LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted today to send a letter and commendation to the Los Angeles Dodgers congratulating them on winning the 2020 World Series.
In earlier times, such a momentous victory would have been celebrated at the county's Hall of Administration, likely with many of the players in attendance, plenty of speeches and lots of Dodger Blue on show.
Now, with the board meeting via teleconference, Supervisors Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger settled for recalling some Dodger history in the motion they co-authored.
They began by noting that the team broke Major League Baseball's 63-year-old color line in 1947 when Jackie Robinson joined the then-Brooklyn-based team.
Hahn said her father, longtime Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rosalind Wyman met with Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley in 1956 to discuss potentially moving the team to Los Angeles.
The team moved west following the 1957 season and played four seasons at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before moving to Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, a site O'Malley had scouted in a sheriff's department helicopter, according to the motion.
They won their first World Series in Los Angeles in 1959, beating the Chicago White Sox four games to two, the first World Series games played on the West Coast.
In honor of their seventh World Series win, the original motion called for declaring Wednesday Dodger Blue Day and urging residents to show their Dodger pride.
That plan was scrapped out of concern the proclamation would encourage gatherings at a time when the county is dealing with a surge in coronavirus cases, Hahn spokeswoman Liz Odendahl said.
Yet the board's pride in their hometown team was still evident.
“They are one of the most successful and storied franchises in Major League Baseball history,'' Hahn and Barger said in their motion.
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