Congratulations to Burt "Happy" Hooton, who was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Monday night.  Hooton, who grew up in Texas and went to college at the University of Texas, was acquired by the Dodgers at age 25 via a trade with the Cubs, for pitchers Geoff Zahn and Eddie Solomon.  Hooton was a mainstay in the Dodger rotation for nine seasons, and holds the Dodger franchise record for playoff starts (11) and wins (six).

Hooton finished second to Gaylord Perry in the 1978 National League Cy Young award voting, when he won a career-high 19 games with a 2.71 ERA and 130 ERA+.   He was at his best in the 1981 postseason, going 4-1 in five starts, with an 0.82 ERA, winning elimination games in both the division series and league championship series.  In addition to winning the 1981 NLCS MVP, Hooton also won the clinching Game 6 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.

Hooton's signature pitch was a knuckle curve, a pitch he learned almost by accident.  He told the San Antonio Express-News the origin came from a former Hall of Famer:

Burt Hooton recalls sitting at home one summer afternoon in Corpus Christi in 1964, watching Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese provide the television play-by-play for the major league game of the week.

On the mound for the Chicago White Sox was knuckleball hurler Hoyt Wilhelm, throwing a nasty pitch that floated toward the plate like a drunk butterfly.

Hooton, then 14, was intrigued.

“The wheels started turning in my head,” he said Monday night. “I had Pony League practice that afternoon, and I went out before the coaches did and messed around with the kids that had already shown up.”

But instead of fluttering when he threw it with his knuckles curled atop the baseball, it spun and dropped. Angry, he kept throwing harder and harder. The ball spun harder — and dropped just as hard.

Hooton didn't realize it until later, but he'd discovered a pitch more devilish than anything Wilhelm was lobbing at hitters.

In ten seasons with the Dodgers, Hooton rode his knuckle curve to a 112-84 record, with a 3.14 ERA (113 ERA+) in 322 games, including 265 starts.  He won't warrant a spot in the Walter O'Malley Suite of Vin Scully's Lords of the Ravine, but he was an important part of Los Angeles Dodger history.

and I've got just the man. For a team with a fine stable of solid catchers which includes Roseboro, Haller, Yeager, Fergy, Scoscia, Lo Duca, and Martin one man stands so far above them you could cut him off at the knees and his bloody stumps would still stand tall over them.

This and other great 1995 Dodger cards can be found here.

We have read some great stories about our position players who have had good or even great careers, but not one of them had five years like Mike Piazza.  From the time he showed up until he left he was the best at his position every year. Five years, five Silver Slugger Awards.  The Los Angeles Dodgers have zero HOF position players who did the bulk of their work in the Ravine  without any prospects for the future. The one who fell into their lap by pure luck the Evil Empire decided to trade in the prime of his career.

Growing up a sports fan in Los Angeles we have had a few punches to the stomach that leave you gasping for reason but the toughest punches for me to deal with was Magic Johnson announcing he had aids, and May 14th, 1998 when the Dodgers traded the most valuable player in baseball.  For this life long Dodger fan it was a fatal blow to my fanhood, and turned me into a baseball fan more then a Dodger fan until Fox did the right thing and sold the team.

From the time he first showed up at Dodger Stadium he quickly became my favorite Dodger of all time. No one in my opinion had ever hit the ball as hard, and as consistently in the Ravine as the man no one wanted in the 1988 draft. Being slow, you have to be one hell of a hitter to post a .362 average but he did it with ferocious line drive after line drive. The ball simply jumped off his bat making a sound that hadn't been heard in Dodger Stadium in my life time. This might sound like hyperbole but I 'd been watching Dodger baseball since 1970 and I never heard a ball make the sound it did when this man squared up on it.  He did it all from the offensive side of the game. Batting average, On Base %, Slug%, Home Runs, Runs Batted In, he was always on the leaderboard.

For fun I wanted to know how many catchers had ever hit more then 30 home runs and had a batting average > .340?  Only one.

Okay, how many catchers had ever hit more then 30 home runs and had an OBA > .400? One man holds the top three spots out of six matching seasons in the history of baseball, and you know his name.

How many right hand hitters had hit the ball out of Dodger Stadium until he did it? No one

How many catchers hit more then 24 home runs and had an OBP > .359 their first 10 years as a starter? Only one

How many catchers have hit more then 35 home runs? 18 times this has been done. Only one man has six of those 18 seasons and it ain't Johnny Bench.

How many right handed catchers have had an batting average > .360? Only one

I could go on and on, make no mistake this man was unique in his greatness and unique in his story.

Unquestionably the two best Los Angeles Dodgers are Sandy Koufax and Mike Piazza as they both put together far and away the best five year runs in Los Angeles Dodger history.  The difference between the two is that Piazza from the moment he became the starting catcher was one of the best players in baseball. Home grown Los Angeles Dodger greatness. When you look at his production while he was a Dodger you could make a case he was the most valuable player in baseball during that time given the fact he was a catcher, and other players in the conversation were all 1st/OF. Every year he started for the Dodgers he finished in the top 10 in MVP with two number two's, and we all know who the real MVP was in 1997, and it wasn't Larry Walker.

                                                                                             
Player           OPS+   G From   To   Age  HR RBI  BB IBB   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS    Pos      Tm
Frank Thomas      184 698 1993 1997 25-29 194 599 575  99 .334 .455 .631 1.086    *3D     CHW
Jeff Bagwell      168 690 1993 1997 25-29 154 546 468  79 .313 .423 .579 1.002  *3/D9     HOU
Mike Piazza       164 668 1993 1997 24-28 167 526 268  58 .337 .401 .583  .984  *2/D3     LAD
Edgar Martinez    159 570 1993 1997 30-34 100 388 439  46 .322 .447 .559 1.007  *D/53     SEA
Albert Belle      155 727 1993 1997 26-30 202 620 359  48 .306 .387 .604  .991   *7/D CLE-CHW
Gary Sheffield    152 586 1993 1997 24-28 126 388 416  55 .290 .419 .537  .956 *95/7D TOT-FLA

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/27/2010.

The legend starts with him being drafted in the 62nd round, in the 1988 draft. The 62nd round, wrap your head around the fact that no one in baseball in any way, shape, or form thought this guy had any chance of lasting more then one professional season.  He was drafted strictly as favor to his brother Tommy's Godfather, Tommy Lasorda. If Tommy did nothing more then befriend Vince Piazza, he did enough to hang around and tell stories for as long as wants.

Between the start and the end of his Dodger career he put up comic book numbers.

                                                         
Rk        Player Year Age  PA HR RBI   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS
2    Mike Piazza 1993  24 602 35 112 .318 .370 .561  .932
4    Mike Piazza 1994  25 441 24  92 .319 .370 .541  .910
5    Mike Piazza 1995  26 475 32  93 .346 .400 .606 1.006
7    Mike Piazza 1996  27 631 36 105 .336 .422 .563  .985
9    Mike Piazza 1997  28 633 40 124 .362 .431 .638 1.070
12   Mike Piazza 1998  29 161  9  30 .282 .329 .497  .826

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/6/2010.

• Before Mike Piazza showed up the highest batting average was .346 by Tommy Davis, by the time he left it was .362. As a slow footed catcher he still has three of the top five Los Angeles Dodger batting averages.
  
• Most home runs in a season was 33 by Pedro Guerrero and Steve Garvey.  He broke that record in his ROOKIE season and would break it three times total finally settling on 40 home runs as the top water mark. 
• Highest Slug% was .577 by Pedro Guererro, by the time he left it was .638. That mark (Gary Sheffield would later break it) was not only the highest Dodger slug% it is the highest of any catcher in the history of baseball.
  
• Most home runs in a rookie season was 23 by Frank Howard. Mike hit 35.

Individual moments

• Rookie season last game of the year in 1993 he would single handily knock the Giants out of the pennant race with two home runs and four runs batted in. It was the 3rd time in the month of Sept he would hit two home runs in a game.
  
• August 27th, 1995 he went four for four with two doubles, two home runs, and seven runs batted in. That would cap off a streak in which he had multiple hits in 16 out of 27 games, moving his average from .347 to .369 starting on July 31st. Not easy to do.
• June 29th, 1996 three home runs against the Rockies. He simply owned the Rockies, hitting some of the longest home runs Coors field had ever seen.
  

I'm sure some of you who were lucky enough to see him play have your memories. I have no idea what game I first saw him play but it was early in the spring of his first season. I was somewhere down the right field line when I first heard him hit the ball. It was a sound I would hear over and over again over the next five years and to say the least, the first time I heard the sound, it left an impression.

I won't sugarcoat the fact that Mike was not the greatest defensive catcher. According to Bill James

probably the best hitting catcher ever to play the game

however because of his defensive shortcomings Bill James only ranks him as the fifth best catcher of all time. He didn't have much of an arm but I always thought he had soft hands, and was able to catch some of the best pitchers we had such as Ramon Martinez, Ismael Valdez, Hideo Nomo,  and Pedro Astacio. 

I'll always remember one play he made which I think was against the Mets Phillies in which somehow he ended up covering 3rd base, made a spectacular catch of an errant throw, put down a sweeping tag for the out at 3rd.  Some will say he was not athletic, I say those people never saw him play the game in his prime and only remember him as an old Met after a 1,000 games at catcher. 

Never won a playoff game as a Dodger, succumbing two years in a row in three straight. Tight games in which one key hit might have made the difference. Didn't happen. The only blight I can think of on his Dodger career.

The man he was traded for was every bit the hitter that Mike was. He would end up breaking several of Mikes offensive records. It was eerie how close they were in their Dodger careers. Sheffield would end up with an OPS+ of 160, Mike 159, but Gary only had 2276 plate appearances. Even if I had moved the requirement down to 2500 he still would have fallen short.  That fifth year really makes a difference. The next best hitter was Reggie Smith and while Reggie played six years he only had 2055 plate appearances. Multiple injuries kept down one of the best hitting LA Dodgers until Piazza showed up. To bad because given his defense and offense Reggie Smith might have been the best Los Angeles Dodger to ever play for us.  Pedro Guerrero is probably the best LA Dodger hitter when you figure in the fact he had over 4,000 plate appearances. He did it longer then anyone at a higher level then anyone.

It is impossible to write anything about Al Campanis' career without discussing him unknowingly committing career harakiri on live national television, ironically making controversial and "grotesquely expressed remarks"¹ on race on the ABC news show Nightline for an episode designed around the fortieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking major-league baseball's color line with his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  (A partial transcript can be found in the box at the bottom of this article, after the jump.  A video clip of the first part of the appearance can be found on the ABC news website.)  Al Campanis was seventy years old at the time and a product of his era, having reached adulthood in the mid-1930s.  He once threw down his glove and challenged a player who was harassing his Montreal Royal teammate Jackie Robinson.  Manny Mota called Campanis "the father of Latin baseball."  None of that is an excuse for what he said on live television - things that sounded like tortured Archie Bunker arguments, on television as fiction fifteen years previous - putting a permanent blot that casts a shadow across his accomplishments with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.  It is left to the voters to decide how much weight to give Campanis' egregious Nightline appearance when considering Campanis' candidacy for the Vin Scully Lords of the Ravine.

I cannot write anything here that would briefly and eloquently summarize this issue better than Jon Weisman's essay on this topic, so instead I refer you to item 39 in his book "100 Things Dodger Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die" for his sober reflection.

Al Campanis first joined the Brooklyn Dodger organization as a player, getting a tiny cup of coffee with the big club at the end of the 1943 season.  Once his playing days ended, he worked as a scount and joined the Dodger front office in 1950.  As a scout, Campanis signed Dodger legends Sandy Koufax, Tommy Davis, Willie Davis, and Roberto Clemente (a would-have-been Dodger legend), which already makes him a major influence on the success of the Dodgers in the 1950s and 1960s.  In 1957 Campanis was promoted to be the Director of Scouting, the position he held as the franchise moved to Los Angeles.

Before the institution of the amateur draft in 1965 (when Rick Monday became the first player ever drafted), Campanis' department would be responsible for finding amateur talent and working to sign the players they wanted.  A number of Dodgers that would be important to the winning teams of the 1960s and beyond joined the team via this route while Campanis was in charge of scouting, including Don Sutton (Hall of Fame), Frank Howard (1960 Rookie of the Year), Jim Lefebvre (1965 Rookie of the Year), Wes Parker, Bill Singer and Ron Fairly.

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TBLA Member Gen3Blue makes his case.

    When I took on the case for Junior Gilliam, I knew that it would take more than a statistical case to win him a spot in Vin’s "Lords of the Ravine" but I still thought it could be made. The key is that this is a Dodger team collection and that Junior was the consummate Dodger and team player. I figured I was one of a handful of people around here long in the tooth enough to bring some(though limited) personal experience to a plea for Junior. And when I thought about it, I’ve seen a lot of Dodger teams and players and very few just radiate "Dodger" to me in the way Jim Gilliam does. His 14 year run is a long stretch for a Dodger, especially compared to the duration players stay with a team in recent times. Then Humma raised the bar in general and Phil upped the ante for a second basemen--infielder(Lopes-10 year run!). All I can do is try and do what Jim Gilliam always did---dig in and try and do something good for the team, something that may help us win.  And in his case it very often worked, and as uncomfortable as it can make me, I have to say "clutch" here.

 As a rookie at twenty-four in 1953 Jim’s OPS+ was 105 and if he had followed a normal progression through a peak at about 28 I might have all the stats I needed to make a case on them alone. However I think his game was already quite mature from four to six years in Negro leagues and a few years in the minors at Montreal. Nevertheless, his rookie season was quite amazing and he won Rookie of the Year after an amazing 710 plate appearances, leading the league in triples with 17. Of course he was in the post season--we always were and always lost to the "Yanks". Foreshadowing his strange ability to get things done, he homered twice in the world series, though not known for power. Throughout his career he got on base at a .360 clip. This made him an outstanding lead-off man in the fifties, and absorbs the late years in LA when he batted second behind Maury Wills and always seemed to give himself up to get Wills a base. He was always good at getting a BB and his OBP peaked in 1956 at .399, not too shabby for a guy without much power.( Ask Pierre).

Personally, I was too young  in 1955 (four) to appreciate his play through the middle fifties, but I was in a family setting where it was impossible not to notice that some world changing event happened in that year. And I actually remember from the fifties  remarks from uncles and aunts along the lines of "I wish he hit it to Junior" and even "I wish Junior was up! By the time I actually saw him live against the Mets in the sixties several times he was the role player, batting behind Maury Wills. But I was coming into that time when a boy goes through perhaps his most intense time as a baseball fan. On the ride to and from New York, I would endlessly discuss each player with family members, and at the game appreciate each time Gilliam did something good with an at bat or a fielding chance, which seemed to be most of the time.

 Of course not everything was an intangible. In his long Dodger career Jim Gilliam

•     Won NL Rookie of the Year and Sporting News Rookie of the Year 1953
•     Led the league in triples and scored 125 runs that same year
•     scored over 100 runs in each of his first 4 years
•     batted .300 and made the All-Star team in 1956
•     led the NL in putouts and fielding percentage in 1957
•     led the NL in walks and again was an All-Star in that year
•     And in the post season he really seemed to do even more for the team, for example--
•     in game 3 of the 1955  world series he drew a bases loaded walk In the second, giving the team the lead for good
•     also in ‘55, he drove in the first run of the game 4 victory
•     in game 6 in 1956, he walked with one out in the tenth and scored on a Jackie Robinson single for a series tying 1-0 victory
•     in the 1963 series he scored the lone run of game 3 in the first inning  by walking and moving up on a wild pitch
•     in the next game(4) he got all the way to third on a Joe Pepitone error in the seventh. He then scored on a sac. Fly for a 2-1 victory and  the four game series sweep

I’ll get to a few more of his many World Series moments, but he had some more accomplishments and was part of some interesting team subsets. For instance

•    Gilliam was one of the 1955 "Boys of Summer". This team ended a  terrible era for the Dodgers, similar to one the Red Sox recently ended and one the Cubs still suffer
•    Gilliam and Pee Wee Reese were a formidable double play combo.
•    Junior was part of the first all switch hitting infield in Major League history, with Wills, Wes Parker, and Jim Lefebvre.
•    hit behind Maury Wills when he launched the modern stolen base era with 104 in 1962.( known for helping young players, Gilliam  taught Jim Lefebvre how to bat behind a base stealer, as Lefebvre did       behind Lou Brock in 1974, when he stole118)!
•    played in seven World Series.
•    Is one of two Dodgers with four World Series rings

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Vin Scully's Lords of the Ravine needs to have a representative from all five Los Angeles World Championships, and nobody has more of a claim to the 1988 title than Orel Hershiser.  Kirk Gibson provided us with an MVP season, and the greatest play in Dodger history, but Hershiser was the superhuman force leading that charge.

Hershiser happens to be the author of my favorite game I've ever attended.  My older brother Kelly bought a strip of four tickets for every postseason game in 1988, and I was fortunate enough to go with him to Game 2 of the World Series.  At 12 years old, I wasn't exactly in control of my own destiny, so I don't know if going to Game 1 would have been an option, but that was out of the question anyway due to some unfortunate family timing.  My sister Debbie turned 30 that November, but my other sister Kim wanted to throw her a surprise party*.

*Kim is one year older than Debbie, and just one year earlier she had a surprise party thrown for her.  Only something went awry, and she found out somehow.  The plan was for Kim's husband to drive with her somewhere on a normal errand, and for everyone to arrive at their house while they were gone.  I came with my mom and grandma, only we happened to get there early, before Kim had left.  Someone saw our car in the driveway and quickly came outside to shoo us away, and this is where it gets hilarious.  You see, my 75-year old grandma had just had broken her knee so she was in a cast.  Asking her to move quickly, back to the car, was a tall order, but that didn't stop her from trying.  She hopped back to the car as fast as her one good leg would take her.  I couldn't stop laughing.  However, before you report me for elderly abuse, it should be known that all three of us in the car were in tears from laughing so hard.  What can I say, my family has a sick sense of humor.  Anyway, Kim was determined to make sure Debbie never saw her own surprise party coming.

Part of the surprise for Debbie's party was to hold it two and a half weeks earlier than her actual birthday.  Well, that happened to fall on Saturday, October 15, which was also the date of the opening game of the World Series.  Kelly, being the good brother he is, decided not to use his four tickets for Game 1, instead spending the time with family.  That meant we all got to celebrate Kirk Gibson's home run from an apartment in Tustin instead of the loge level at Dodger Stadium.  That's okay though, because we had a date with destiny Sunday night for Game 2.  After all, Superman was pitching.

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For those who just tuned in, this is what the Vin Scully Lords of the Ravine is all about.

Just want to thank everyone who has volunteered to write so far. I had high hopes for this project but the brilliant pieces by our guest writers are inspiring as they approach this from many different angles.

So Far

bhsportsguy started us off with the case for the Penguin and followed that up with best hitter of the 1980's, Pedro Guerrero

bhsportsguy and Phil took on the curly haired big eared shutout artist Don Sutton

prosellis  dipped into the bullpen ranks for Ron Perranoski

Eric Enders threw his sombrero into the ring for Fernando

Bob Hendley gave us the dope on Gomer (Claude Osteen)

Humma Kavula went into the wayback machine to litigate the case for Maury Wills

Mammoth Dodger bled some blue while writing about Tommy Lasorda

Phil sped things along with Davey Lopes

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Still to Come

Shawn Green – MWhite

Junior Gilliam – Gen3Blue

Mondesi – deliasman

Walter Alston - Bob Timmermann

Orel Hershiser - Eric Stephen

Mike Scioscia – S Jay Bruin

Mike Piazza - Phil

Al Campanis - David Young

Sandy Koufax - djwbaseball

Don Drysdale - prosellis 

Steve Garvey - StolenMonkey86

If you see your name here and you cannot write up your subject by Feb 1st, please let me know so we can find another sponsor.

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Still looking for sponsors:

The all time win share and hits leader Willie Davis is feeling no love

Also just a reminder, if you want to be part of the vote for the O'Malley Suite, email me and put Lords of the Ravine in the subject matter.

Is Davey Lopes worthy to sit in the Walter O'Malley Suite and become a 1st ballot member of the Vin Scully Lords of the Ravine?

I did not appreciate Davey Lopes enough when he was our 2nd baseman. This is my attempt to right that wrong.

I've disliked Davey Lopes since 1973 for for two reasons.

The first was because he had the audacity to win the 2nd base job in 1973 over Lee Lacy.  Lee Lacy had captured my 14 year old fancy when he made his MLB debut in 1972 on June 30th.  Back then they only televised Sunday away games so it was not until his 9th game that I got to see him in action. He had three hits against HOF Tom Seaver,  and from that point on he would become one of my favorite Dodgers.  Lacy would start at 2nd the rest of the season until a 27 year old journeyman 2nd baseman showed up on Sept 22nd and proceeded to start the rest of the season.

As the Dodgers went into spring training I think everyone at the time felt that Lee Lacy would be the Dodger 2nd baseman for the next decade. He had jumped from AA to the major leagues and looked like the man for the job. Sure Davey Lopes was in camp and it was a competition but the man hadn't even made his major league debut until he was 27. What could he possibly offer the team over the line drives of Lee Lacy?

Turns out he could offer plenty. Davey Lopes ticked off this writer by winning that job and then keeping that job from 1973 - 1981. What is remarkable about Lopes is just like Maury Wills he didn't get started until most elite players have already been around for four - five years.  He was converted from the outfield to 2nd base,  and after laboring in AAA for three years  became an integral piece to the most famous infield in LA Dodger history (make that baseball history). 

The 2nd was because I admired Jim Bouton the famed writer of Ball Four. In 1978 Bouton decided to attempt a comeback simply because he still loved the game and wanted to pitch. In the first game back the Braves were playing the Dodgers and Lopes hit a home run against him, and then proceeded to hold his arm over his head as he circled the bases in contempt of Bouton. I don't know what to say but I hated him for that showboating.

Drafted in the 2nd round of the famous 1968 draft with the 26th pick he was already 23 years old when he played his first professional game. Davey Lopes was not a friendly player. He did not cater to fans like Steve Garvey, and he didn't catch the fans imagination like the Penguin. He may have been a part of the most famous infield since Tinkers to Evers to Chance trio but he always seemed to be the after thought.  No false hustle from Davey Lopes, he rarely if ever dived for a ground ball, explaining that if he had to dive the runner was going to be safe so what was the point.  Fans didn't quite agree and watching 2nd baseman sprawl and throw out runners made me wonder about his logic. As I said, I didn't like Lopes.  

One can dislike a player and still appreciate him, and Davey Lopes did so much for the Dodgers during his era you had to appreciate him. His greatest skill was the stolen base and not because he accumulated stolen bases but because he did it with deadly efficiency.  In his career he stole 555 bases and was only caught 114 times. While with the Dodgers he stole 418 bases and was only caught 83 times ( 83% success rate).  To put that into perspective Maury Wills was caught 170 times while stealing 590 bases. Willie Davis was caught 116 times while only stealing 335 bases.  In 1975 Lopes stole 38 straight bases which at the time was the modern day record. Davey Lopes was the greatest base stealer in Los Angeles Dodger history, not Maury Wills.

Below is the table of the greatest stolen base artists since 1958. Only 15 have had a success rate of over 80% when having stolen 300 or more bases. Davey Lopes is an elite class of thief.

The thing about the chart below. Eric Davis and Barry Larkin played on the same team and they both were the most complete player you could ask for. Speed, power, patience, defensive skill at a skilled position. Eric Davis had injuries which sapped his career but even more then Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin is a HOF player.

Now you don't get to be in the Lords of the Ravine simply by being the best in one category. Davey Lopes did not just steal bases, he did many things well.

•  Hit 99 home runs to lead all Los Angeles Dodger 2nd baseman. Jeff Kent is 2nd with 75.
•  Scored 759 runs to lead all Los Angeles Dodger 2nd baseman by over 200
  
•  Walked 603 times to lead all Los Angeles Dodger 2nd baseman by over 300 walks
•  Four time All-Star
•  Hit 28 home runs in 1979 which by the way was more then Joe Morgan ever hit. From 1958 - 1981 his 28 home runs the 3rd most ever hit. Since then the league has been swallowed up by big 2nd baseman but at the time, 28 home runs by a 2nd baseman was big news.
  
• Was a solid lead off hitter. Had a great walk rate but his OB suffered due to his very average average. An OB of .349 during his Dodger career and .352 as a lead off hitter. 
•  Was the star of the 1978 postseason and did everything he could do to bring the Dodgers a World Series. In the NLCS he had an OPS of 1.278 with 16 total bases in 18 plate appearances. In the World Series he was even better when he slugged three home runs and drove in 7 runs. The single best offensive World Series performance by a Los Angeles Dodger. Charlie Neal in 1959, Ron Fairly in 1965, and Ron Cey with Pedro in 81 all great offensive World Series and all in a winning cause but none of them ever hit 3 home runs and drove in 7 rbi's. If the Dodgers had won the 78 Series would Davey Lopes have a different legacy?
• On August 20, 1974, Lopes hit three home runs, a double, and a single for 15 total bases. That was the LA Dodger record until Shawn Green hit four home runs over 25 years later.
  
• The baseball page ranks Davey Lopes as the 24 best 2nd baseman in baseball history. Interesting info, Garvey, Lopes, and Cey played together from 1974 - 1981 and according the www.baseballpage all three of them were the 23-24th best at their position in the history of baseball. Now that is an infield.
• The great moustache as chronicled by Josh Wilker
• For most of his career he was overshadowed by a peer who many consider the best 2nd baseman to ever play the game. Everything Davey Lopes could do well, Joe Morgan could do better, sometimes much better. Except stolen bases, Davey Lopes might win the argument as the best base stealer between the two of them.

Davey Lopes would finish his Dodger career in fine style with the elusive World Championship in 1981. He would be the first of the famed infield to be replaced as the young fresh Steve Sax was ready for his time to shine. I'm not sure but I think Lopes caught the last out of the 81 series. It was fitting. 

My own recollection is that Lopes was oft injured in 81 and many  felt Sax should already be starting. Lopes was now 36 years and it didn't seem he had much left in the tank. But he surprised everyone by switching to the outfield and playing until he was 42 years old.

This has nothing to do with his Dodger legacy but the greatest skill Davey Lopes had as a ballplayer has shown up time and time again wherever he coaches. Whoever he's coaching gets the benefit of his basestealing skills as his teams have one of the highest stolen base rates year in and year out.