A Weekend to Remember: 1990 Centennial Old-Timers Day at Dodger Stadium

A third of a century has passed since the Dodgers commemorated their centennial – 100 years since joining the National League in 1890, the year they consider their founding. The anniversary was highlighted by a midsummer Old-Timers Weekend held at Dodger Stadium, which included a private luncheon for former players and coaches on Saturday, June 30, and an exhibition on Sunday, July 1, 1990, before the regularly scheduled game against the St. Louis Cardinals. The largest number of former Dodgers to appear at an Old-Timers Game, before or since, assembled that weekend. The specific theme was a salute to the Dodgers’ 21 National League pennant-winning teams. Players from 16 teams who went to the World Series between 1941 and 1988, including six that won the Series, attended.1

The first group of retired players began to show up at the ballpark on Friday evening, June 29, a night that would go down in Dodger annals. Carl Erskine and Rex Barney were among those looking on as Fernando Valenzuela, the 1981 National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award winner, on this summer evening twirled a no-hitter, something both Erskine and Barney had accomplished with Brooklyn. Then in his 10th season with the ballclub, Valenzuela beat St. Louis Cardinals pitcher José DeLeón, 6-0. The Dodgers offense was sparked by a three-hit night from Lenny Harris and home runs by Hubie Brooks and Juan Samuel.2

Valenzuela’s was the 20th no-hitter in Dodgers history, and the first thrown by a Dodgers pitcher since Jerry Reuss held the Giants hitless in 1980. It also was the first at Dodger Stadium since Bill Singer denied the Phillies a hit on July 20, 1970.3 Valenzuela’s gem nearly evaporated in the top of the ninth inning. With a runner on first and one out, former Dodger Pedro Guerrero hit a grounder that Valenzuela deflected with his glove and second baseman Samuel converted into a game-ending double play. With the last out recorded, Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully advised listeners, “If you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky!”4

Remarkably, earlier in the day, Valenzuela’s former teammate and friend, Dave Stewart, of the Oakland Athletics, hurled a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays. As of 2023, this was the only time in big-league history that two no-hitters were thrown on the same day. And on Sunday, Andy Hawkins of the New York Yankees pitched an eight-inning no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox but in a losing cause, 4-0; in 1991 he also “lost” the no-hitter, when a major-league rule change asserted that a game must go at least a full nine innings to be classified as a no-hitter.5

On Saturday afternoon, June 30, the Dodgers hosted a private luncheon for former players and coaches in the posh Stadium Club, perched high above right field, where old acquaintances were renewed and days of glory recalled. Erskine kidded with Dodgers President Peter O’Malley’s sister Terry Seidler: “Peter paid for a hotel room, meals, plane tickets, game tickets, and chauffeur service to get me here. That’s more than your dad (Walter O’Malley) paid me to play for him.”6 Don Drysdale, who was by this time a member of the Dodgers broadcasting crew, served as the luncheon’s emcee, and after viewing a four-minute video encapsulating a century of the team’s history, told those gathered, “I wish I could put everything in a time capsule and keep it just the way it was.”7

Sunday afternoon was set aside for the Old-Timers Game. There was nothing particularly new about Old-Timers Games. In fact, MLB historian John Thorn traced the earliest one to have been played at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1875.8 The Yankees have famously held an annual Old-Timers Day continuously since 1947 and as of 2023 were the only big-league team that carried on the tradition. It appears the Dodgers held their first Old-Timers Game at Ebbets Field in August 1932, and held another in September 1936, the latter ostensibly to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National League.9 Four years later, in September 1940, the Dodgers brought back nearly 40 of their former players for a three-inning old-timers exhibition. It was the last one held in Brooklyn.10

Thirty-one seasons passed before the Dodgers hosted their next Old-Timers Day. In their 14th season on the West Coast, in 1971, the Dodgers brought 34 of their former players back to Chavez Ravine.11 It became an annual promotion for the next 25 seasons, often centered on a specific theme or commemoration of an anniversary, such as their first year in Los Angeles, a World Series championship team, their first year in Dodger Stadium, the retirement of a uniform number, and so forth. The 1990 event, in fact, was the 20th consecutive season the Dodgers staged an Old-Timers Game. There would be five more through 1995.

By 1990, Equitable Insurance had not only become a sponsor of the Dodgers Old-Timers Game but held one in each big-league ballpark.12 On July 1, 1990, fans cheered on their favorite players of seasons past at Dodger Stadium. Before a crowd of just under 40,000 fans, 86 Dodgers alumni from both the Brooklyn and Los Angeles eras emerged from the dugout and stood along the baselines and were introduced to the crowd, and assembled afterward for a team photo. Veteran backstop Rick Dempsey, age 40, was summoned from the dugout to join the group photograph to represent the 1988 champions.13

Tom Pagnozzi and Bob Tewksbury were among the Cardinals collecting autographs from some of the famed Dodgers, and Tewksbury, an amateur artist, recorded the day in his sketch pad. Cardinals coach and Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst was asked about his impressions in seeing many of his old rivals on the field again. “Those old goats used to slide into my legs and knock me down. My legs started hurting when I got here, so I knew there was going to be an Old-Timers game,” he joked.14

Then it was time to play ball. The Dodgers divided into two teams and, amid all the on-field antics expected of them, somehow played three innings. For those interested, the highlights included Derrell Griffith’s (1963-66) clutch double to drive in Al Ferrara (1963; 1965-68), and Tommy Davis’s (1959-1966) RBI single. It was fitting that both Ferrara and Davis had been born in Brooklyn. Seventy-four-year-old Mickey Owen (1941-45), the catcher who dropped the third strike with two outs in the ninth inning of Game Four in the 1941 World Series against the Yankees, made solid contact for a hit and drove in a run. Sandy Koufax (1955-1966) received the loudest ovation, and retired the two batters who faced him: Maury Wills (1959-1966; 1969-72) grounded out to third baseman Ron Cey (1971-82) and Ted Sizemore (1969-70; 1976) flied out to left fielder Lou Johnson (1965-1967). Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda took to the mound and received the crowd’s cheers while running over to cover first base on a dribbler hit by Dick Nen (1963). Lasorda was so excited about nipping the runner that in attempting to whip the ball around the infield, threw the ball wildly into the outfield.15

In the regular-season game that followed, the Dodgers took an early 5-0 lead against St. Louis. Dempsey arguably had his best performance all season – smashing two doubles and going 3-for-4 – in seeming defiance of time. But the Dodgers’ fortunes quickly changed, and the players began to resemble their “Daffiness Boys” antecedents rather than any of those league championship teams they had just finished honoring. In this game, the 1990 Dodgers exhibited mental lapses and committed physical errors, with a wild pitch, an errant pickoff throw, and strange baserunning thrown into the mix. Lenny Harris was picked off base for the first time in his major-league career – by, of course, a former Dodger, now Cardinal, Ricky Horton. Rubbing salt into the wound was another former Dodgers pitcher, Tom Niedenfuer, who, like Horton, shut the door on his old chums. The Cardinals came back to win, 6-5.16

The Dodgers shelved the annual Old-Timers Games after 1995. When asked why, the organization offered no official comment. After an 18-year absence, the Dodgers resumed Old-Timers Day for five seasons, between 2013 and 2017, but as of 2023 have not scheduled one since. Though every Old-Timers Game is special, those fortunate enough to attend the special event in the summer of 1990 were witness to the greatest assemblage of former Dodger players in their history before or since.17

GREG KING is a California-based public historian who attended his first game at Dodger Stadium in 1962, a 13-inning affair that produced a 2-1 LA win over the Reds and featured both managers being tossed. He and the late Woody Wilson co-founded SABR’s Dusty Baker – Sacramento Chapter in 1994.

 

Notes

1 The Dodgers announced that their season-long 1990 Centennial Celebration would include the largest promotional program ever launched in the organization’s history. Among these were a 100th-anniversary logo patch worn on uniforms all season long, a museum-quality exhibit on Dodgers history circulating through area malls, and a team sponsorship of special art and essay contests in the local school system, two separate fan balloting programs: one to select the greatest players in the team’s history and another to select the greatest moment in the club’s history. One of the most popular promotions, in conjunction with Target retail stores, was the distribution of a set of over 1,000 baseball cards featuring a photograph of every Dodger player in their history.

2 Bill Plaschke, “The Night of Two No-Hitters: Fernando Pitches One for the First Time as He Stymies Cardinals,” Los Angeles Times, June 30, 1990: C-1; Matt McHale, “Valenzuela Closes No-Hitter Night,” Orange County (California) Register, June 30, 1990: D1; Terry Johnson, “Fernando Never Lost Respect of Teammates,” Torrance Daily Breeze, July 1, 1990: C1; Rick Hummel, “Valenzuela `Predicted’ Gem,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 1, 1990: F1.

3 A chronological list of no-hitters can be found at https://www.retrosheet.org/nohit_chrono.htm.

4 John Jeansonne, “Vin Scully, 1927 – 2022, Melodic Voice of Dodgers,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), August 4, 2022: A46.

5 But they were far from the only no-hit major-league games pitched during the 1990 season. In April, the Angels’ Mark Langston and Mike Witt combined to no-hit the Seattle Mariners. In June, two more no-hitters were tossed: the Mariners’ Randy Johnson against Detroit and the Rangers’ Nolan Ryan against Oakland. Nor were Stewart’s and Valenzuela’s no-hitters the last of the season. The Phillies’ Terry Mulholland pitched a no-hitter against San Francisco in August, and the Blue Jays’ Dave Steib threw the final no-hitter of the season, in September against Cleveland.

6 Allan Malamud, “Notes on a Scorecard,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1990: C3.

7 Woody Woodburn, “Dodgers Old-Timers Go to BAT,” Ventura County Star (Camarillo, California), July 1, 1990: C1.

8 In 1875 the New York Clipper reported the “largest gathering of old ball-tossers seen at the classic ground at Hoboken” for a game played on September 26, 1875, to commemorate the 25th anniversary since James Whyte Davis played his first game with the Knickerbockers. “The Knickerbocker Club: Baseball in the Olden Time,” New York Clipper, October 9, 1875: 222. This information was generously provided by John Thorn in an email communication to the author dated December 12, 2023.

9 Among former Brooklyn players participating in the 1932 game were Harry McIntyre, Tommy Griffith, Cy Barger, and Rube Bressler. William McCullough, “Dodgers Trim Reds Twice,” Brooklyn Times Union, August 21, 1932: 2A; Thomas Holmes, “Dodger Data,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 21, 1932: C1. The roster of Dodgers suiting up for the 1936 game included Zack Wheat, Casey Stengel, Otto Miller, Bill Scanlan, Jimmy Hickman, Al Mamaux, Eddie Zimmerman, Tex Erwin, Lew Malone, Ed Phelps, Gus Getz, Clise Dudley, Mickey Welsh, Harry Lumley, George Bell, Larry Cheney, Charlie Hargreaves, George Smith, Val Picinich, Jack Warner, and legendary Dodger scout Larry Sutton, who signed Zack Wheat and Jake Daubert among others. In honor of the occasion of the National League’s “60th birthday,” the three-inning exhibition was played according to 1876 rules. Lee Scott, “Buck Wheat Steals Show as Old Timers Frolic in Grand Reunion Party,” Brooklyn Citizen, September 11, 1936: 6; Bill McCullough, “Stars of Yesteryear Relive Old Days in League Celebration at Ebbets Field,” Brooklyn Times Union, September 11, 1936: A1; Tommy Holmes, “Zack Wheat is Still the Idol of Veteran Brooklyn Baseball Fans,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 11, 1936, 24.

10 Dodgers who made an appearance in the 1940 reunion game included Zack Wheat, Tommy Griffith, Hy Myers, Dazzy Vance, Rube Marquard, Burleigh Grimes, Tim Jordan, Rabbit Maranville, Fresco Thompson, Ivy Olson, Casey Stengel, Ed Konetchy, Andy High, Del Bissonette, Otto Miller, Rube Bressler, Bernie Neis, Chuck Ward, Hank DeBerry, Sherry Smith, Leon Cadore, Larry Cheney, Nap Rucker, Al Mamaux, Jack Coombs, Ernie Krueger, Lew Malone, Gene Sheridan, Jimmy Hickman, Waite Hoyt, Jesse Petty, Owen Carroll, Val Picinich, Joe Stripp, Horace Ford, Jack Fournier, Jimmy Johnston, Gus Getz, and Milton Stock, and former manager, Bill Dahlen. Tommy Holmes, “`Old Timers’ Enjoy Romp at Ebbets Field,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 19, 1940: 15; “Spectators Get Big Thrill as `Oldtimers’ Play,” Brooklyn Citizen, September 23, 1940, 6; “Dodger Old-Timers Beat Older Timers,” New York Daily News, September 23, 1940: 42. In August 1954, a Dodgers Old-Timers Day was proposed to take place in the 1955 season, but no record of it having been staged could be found. “Buy Your Ticket and Name All-Time Team,” Brooklyn Record, August 27, 1954: 1.

11 Among retired players honored in 1971 were Carl Furillo, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Andy Pafko, Jim Gilliam, Charlie Neal, Andy Carey, Babe Herman, George Shuba, Maury Wills, Norm Larker, Dick Tracewski, John Roseboro, Casey Stengel, Wally Moon, Roger Craig, Don Demeter, Bill Skowron, Dixie Walker, Ed Roebuck, Joe Pignatano, Gil Hodges, Cookie Lavagetto, Sal Maglie, Johnny Podres, Don Newcombe, Gene Hermanski, Larry Sherry, Pee Wee Reese, Larry Burright, Chuck Essegian, Joe Black, Duke Snider, and Ralph Branca. For good measure, former major-league umpires Al Passarella, Jocko Conlon, Beans Reardon, and Pat Orr participated in the festivities. http://www:ladodgertalk.com/2022/02/15/old-timers-game. Accessed September 2023.

12 In 1990, as it had for the previous four seasons, the Equitable Life Insurance company sponsored the Old-Timers Series, Old-Timers games played in each big-league ballpark; the company donated $10,000 to the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), a nonprofit organization currently affiliated with Major League Baseball to assist former major-league (including the Negro Leagues) players and umpires, for each game played. The Dodgers announced they would also donate to BAT in 1990. Woody Woodburn, “Dodgers Old-Timers Go to BAT,” Ventura County Star (Camarillo, California), July 1, 1990: C1; Dodgers Line Drives, Volume 33, No. 3: 1. But 1990 would also mark the final year of Equitable’s corporate sponsorship. Mike Terry, “AL President Says Showers Would Postpone Game 24 Hours,” San Bernardino County Sun, July 10, 1990: C4. In December 1990, the Upper Deck Company, then based in Orange County, California, signed a five-year contract to take over the campaign, rebranding it as the Heroes of Baseball Series, and likewise donating $10,000 to BAT where each Old-Timers Game was played. “County Firm to Back Games,” Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1990: C13. Though they started with a full slate with each ballpark initially in 1991, by 1994 and 1995, the company was sponsoring only a handful of games, though it did sponsor games in Dodger Stadium each season. Upper Deck dropped its sponsorship of the program after 1995 and the Dodgers likewise stopped scheduling the Old-Timers Games.

13 Steve Dilbeck, “Dodgers Drop Another, 6-5 to Cards,” San Bernardino County Sun, July 2, 1990: C4.

14 Rick Hummel, “Oquendo’s June Boom Nets 15 RBIs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 2, 1990: 4C.

15 Bill Plaschke, “Dodgers Throw Game Away and Cardinals Catch It,” Los Angeles Times, July 2, 1990: C10; Mike Waldner, “The Boys of Autumn Return,” San Pedro News-Pilot, July 2, 1990: B1.

16 Terry Johnson, “Dodger Win Not in These Cards,” San Pedro News-Pilot, July 2, 1990: B1; Rick Hummel, “Saving Grace for Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 2, 1990: C1.

17 The Dodgers hosted an Old-Timers Game in 2013 for the first time since 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of their four-game sweep of the Yankees in the 1963 World Series. It was played when the Yankees were at Dodger Stadium for an interleague series. Jim Peltz, “Puig Can’t Save Dodgers This Time,” Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2013: C6; Advertisement for Dodger Stadium ticket promotions, Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2014: C5; Steve Dilbeck, “Koufax: Kershaw Will Be Just Fine,” Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2015: D3; Mike DiGiovanna, “Dodgers Report,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2016: D5; and Andy McCullough, “Seager’s Walk-off Double Does the Job,” Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2017: D5.