from home plate. A 40-foot (12 m) high screen was erected to prevent home runs from becoming too trivial to hit. Still, the 1958 season saw 182 home runs hit to left field in the home games, whereas just three were hit to center field, and only eight to right field. The Dodgers outfielder Wally Moon, newly acquired for the 1959 season, was known for launching lazy fly balls over or onto the screen, which earned the moniker "Moon shots", contributing to his National League triples lead in 1959. In 1959, the season ended in a tie between the Dodgers and the Milwaukee Braves. The Dodgers won the tie-breaking playoff. 1959 also saw a team other than the Yankees win the A.L. pennant, one of only two such years in the 16-year stretch from 1949 through 1964. As
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