1961 Los Angeles Dodgers season

1961 Los Angeles Dodgers
Major League affiliations
	National League (since 1890);
Location
	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (since 1958);
	Los Angeles (since 1958);
Other information
Owner(s)	Walter O'Malley
Manager(s)	Walter Alston
Local television	KTTV (11)
Local radio	KFI; Vin Scully, Jerry Doggett; KWKW; René Cárdenas, Jaime Jarrín, Miguel Alonzo
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The 1961 Los Angeles Dodgers finished in second place in the National League with a record of 89–65, four games behind the Cincinnati Reds. 1961 was the fourth season for the Dodgers in Los Angeles. It was also the Dodgers final season of playing their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, since they moved to their new stadium the following season.

Offseason

November 28, 1960: Ray Semproch was drafted by the Washington Senators from the Dodgers in the 1960 rule 5 draft.^[1]
December 15, 1960: Earl Robinson was purchased from the Dodgers by the Baltimore Orioles.^[2]
December 16, 1960: Danny McDevitt was purchased from the Dodgers by the New York Yankees.^[3]
January 31, 1961: Joe Pignatano was purchased from the Dodgers by the Kansas City Athletics.^[4]
March 30, 1961: Ed Rakow was traded by the Dodgers to the Kansas City Athletics for Howie Reed and cash.^[5]

Regular season

On April 17, 1961, Duke Snider hit his 370th career home run, which at the time moved him into 7th place on the all-time career home runs list.^[6] Later in the same game, Snider suffered a broken elbow, and he was knocked out for the rest of the season when he was hit by a pitch from Bob Gibson of the Cardinals.

Season standings

National League	W	L	GB	Pct.
Cincinnati Reds	93	61	--	.604
Los Angeles Dodgers	89	65	4	.578
San Francisco Giants	85	69	8	.552
Milwaukee Braves	83	71	10	.539
St. Louis Cardinals	80	74	13	.519
Pittsburgh Pirates	75	79	18	.487
Chicago Cubs	64	90	29	.416
Philadelphia Phillies	47	107	46	.305

Opening Day lineup


Opening Day starters
Name	Position
Maury Wills	Shortstop
Willie Davis	Center fielder
Tommy Davis	Third baseman
Duke Snider	Right fielder
Wally Moon	Left fielder
Norm Larker	First baseman
Charlie Neal	Second baseman
Johnny Roseboro	Catcher
Don Drysdale	Starting pitcher

Notable transactions

May 4, 1961: Don Demeter and Charley Smith were traded by the Dodgers to the Philadelphia Phillies for Turk Farrell and Joe Koppe.^[7]
May 26, 1961: Art Fowler was purchased from the Dodgers by the Los Angeles Angels.^[8]
May 30, 1961: Bob Lillis and Carl Warwick were traded by the Dodgers to the St. Louis Cardinals for Daryl Spencer.^[9]

Roster

1961 Los Angeles Dodgers

Roster

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Manager

24 Walter Alston

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
SS	Wills, MauryMaury Wills	148	613	173	.282	1	31
CF	Davis, WillieWillie Davis	128	339	86	.254	12	45

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Snider, DukeDuke Snider	85	233	69	.296	16	56
Hodges, GilGil Hodges	109	215	52	.242	8	31
Sherry, NormNorm Sherry	47	121	31	.256	5	21
Aspromonte, BobBob Aspromonte	47	58	14	.241	0	2
Demeter, DonDon Demeter	15	29	5	.172	1	2

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Drysdale, DonDon Drysdale	40	244	13	10	3.69	182

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Craig, RogerRoger Craig	40	112.2	5	6	6.15	53

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Farrell, TurkTurk Farrell	50	6	6	10	5.06	80

Awards and honors

Gold Glove Award
- Maury Wills
- Johnny Roseboro

All-Stars

1961 Major League Baseball All-Star Game – Game 1
- Maury Wills starter
- Sandy Koufax reserve
- Johnny Roseboro reserve
1961 Major League Baseball All-Star Game – Game 2
- Maury Wills starter
- Don Drysdale reserve
- Sandy Koufax reserve
- Johnny Roseboro reserve
TSN National League All-Star
- Maury Wills

Farm system

Level	Team	League	Manager

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Great Falls, Reno

Notes

References

External links

‹ The template below (Greater Los Angeles Sports in 1961) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus.›

[1] Ray Semproch page at Baseball-Reference

[2] Earl Robinson page at Baseball Reference

[3] Danny McDevitt page at Baseball Reference

[4] Joe Pignatano page at Baseball Reference

[5] Ed Rakow page at Baseball Reference

[6] Duke Snider at The Baseball Page

[7] Charley Smith page at Baseball Reference

[8] Art Fowler page at Baseball-Reference

[9] Bob Lillis page at Baseball Reference

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