The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which opened in 1923, has been home to a dizzying array of events in its 100 years of operation. The original main tenant was the USC college football team, but the stadium has also hosted Super Bowls, Olympics, UCLA football, Rams and Raiders football, political speeches and rock concerts.
Perhaps the oddest-fitting of all its tenants was the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, but the team’s stadium would not be ready for occupancy until 1962. So for four years the Dodgers did the best they could in the enormous Coliseum.
The photos show the problem; playing baseball in the Coliseum meant sticking a diamond into the middle of an oval. We see fans with binoculars, straining to follow the action on the far-away field. Remember that this was before spectators could watch replays on giant video boards at the stadium. It its coverage of the first Dodgers game in their new home in its April 28, 1958 issue, LIFE wryly noted: “In the cavernous coliseum many had trouble seeing the game at all. But many came only to be seen.”
Another oddity was that the left-field fence was a very short 250 feet down the line. (Since then baseball has established rules for new stadiums that require a minimum distance of 325 feet). A 40-foot screen was erected to keep down the number of home runs, but the complaints from the players were many. Dodgers star pitcher Don Drysdale commented, “It’s nothing but a sideshow. Who feels like playing baseball in this place?”
Most of the photos in this story are by Leonard McCombe and Allan Grant, and come from the Dodgers first home games in 1958, played against the San Francisco Giants, who had also just moved from New York to California. A couple other photos are by Ralph Crane amd come from 1959 World Series, when the Dodgers defeated the Chicago White Sox in six games—though again the pictures, by Ralph Crane, emphasized the odd setting more than the on-the-field action.
With a seating capacity of more than 90,000, the Coliseum remains the largest stadium ever to serve as the home field for a major league team. In 1967 it would host the first Super Bowl, between Green Bay and Kansas City. In 2028 the Coliseum will host its third Olympics.
A vendor outside the first game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, California, 1958
Television actress Juli Reding spoke with Dodgers outfielder Elmer Valo during the first home game at the Los Angeles Coliseum, 1958.
Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants during the Dodgers’ first home game at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, 1958
Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants during the Dodgers’ first home game at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, 1958
Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Dodgers fans needed binoculars to follow the action in the cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the team played for four seasons after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A Dodgers home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the team played for four seasons after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Dodgers fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum cheer the team in in their first home game after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Dodgers fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum cheer the team in in their first home game after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Dodgers during the team’s first home game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Allan Grant//Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A crowd watching the Dodgers’ first home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Fans at the Dodgers’ first home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Dodgers’ first home game at Los Angeles Coliseum, 1958.
Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The crowd at Los Angeles Coliseum for the first game between the L.A. Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles, 1958.
Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
People watched the first Dodgers home game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.
Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Game 3 of the 1959 World Series between the White Sox and the Dodgers at L.A. Memorial Coliseum, 1959.
Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock
The 1959 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, at L.A. Memorial Coliseum.
Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock
