Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers are a Major League Baseball team based in Los Angeles, California, USA. The team is in the Western Division of the National League. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known as the Brooklyn Dodgers, before moving to Los Angeles before the 1958 season. Buy your Los Angeles Dodgers Tickets now at ShortPorch.com.

Dodger Stadium

Construction on Dodger Stadium was completed in time for Opening Day 1962. With its clean, simple lines and its picturesque setting amid hills and palm trees, the ballpark quickly became an icon of the Dodgers and their new California lifestyle, and it remains one of the most highly-regarded stadiums in baseball even today. Despite the fact that the Dodgers have played in Dodger Stadium longer than they had played in Ebbett's Field, the stadium remains surprisingly fresh. Team Owner O'Malley was determined that there would not be a bad seat in the house, achieving this by cantilevered grandstands that have since been widely imitated. More importantly for the team, the stadium's spacious dimensions, along with other factors, gave defense an advantage over offense, and the Dodgers moved to take advantage of this by assembling a team that would excel with its pitching.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were the first Major League Baseball team to attract more than 3 million fans in a season (in 1978), and accomplished that feat 6 more times before any other franchise did it once. On 3 July 2007, Dodgers management announced that total franchise attendance, dating back to 1901, had reached 175 million, a record for all professional sports. Given the team's proximity to Hollywood, the large Dodgers fanbase includes many celebrities, most of whom can regularly be seen at Dodger Stadium during home games.

The Dodgers also recently set the world record for the greatest attendance for a single baseball game during an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in honor of the Dodger's 50th anniversary in Los Angeles with over 115,000 fans in attendance. All proceeds from the game benefitted the official charity of the Dodgers, ThinkCure! which supports cancer research at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and City of Hope.

Rivalry with the Giants

The historic and heated rivalry between the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants is more than a century old, and is the longest rivalry in baseball history, having begun when both clubs played in New York City (the Dodgers in Brooklyn and the Giants in Manhattan). When both franchises moved to California in 1958, the rivalry was easily transplanted with them, as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have long been rivals in economic, cultural, and political arenas throughout the history of the State of California.

Freeway Series

The term Freeway Series refers to a series of baseball games played between Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of the American League and the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League. The series takes its name from the massive freeway system in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, the home of both teams; one could travel from one team's stadium to the other simply by traveling along Interstate 5. The term is akin to Subway Series which refers to meetings between New York City baseball teams.

The first exhibition game between the two clubs (won by the Angels) was played in 1962 in Palm Springs, at the time the spring training home of the Angels. The first regular-season series was played at Dodger Stadium April 6-7, 1963. The Angels won both of the two games played. After the Angels added Los Angeles to their official name in 2005, the rivalry took on renewed interest, as the series took on a more inter-city atmosphere in Los Angeles.

Regular- and post-season games between the two teams take place at either Angel Stadium or Dodger Stadium. Under current rules, the designated hitter rule is in effect when the Angels are the home team. The two stadiums are located approximately 30 miles apart.