They started out modestly enough, playing as the Brooks, the Atlantics and the Bridegrooms in minor league competition before graduating to the National League in 1890. A century later, the Dodgers had become one of baseball's best managed and most successful franchises with a model ballpark, fanatic fans and a history of innovation second to none in the game.
Entering the 20th Century, Brooklyn's team was dubbed the Superbas after a traveling acrobatic troupe popular at the time. They would also be known as the Robins before settling officially on the Dodgers in 1933.
When the National League's Baltimore franchise folded at the turn of the 20th Century, a number of Orioles' stars came to Brooklyn, including manager Ned Hanlon, and won back-to-back pennants in 1899-1900.
Hanlon wanted to buy the team and return it to Baltimore, but a front office employee named Charles Ebbets, went into monumental debt to buy the team and keep it in Brooklyn. He built a new ballpark — Ebbets Field — which opened in 1913. For the next forty-six years, the intimate and unique contours of this ballpark would help to define the franchise and the team's intimate relationship with an equally unique group of fans.
Brooklyn knew mostly lean years until one of Hanlon's old Baltimore teammates, Wilbert Robinson, became the manager in 1914. Robinson forged Brooklyn into a contender and won pennants in 1916 and 1920, mostly with veteran pitching staffs and Hall of Fame outfielder Zack Wheat (.312 and .328 those two years). The Dodgers slipped from contention shortly thereafter, but colorful characters like Babe Herman earned the team the nickname the "Daffiness Boys" and kept them beloved in Brooklyn.
While things on the field were a bit silly, the front office was growing and cultivating a crop of serious young players. Soon Ebbets Field would be home to a litany of legends, none more so than Jackie Robinson.
Los Angeles Dodgers History
