Go West, young men
San Francisco’s Ruben Gomez delivers the first pitch on the West Coast
A new era for baseball begins 67 years ago today as the major leagues formally move to the West Coast with the 1958 season opener between the erstwhile New York Giants, now in San Francisco, and the onetime Brooklyn Dodgers, now of Los Angeles.
The Tuesday afternoon game back on this day in 1958 attracts a capacity of 23,448 to San Francisco’s aging Seals Stadium.
The attendance to watch the first regular-season game on the West Coast is nearly triple that of the crowd of 8,585 that turns out in 1957 for the Giants’ final home opener at the 55,000-seat Polo Grounds.
Historians note that Giants starter Ruben Gomez begins the game 67 years ago today at precisely 1:34 p.m. with his first pitch to the Dodgers’ Gino Cimoli as Valmy Thomas does the catching for San Francisco and future Hall of Fame umpire Jocko Conlan works the plate.
Gomez starts the game by striking out Cimoli and – two hours and 29 minutes later – ends the game by striking out Pee Wee Reese to finish off an 8-0 shutout of the Dodgers.
Gomez limits the Dodgers to six singles. He also walks six and strikes out six.
The first of those six singles off Gomez turns out to be the majors’ first regular-season hit on the West Coast as the Dodgers’ Charley Neal leads off the top of the second inning with a single to left.
Jim Davenport, the Giants’ leadoff hitter, accounts for the game’s first run with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the third inning off Dodgers starter Don Drysdale.
An inning later, Drysdale gives up the Giants’ first West Coast homer on a solo drive by Daryl Spencer to left-center.
No fewer than six future Hall of Famers play in the game with the Dodgers starting Reese at shortstop, along with first baseman Gil Hodges, center fielder Duke Snider and Drysdale, while the Giants have Willie Mays in center field and Orlando Cepeda at first base.
While the Giants and Dodgers bring their oft-bitter, decades-long rivalry from the East Coast to the West Coast, neither team is much of a factor in the 1958 pennant race.
The Giants finish at 80-74, good enough for third place but still 12 games behind the National League champion Milwaukee Braves.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers stumble to a seventh-place finish in their first season on the West Coast, finishing at 71-83 and 21 games behind the Braves.
Better days are ahead for the Dodgers, who rebound in 1959 to win the first of seven World Series titles while in Los Angeles after their predecessors in Brooklyn win only one championship in 74 seasons there.
The Giants need to be a tad more patient after playing 73 seasons in New York.
After winning the last of their five World Series titles in 1954, the Giants must wait until 2010 to finally win their first in San Francisco.