It was 1958. The Dodgers had left Brooklyn and lots of angry east coast Dodger fans behind, and they were opening a new era in baseball at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a very strangely configured ballpark with a short porch in left field. The trauma of the move west took its toll as the Dodgers were awful that first year in LA, finishing seventh in an eight-team league.

For my commemoration of their first 50 years in LA, I created this gallery of Dodger yearbooks from 1958, 1968, 1978, 1988 (the last Dodger team to win the World Series), and 1998 (only a partial image). And I had to include this image of Kirk Gibson (above) from the 1988 yearbook, one Dodger free agent who was worth every penny.

Click on any thumbnail to see a larger image