Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — With their 3-0 shutout win in Arizona on September 26, the Dodgers passed the 100-win threshold. That magic triple-digit number is the separator in a lot of fans’ heads between a good team and a great one. But believe it or not, there haven’t been that many Dodgers teams that have made it to those lofty heights. Other than the 2021 squad, only eight Dodger teams have gone over the 100-win mark. Let’s look at each of them, starting with the heartbreaking team on the top of the leaderboard.
#1. (106-56) The 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers
This is the one that hurts the most for me. After a magical summer (remember the three straight walk-offs?), this Dodger team managed to set the record for most wins by any team in franchise history. They cruised through the regular season and won the NL West by an unheard-of 21 games. And then, in the NLDS, disaster! The questionable move of bringing in Clayton Kershaw in relief in Game 5 will haunt this team forever. You know the rest. The two straight solo shots in the eighth. And then, Howie freakin’ Kendrick in the tenth. Ugh.
#2. (105-49-1) 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers
This team holds the distinction of having the best winning percentage of any Dodger team (they still played 154 in the 1950s). Though they would end up losing in the series to the hated Yankees, it was a definite sign that “dem Bums” was a moniker that was dead and buried. Duke Snider had a monster season, posting a 9.1 WAR, and Carl Erskine won 20 games to lead a solid pitching staff.
#3 (104-50-1) 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers
The 1942 team, led by shortstop PeeWee Reese, outfielder Pete Reiser, and slugging first baseman Dolph Camilli, has probably the biggest beef of all the 100-game winners on the list. They didn’t even make the postseason, ending the year two games behind the pennant-winning Cardinals. And you think the prospects of having to play a Wild Card game are bad! Imagine how these guys felt going home on the last day of the year with a big fat nothing to show for their efforts.
#4 (104-58) 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers
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The doomed 2017 Dodgers will always have a place in my heart, if only for the cruel way that they were denied their place in history by the cheatin’ Astros*. But it was a great summer to be a Dodger fan, and if not for an August swoon after everything had been all sewn up, this ballclub had a legit shot at getting more wins than the 116 of the 2001 Mariners. Such a miscarriage of justice on this one!
#5 (102-60) 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers
The last great team of the Alston Era, the 1974 Dodgers were at the dawn of the Garvey/Lopes/Russell/Cey teams that were so formidable in the 1970s. This was the team that featured Mike Marshall and his ridiculous 106 relief appearances. Insane by today’s standards. This team, like its doomed 1953 predecessor, ended up losing the World Series that year, this time to Reggie Jackson and the juggernaut Oakland A’s team.
#6 (102-63) 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodger Stadium’s first year hosted a whale of a ballclub. Sandy Koufax hadn’t quite become legendary yet, but he was on his way. And the staff had Don Drysdale and Johnny Podres as well. Led by Maury Wills, Willie Davis, and Tommy Davis this was just the start of LA’s powerhouse teams of the 1960s. But this team, too, suffered heartbreak. They ended up tied with San Francisco for the NL pennant on the last day of the season and played a three-game play-off to determine the NL crown (so technically their regular season record over 162 was 101-61). Koufax got shelled in the first game at Candlestick, but the Dodgers came back to win a slugfest in the first game at Chavez Ravine. Then, The Dodgers took a 3-2 lead into the ninth inning of the rubber game. It was utter collapse after that, with the Dodgers giving up four runs in the top of the ninth and losing the game (and the pennant) in one fell swoop.
#7 (101-47-2) 1899 Brooklyn Superbas
Ahh, the Superbas! Oh, how we miss thee! The Superbas (who used to be the Brooklyn Bridegrooms) were so-called from 1899-1910, when they were rebranded as the Dodgers for the 1911 and 1912 season. (They were the Robins for a while after that, but finally settled on Dodgers as the team name in 1932) In 1899, the first World Series was still four years off, so the Superbas had to content themselves with being National League Champs. That year, Willie Keeler was hitting the ball all over the yard, hitting an amazing .379 that year. The pitching staff had three 20-game winners: Jack Dunn, Jay Hughes, and Brickyard Kennedy. And any team that has a guy named Brickyard Kennedy is A-OK in my book.
#8. (100-54-3) 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers
The final 100-win Dodger team was in 1941, making the ’41-’42 Dodgers the only back-to-back 100-game winners on this list. But at least in 1941, da Bums made it all the way to the World Series. This was like a revelation for the denizens of Ebbets Field, as they had suffered through a particularly brutal decade in the 1930s, when the Dodgers had six losing seasons and finished no higher than third. So, it was a victory of sorts just to win the pennant. However, in 1941 Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees made short work of the Dodgers, winning 4-1, and the long suffering Brooklyn fans would have to wait another 14 years before they could boast of the franchise’s one and only World Series win in Brooklyn.
One Common Thread
So there you have it. But as you were reading, you probably noticed something. Eight 100-game winning teams. ZERO World Series Champs. Ugh. Like Bart Giamatti used to say, “Baseball was designed to break your heart.” Hopefully, the latest Dodger team to reach 100 wins can buck that trend and send us home happy this year. Go Dodgers!
