THE HOLY TRINITY BROOKLYN'S THREE PRECIOUS GIFTS TO L.A. REMAIN IN FANS HEARTS A HALF CENTURY LATER.

Byline: STORY BY BOB KEISSER

It isn't a reach for Dodgers fans to think in religious terms when assessing the value of the three precious gifts Brooklyn gave Los Angeles when the Dodgers moved here in 1958.

Vin Scully, Sandy Koufax and Tommy Lasorda turned out to be as valuable here as gold, frankincense and myrrh - consider them the Three Wise Men of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball.

On Sunday, when the Dodgers celebrate the 50th anniversary of the only World Series won in Brooklyn, Scully, Koufax and Lasorda will be party to the party, but their careers a half-century ago on the other side of the country were a lot less formed than they would become in L.A.

Scully was the lead broadcaster but just a few years removed from being Red Barber's protege.

Koufax was the first baseball bonus baby, a 19-year-old who was on the roster only because rules mandated it. And Lasorda was the odd man out in Brooklyn because of Koufax.

So when the team arrived here in 1958, all three were just names in a media guide. Fifty years later, you can't think of the Dodgers without visualizing the three Hall of Famers - the sportscaster, left-hander and manager - front and center.

MORE THAN A VOICE

It's virtually impossible to think of another personality who has had a bigger impact on the cultural consciousness of Southern California than Vin Scully.

Scully was the conduit for a city that was even more sprawling in 1958 than it is today. If you were a Dodgers fan in the `60s and `70s, Scully was a bigger link than the 5 Freeway.

The Hall of Fame sportscaster had no reason to think this would be the case. In 1958, he was neither sure he wanted to come to Los Angeles with the Dodgers nor that he would be invited.

The New York-born Scully was a son of Fordham who grew up in the era of media giants in the only city that mattered. When you grow up listening to Barber and Mel Allen, then reach the same stature, a move 3,000 miles away didn't seem like a good career advice.

``Everything was in place in New York,'' Scully said before a recent home game. ``I was a New York kid who played stickball, and I think that helped me. They (the Brooklyn fans) gave me and my mistakes the benefit of the doubt, and it helped my career a great deal.

``Now we're coming out here, and I was a bit leery. I was just starting to feel solid, and I knew, because I had been told, that there was a lot of pressure on Walter (O'Malley), the Dodgers owner, to use a local announcer.''

Bob Kelley and Tom Harmon were the alpha males of local sportscasting in 1958, and Scully certainly knew anyone could be replaced. He succeeded Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell in the Dodgers' booth in 1950, when Harwell jumped to the N.Y. Giants, and moved to the big chair when another HOFer, Barber, left the club in a snit with management.

The Dodgers signed a rights deal with KFI and were negotiating a multiyear deal with Union Oil, the local oil company, for a long-term, up-front ad-rights deal that O'Malley would use to fund the construction of Dodger Stadium.

Union Oil officials preferred a local announcer, but O'Malley insisted Scully remain the Dodgers' voice. The owner was prescient on a lot of baseball business matters, and he knew radio would be vitally important to the team's success.

The Dodgers televised all their home games their last year in Brooklyn, but O'Malley decided there would be no home telecasts in Los Angeles. Scully was thrust immediately to the front of the team's image here, because radio would be the only conduit unless you bought a ticket.

Even O'Malley had to be surprised at how quickly Scully became transcendent. One great announcer, a large disparate city, a new baseball team and the advent of the transistor radio - it was the formula for a phenomenon.

Fans didn't just tune in their transistors at home; they bought them to the park. Playing in the Coliseum, a fan needed the assist. Center field was 425 feet from home plate. The area between home and the backstop was big enough to land a helicopter, and there was enough room between the third base line and the seats for USC to hold a scrimmage.

When fans were asked in 1976 to name their all-time favorite Dodger, Scully won. He'd win again if the team conducted a new poll.

MATURING INTO A LEGEND

In the Dodgers' third year in L.A., Koufax was a talented but wild thrower who almost was traded. In 1960, then-Dodgers GM Buzzie Bavasi floated a trade with the Yankees, of all people, that would have sent Duke Snider and Koufax back to New York for catcher Elston Howard.

That's hard to imagine for anyone who was around during Koufax's career in Los Angeles, because even in his first few years here, before he matured into a pitcher, he was the most galvanizing player on the team.

The stars from Brooklyn mostly were in decline, Wills hadn't yet become the star thief, and Tommy Davis and Frank Howard still were young. Koufax, meanwhile, was setting the first records set by a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He was 7-3 in 1958 and had a 15-strikeout two-hitter against Milwaukee before a sprained ankle halted his momentum. In June 1959, he set the major-league record for strikeouts in a night game, with 16 against the Phils. Two months later, before the largest crowd of the Dodgers' brief L.A. career, 82,794, he struck out 18 Giants to tie Bob Feller's major-league record.

Fifteen of the last 17 outs Koufax recorded were strikeouts. In the '59 World Series, he started Game 5 before 92,706, the largest crowd to see a World Series game, and lost (1-0) only because his teammates didn't score.

Koufax's career arc might have been the most extreme of any player's in baseball history.

He was signed as a bonus baby in 1955, and the Dodgers had to keep him on the major-league roster for two years. During 1955 pennant race, he wasn't used often. He made just 12 appearances, but previewed what was to come when he threw a two-hit shutout, with 14 strikeouts, in an August start against Cincinnati. He threw a shutout in his other start, too.

He was used sparingly again in 1956. In 1957, when he should have been inserted into the rotation on a team in transition and far back in the pennant race, he more or less was forgotten. He had a complete-game win over the Cubs, with 13 strikeouts, in a May start, then took a no-hitter into the sixth against the Cubs on June 4. He finished the day with the NL lead in strikeouts.

He didn't start again for 45 days and made just two appearances in that stretch. Manager Walt Alston had no patience for Koufax's wildness and habitual slow starts.

Even when he was having transcendent moments in his first three years in L.A., his place never was cemented in the rotation. The truth is that his ``breakthrough'' in 1961 that has become part of his legacy - a spring-training start in which Koufax finally eased off his fastball - might have come earlier had Alston or Bavasi tended to his career in 1957 rather than tried to endure it.

When he finally pulled it together, he put together six of the greatest seasons in history. From 1961 to 1966, he went 129-47 with league-leading ERAs the last five seasons of 2.54, 1.88, 1.74, 2.04 and 1.73. He struck out 1,713 in 1,632 2/3 innings, completed 115 of his 211 starts, and 31 of his 97 wins from 1963 to 1966 were shutouts.

RISE OF A DODGERS ICON

Bavasi perfectly summarized the difference between Koufax and Lasorda, beyond the obvious, that Koufax had a Hall of Fame pitching career and Lasorda was 0-4 in 26 major-league appearances.

Bavasi said that Koufax was so quiet that ``no one knew he was there, (and) Lasorda made sure everyone knew he was there.''

Lasorda earned his Hall of Fame career on merit, with two World Series wins in four appearances, eight NL West titles and 1,599 wins. Before becoming a sensation in the `70s - first as a minor-league manager, then Dodgers coach, and finally at the helm of the team, after replacing Alston as manager in 1977 - he was a footnote to Koufax's Dodgers career.

Lasorda spent 11 years in the organization as a player, winning 66 games in five seasons (1950-54) with the top farm team in Montreal before a 1954 call-up. He was competing for a spot on the 1955 roster after Koufax had been signed and was guaranteed a roster spot.

Koufax sprained an ankle late in spring training in 1955 and went on the disabled list. To make room for Koufax when he came off June 9, Lasorda, who had pitched four innings in four games while allowing six runs, was sent back to Montreal.

``I was in awe of playing on that (1955) team,'' Lasorda said. ``That was one of the greatest teams ever assembled, so good that no one could break into the lineup.

``That was back when we had 26 farm teams and 780 players in the organization. We'd have a catcher in Montreal who hit 40 home runs, and he would go back to Montreal the next year because the guy in Brooklyn (Roy Campanella) also hit 40 home runs. Same thing in center field. We'd have a guy hit .390 at Hollywood, and he'd go back to Hollywood because Duke Snider was in center field.''

Just making that team, for however long, was an accomplishment for Lasorda - likewise, there's a certain achievement knowing Koufax took his spot on the roster.

``Those days you could start the season with 28 players on the roster, then trim to 25 in 30 days,'' he said, ``So we all used to work our (butt) off to be one of those three guys.''

Lasorda played in Los Angeles in 1957, the last season of the PCL Angels, then went back to Montreal for three seasons before retiring to become a Dodgers scout. He already was grooming himself for bigger things.

Lasorda's rise to a Dodgers icon is testimonial to his own dedication.

Not every player who spends 11 years in the minors finds the resolve to keep working when his career stalls short of major-league success.

He spent several offseasons managing in winter leagues while working as a Dodgers scout. When he began his minor-league managing career, it was at low-level Ogden (Utah) - and he won three consecutive league titles.

He was promoted to top-level Spokane (Wash.) and had success all three seasons there, too. He was the minor-league Manager of the Year in 1970.

From the moment he was made a coach on the Dodgers in 1973, it was conceded he would succeed Alston, and despite the clumsy transition, Lasorda won over the city and team with the suddenness of an earthquake.

His first two teams won 193 games and NL pennants, and his Dodger Blue heaven-on-earth mantra took the organization to a higher level.

As successful as the Koufax-era Dodgers might have been, and as important as Scully has been as a connection, Lasorda's first team drew a franchise-record 2,955,087, and his second was the first to draw three million.

The Dodgers eclipsed three million 11 times with Lasorda as manager, and no one has come along since to explain why the Dodgers continue to draw three million, although Lasorda's last year as manager was 1996. That's been one lasting hangover from the last era fans could feel really good about their team.

TIES THAT BIND

Bill Veeck once proposed moving his St. Louis Browns to Los Angeles, a thought squelched by baseball. Veeck was a Hall of Famer, and the Browns would become a successful franchise in Baltimore.

Would Los Angeles have become the baseball town it is if it had been home to a team other than the Dodgers?

If someone other than Scully held the microphone, if there had been no superstar like Koufax, if there hadn't been a loquacious manager named Lasorda to keep pumping the tradition?

One can't imagine.

Bob Keisser, [phone]

bob.keisser(at)presstelegram.com

HOW IT HAPPEND

The Dodgers lost the first two games of the 1955 World Series to Whitey Ford and Tommy Byrne at Yankee Stadium, and most everyone in New York and Brooklyn expected the series to end the same way it did in 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953 - with the Yankees winning.

But back at Ebbets Field, left-hander Johnny Podres won Game 3 - on his birthday, no less - Clem Labine pitched five innings of great relief to win Game 4, and rookie and surprise starter Roger Craig, with help from Labine, took Game 5 to give the Dodgers a 3-2 series lead.

Manager Walter Alston decided to skip his aces in the rotation, Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine, for starts in Games 6 and 7 because the Yanks had battered them in Games 1 and 4, respectively, and Yankee Stadium was historically unkind to visiting right-handed pitchers.

After rookie left-hander Karl Spooner lost Game 6 against Ford, Alston gave the ball to Podres. The manager had told Podres after Game 3 that he would pitch Game 7 if the Dodgers got there. On the bus ride over to Yankee Stadium, an upbeat Podres told his teammates that one run would be enough.

They got him two. Gil Hodges drove in both runs, on a single in the fourth and sacrifice fly in the sixth. In the sixth, Alston pinch-hit for Don Zimmer, which led to a defensive switch in the bottom of the inning. Jim Gilliam moved from left to second and Sandy Amoros went to left. It was a prescient move.

With two on, Yogi Berra lofted a slicing pop fly down the left-field line. Amoros was pulled over to center but made a determined run to catch the ball with an outstretched glove a few feet inside the line, then turned to make a relay throw to Reese, who threw to Hodges to double-up the runner at first. Podres stranded runners in the seventh and eighth and then worked a 1-2-3 ninth. Elston Howard hit his two-strike change slowly to short, and Pee Wee Reese's throw to Hodges gave Brooklyn its first and only title.

- Bob Keisser

LIVING MEMBERS OF 1955 BROOKLYN DODGERS

BOB BORKOWSKI

Infielder - Born Jan. 27, 1926 (Dayton, Ohio)

Had a brief stay with the Dodgers, playing just nine games in 1955 with two hits and one RBI, but couldn't have picked a better year. Acquired on June 9, 1955 from the Cincinnati Reds, Borkowski spent a month with the Dodgers. From 1950-55, Borkowski played 464 games for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds as an outfielder and first baseman.

ROGER CRAIG

Pitcher - Born Feb. 17, 1930 (Durham, N.C.)

Craig had a rookie season to remember. Called up in the middle of 1955, he started the first game of a doubleheader and pitched a complete-game three hitter. He finished the season with a 5-3 record, two saves and a 2.78 ERA. He then pitched the biggest game of his career, tossing six innings and allowing just one run in Game 5 of the 1955 World Series, a 5-3 victory.

CARL ERSKINE

Pitcher - Born Dec. 13, 1926 (Anderson, Ind.)

Pitched for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1948-59 and won 122 games. Erskine pitched two no-hitters for Brooklyn and established a then-ML record with 14 strikeouts in Game 3 of the 1953 World Series. He won a career-high 20 games for the Dodgers in 1953 and appeared in five World Series. Erskine started the first Dodgers home game in Los Angeles on April 18, 1958 at the Coliseum against the Giants and won, 6-5.

SANDY KOUFAX

Pitcher - Born Dec. 30, 1935 (Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Pitched sparingly as a 19-year-old bonus baby going 2-2 with a 3.02 ERA, but there were flashes of brilliance that would define his Hall of Fame career. Both his victories in 1955 were shutouts. Went on be place among the most dominating pitchers in the game's history, winning 165 games and compiling 2,396 strikeouts in 2,324 1/3 innings with 40 shutouts in his 12-year career (1955-66). A three-time Cy Young Award winner and the NL MVP in 1963, Koufax also was World Series MVP in both 1963 and 1965. He led the NL in ERA five straight seasons from 1962-66, was the strikeouts leader four times, and was tops in wins on three occasions with totals of 27, 26 and 25, respectively. In addition, Koufax pitched an NL record four no-hitters, including a perfect game in 1965, and set the NL single-season mark with 382 strikeouts in 1965. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

CLEM LABINE

Pitcher - Aug. 6, 1926 (Lincoln, R.I.)

A fixture for the Dodgers in the 1950s, Labine played on two World Championship teams and five National League pennant winning teams. In 1955, he led the league with 60 appearances and won 13 games and saved 11. He made four relief appearances in the '55 Series, and he had a 2.89 ERA and 1.65 ERA in 27 innings over four World Series with the Dodgers. In his 13-year career, he had a 77-56 record with 96 saves in 513 games.

TOM LASORDA

Pitcher - Sept. 22, 1927 (Norristown, Pa.)

Before becoming a legendary manager, Lasorda was a journeyman left-hander who finished his career with an 0-4 record. He racked up 1,599 victories to rank 13th on the all-time major league managerial list, winning two World Series titles (1981 and 1988), four NL pennants and eight division titles. Was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager in 1997.

BILLY LOES

Pitcher - Dec. 13, 1929 (Long Island City, N.Y.)

Began his 11-year Major League career with the Dodgers in 1950. Over a four-season period (1952-55) with the Dodgers, Loes won 50 games, including a career-high 14 in 1953. In 1952, he set career bests in ERA (2.69) and innings (187.1). Loes went on to pitch six more years with the Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants. He finished with a lifetime 80-63 record in 316 games with a 3.89 ERA.

DON NEWCOMBE

Pitcher - June 14, 1926 (Madison, N.J.)

The 1949 Rookie of the Year, Newcombe was 20-5 and lead the league in winning percentage, while hitting .359 in the 1955 world championship season. The 1956 season saw him win the inaugural Cy Young Award and the league's Most Valuable Player Award with a 27-7 record. He is only player to win all three awards. Major League Baseball's first black pitcher, he won 149 games in 10 seasons.

JOHNNY PODRES

Pitcher - Sept. 30, 1932 (Witherbee, N.Y.)

Podres was the 1955 World Series MVP as a 23-year-old after starting and winning Games 3 and 7. With the Dodgers trailing 2-0 in the series, Podres allowed three runs over seven innings to help the Dodgers to an 8-3 victory in Game 3. Then in the biggest game of his career, he tossed a complete-game 2-0 shutout in Game 7 to give the Dodgers their first World Championship. Also part of World Series championship teams in 1959 and '63 during a 15-year career.

ED ROEBUCK

Pitcher - July 3, 1931 (East Millsboro, Pa.)

Converted to a reliever when he joined the Dodgers in 1955 after six seasons in the minors, the right-hander adapted to his new role by recording five wins and 12 saves in 47 relief appearances. His 12 saves ranked second in the National League that year. Roebuck stayed with the Dodgers until the middle of 1963, when he was dealt to the Washington Senators. In 1962 he was 10-2 with a 3.09 ERA in a career-high 64 games and 119 1/3 innings for the NL pennant-winning Dodgers. In 11 Major League seasons, he was 52-31 in 460 games with a 3.35 ERA.

GEORGE SHUBA

Outfielder - Dec. 13, 1924 (Youngstown, Ohio)

``Shotgun'' Shuba was a solid reserve in seven seasons for the Dodgers (1948-50, '52-55). In 355 games for the Dodgers, he hit .259. In 1952, he hit a career-best .305. He played in three World Series for the Dodgers and in Game 1 of the 1953 World Series he became the first Dodger to hit a pinch-hit home run in the postseason.

DUKE SNIDER

Outfielder - Sept. 19, 1926 (Los Angeles, Calif.)

``The Duke'' played on two World Championship teams (1955 and 1959) and in six World Series overall. The seven-time All-Star center fielder is the franchise's career leader in home runs (389) and runs batted in (1,271). During the 1950s, he topped all Major Leaguers with 326 home runs and 1,031 RBI. He slugged four home runs in both the 1952 and 1955 World Series and he holds the single-season Brooklyn Dodger record of 43 homers, which led the National League in 1956. His 136 RBI in 1955 topped the NL. Snider was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980.

DON ZIMMER

Infielder - Jan. 17, 1931 (Cincinnati, Ohio)

In addition to being a member of the 1955 team, he also played on the 1959 championship team, which defeated the Chicago White Sox. He began his professional playing career in the Dodgers organization in 1949 with Hornell. The following year, while still with Hornell, he stole home 10 times. Zimmer made his Major League debut July 2, 1954. He played 88 games during the 1955 season and started at second base in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series.

- Matt McHale

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) VIN SCULLY

(2 -- color) SANDY KOUFAX

(3 -- color) TOMMY LASORDA

PHOTOS BY GETTY IMAGES

Box:

(1) LIVING MEMBERS OF 1955 BROOKLYN DODGERS (see text)

(2) HOW IT HAPPENED (see text)