Four years after winning their first championship in Brooklyn, the Dodgers won their first in Los Angeles. They finished in a first-place tie with Milwaukee, then beat the Braves in a playoff series before going on to defeat the White Sox in the World Series. The Braves were led by a tremendous season by Hank Aaron. But Hank managed to avoid winning the MVP Award, as he would the rest of his career. Instead, Ernie Banks won his second straight MVP.

        Aaron had 400 total bases, the highest total in the NL until Larry Walker had 409 in 1997. I think that this was the best season of his career, and that he was the best hitter in the league, just ahead of Willie Mays and Frank Robinson. Aaron set career highs in batting average, hits and doubles. He was still only 25 years old, but had already accumulated 1137 career hits and 179 home runs.
        This was Vada Pinson's first full season. It was also his best season. Any player who peaks at age 22 years of age will never get much respect, but Pinson did retire with some impressive career numbers: 18 years in the majors, 2757 hits, 256 HRs, 305 SBs. There are still some people (mostly Cincinnati fans) who think that Vada should be in the Hall Of Fame. Yet, his career still seems disappointing in view of his early brilliance.
        Ernie Banks again had awesome power numbers. How unusual was it for a shortstop to display the kind of power that Banks had? Consider that Banks was able to win two MVP Awards while both Aaron and Mays were in their prime — evidence that sportswriters at the time were truly astonished that a shortstop could hit with so much power. He may have deserved his MVP Award this year; it's a very close call between him and Aaron. But I'm sticking with Hammerin' Hank; Aaron led the league in OPS and runs produced, was second in doubles, third in homers. He was perfect as a base stealer. And Hank Aaron in his best season is a tough act to beat.

        The Dodgers, despite winning the championship, were curiously lacking in star players. They were a transition team, halfway between the power-laden Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the mid-50's, and speed-and-pitching teams that starred in Chavez Ravine in the 60's. Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo and others were still productive hitters, but were on the downside of their careers. Future stars, including Maury Wills and Tommy Davis, were breaking in. They even played in a transition park, the L.A. Coliseum.
        Transition teams aren't supposed to win championships, but that's the way it worked out for the Dodgers in 1959. The defending champs from Milwaukee had a disappointing year, as did the future champs in Pittsburgh. The Dodgers were also bolstered by a key trade during the offseason, in which they acquired outfielder Wally Moon from the Cardinals. Moon had perhaps the best season of his career, and was the Dodgers' most consistent hitter. After the season, he finished 4th in MVP voting, behind Banks, Aaron and Mathews but ahead of Willy Mays.
        Wally Moon had a 12-year career in the National League, that began when he won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1954. After finishing high school, he turned down several contract offers to play baseball; he instead received a scholarship from Texas A&M, where he received a Masters degree. He then signed with the Cardinals, and made the team in the spring of 1954. As a youth, he had been a big fan of Enos Slaughter; with the Cardinals, he was ticketed to replace Slaughter, who was traded in early April.
        Moon hit a home run in his first career at bat, then tried to beat out a bunt in his next plate appearance; his combination of speed, defence and a balanced hitting approach drew comparisons to the players of the old Gas House Gang. He had two five-hit games early in the season, and also stole four bases in one game. His defensive play in centre drew good reviews, and he capped the season with a home run in his final at bat.
        Moon was named Rookie of the Year by both the BBWAA and the Sporting News; the only downside to his year was a slump that dropped his average 35 points over the final two months (he finished at .304). He continued to hit in his sophomore season, but the team struggled, and Moon's defence drew criticism; he was moved to right field, and then first base. In 1957, he was back in the outfield; he was batting .330 in September, but another disastrous late-season slump dropped his average under .300.
        A lot of things went right in 1957. The Cardinals challenged the Braves for the pennant, though they fell short; Moon set a career high with 24 home runs. He also had a great September, the first time that he hadn't faded late in the season. But 1958 was a disaster; the team had a horrible start, while Moon didn't hit his first home run until July. He was benched often, and his struggles against left-handed pitching forced him into a platoon. After the season, he was traded to the Dodgers for Gino Cimoli.
        His first year in Los Angeles was magical. Moon was normally a pull hitter, but the giant left field wall in the Coliseum was an attractive target in the opposite field. Stan Musial advised him that "if you can't beat a park, you've got to join it." Moon hit 12 home runs over the left field fence, and had a great year against left-handed pitching. He hit six home runs in the first six games of September, as the Dodgers charged towards a first-place tie with the Braves. In the second playoff game, Moon had three hits, including one that sparked a crucial ninth-inning rally. In the World Series, he struggled with the bat and had to survive a collision in the outfield with teammate Snider, but hit a two-run homer in the final game.
        He had another solid year in 1960, and won a Gold Glove for his play in left field. He became a master of playing balls off the big wall in left, and of hitting balls off of it. He hit .328 in 1961, including eight homers in the first month; these came to be known as "Moon Shots". In 1962, the team moved to Chavez Ravine; Moon struggled with the bat, and found his playing time squeezed by the Dodgers' young outfielders, including Willie and Tommy Davis, Frank Howard and Ron Fairly.
        He remained in Los Angeles as a fourth outfielder; he didn't get to bat when the Dodgers returned to the World Series in 1963, and had only two hitless at bats in the 1965 Series. He retired after the season; he was a career .289 hitter who belted 142 homers, and was a two-time All-Star. A member of the Methodist church, he spent his career helping youths, and opened his own baseball camp for boys.

        Del Crandall may have been the best hitting and fielding catcher in the league. That is not to say that he was Johnny Bench, but he was a good player, and everyone thought so; Crandall was an All-Star eight times in his career. Crandall was a part of an awesome collection of players that the Braves assembled in the late 1950's, along with Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Johnny Logan and others. The failure of the team to win more often than it did is one of the great puzzles in the game's history.
        Speaking of Eddie Mathews, he finished second in the MVP vote, Aaron third. Mathews had a great year, but was he better than Aaron? Eddie was only 27 years old, but his career was already experiencing a second wind. Eddie started brilliantly when he was 20 years old, slumped a little in his mid-20's, but now was back to his former, dominating self. He didn't age well, however, and had his last great year at age 32. But he started so early and so brilliantly, that Mathews was still able to hammer out 512 home runs in his career, despite playing all of his prime years in a terrible hitter's park.