Dodgers returning to LA Coliseum for 1 game in 2008?

Hard to believe its been 50 years since the Dodgers move out to Los Angeles . . . They spent 4 years at the LA Coliseum before they moved to Chavel Rivine in 1962. The team is looking at playing an exhibition game there in 2008, if they can get the necessary approval for playing a game there. Man, that 3rd base foul territory you could park a few buses & trucks over there!!!!!!


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Dodgers at the Coliseum? For a day, maybe


The team is exploring the possibility of playing a game next season in the stadium it called home from 1958 to 1961.


By Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

BOSTON -- The Dodgers could hit Moon Shots for a day next spring.

As they celebrate their 50th season in Los Angeles, the Dodgers are exploring the possibility of staging one game at the Coliseum next year. The Dodgers shared the stadium with USC, UCLA and the Rams for four years, after they moved from Brooklyn in 1958 and before Dodger Stadium opened in 1962.


Old-time baseball
click to enlarge"We're in the process of seeing if we can pull this off," Dodgers spokeswoman Camille Johnston said Thursday.

Coliseum General Manager Pat Lynch said the Dodgers inquired about the availability of various dates during the regular season as well as spring training.

"They can do whatever they want, as long as we're able to play football in the fall," Lynch said.

The quirky field dimensions that result from squeezing a baseball field onto a football field make it more likely that major league officials would instead sanction an exhibition game there. The Dodgers and Angels cut the annual Freeway Series exhibition slate from three games to one next spring, leaving the Dodgers with open dates March 28-30. The Boston Red Sox could be available then, stopping in Los Angeles on their way back from their scheduled March 22-23 series in Japan.

The Coliseum field is 304 feet in width, according to the stadium website. When the Dodgers played there, the left-field foul pole stood 250 feet from home plate, and to compensate the Dodgers erected a 42-foot screen in left field. Dodgers outfielder Wally Moon developed a proficiency for hitting home runs over the screen, dubbed "Moon Shots."

In Boston's Fenway Park, the left-field foul pole stands 310 feet from home plate, with the "Green Monster" wall rising 37 feet above left field.

The Dodgers set attendance records at the Coliseum that stand to this day. On May 7, 1959, an exhibition between the Dodgers and New York Yankees to honor injured catcher Roy Campanella drew 93,103, the record for any major league game.

In 1959, the Dodgers and Chicago White Sox attracted 92,706 for Game 5 of the World Series, a postseason record. Sandy Koufax started that day -- and lost, 1-0.