On This Date in Sports April 15, 1958
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
The 1958 baseball season begins with a sense of melancholy in New York as the Giants and Dodgers begin their first season in California. The New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Playing in Seals Stadium, the Giants beat the Dodgers 8-0 as Ruben Gomez went the distance for the win, with Don Drysdale getting the loss for the visiting Dodgers.
The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had one of the hottest rivalries in baseball as they were locked in a battle for the pennant through most of the 1950’s. None more memorable than in 1951 when the Giants won a tiebreaker series on Bobby Thompson’s home run off Ralph Branca. Despite a World Championship in 1954 the Giants looked to leave New York with a dwindling fan base at the crumbling Polo Grounds. The Dodgers also sought a new home as Walter O’Malley sought to build a new stadium in Brooklyn. However, Robert Moses did not allow O’Malley to get the land to build his ballpark offering instead a stadium in Queens near the World’s Fairgrounds. Getting no satisfaction, O’Malley took up an offer to move to Los Angeles and convinced Giants owner Horace Stoneham to move to San Francisco to continue their teams’ rivalry and to create a new market for baseball in California.
The Dodgers would get a new stadium in Chavez Ravine, playing in the Memorial Coliseum which was retrofitted for baseball until Dodger Stadium was complete in 1962, while the Giants played in Seals Stadium until Candlestick Park was completed in 1960. Seals Stadium had been home to San Francisco’s team in the Pacific Coast League, where several future Hall of Famers including Joe DiMaggio began their careers.
With the start of California Baseball, the Major Leagues now stretched coast to coast, opening the door to the expansion age. Playing at Seals Stadium, the Giants managed by Bill Rigney had Ruben Gomez on the mound, while Don Drysdale made the start of Walter Alston’s Dodgers. Neither team scored in the first two innings, but the Giants got a rally going in the third inning as they loaded the bases, with Jim Davenport and Jim King each getting RBI singles to make it 2-0. The Giants broke the game open in the fourth inning scoring four runs, with Daryl Spencer hitting the first West Coast home run in MLB history. The Giants later added RBIs from Gomez and Willie Mays to make it 6-0. Orlando Cepeda added to San Francisco’s lead with a home run in fifth, while Willie Kirkland capped the scoring with an RBI in the eighth inning, as Ruben Gomez got the win, allowing six hits while striking out six Dodgers in a complete game 8-0 shutout.
The Giants would finish third in the National League with a record of 80-74 in their first year in San Francisco, while the Dodgers finished with a disappointing record of 71-83 finishing in seventh place just two games out of last place. The Dodgers would rebound with a big year in 1959, winning the World Series in their second year in Los Angeles. The Giants meanwhile would need 52 years to bring a World Series Championship to the Bay, as they did not win the World Series until 2010.