Greatest moments in Dodger history, No. 15: Winning the 1981 World Series
Readers of our Dodgers Dugout newsletter were asked a couple of months ago to vote for the 10 greatest moments in Dodger history.
We received 7,237 ballots. The way it works: You listed your moments in order, and I assigned points, with first place getting 12 points, second place nine, third place eight, all the way down to one point for 10th. Add up the points and we get a top 25. In addition to it already running in the newsletter, we will repeat the countdown over the next few days here on the live blog.
No. 15: Dodgers win the 1981 World Series (5,922 points)
The Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey infield was on its last legs. If they were going into the history books as champions, it had to be now.
The Dodgers fell into a 2-0 hole in the Series, losing Game 1, 5-3, and Game 2, 3-0. Both games were at Yankee Stadium.
Games 3, 4 and 5 were at Dodger Stadium, and that’s when the Dodgers turned things around.
Fernando Valenzuela’s performance in Game 3 can best be described with one word: Tenacious. He seemed to be in trouble every inning, but somehow managed to pitch a complete game, giving up nine hits and walking seven in a 5-4 victory. The Yankees seemed to threaten to blow the game open every inning, and Valenzuela escaped every…