Chavez Ravine was brand new, the paint was barely dry, and the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers were absolutely terrifying. Honestly, if you look back at that roster, it’s kind of a miracle they didn’t just waltz into the World Series. They had the MVP. They had the Cy Young winner. They had a guy who stole 104 bases when the rest of the league was playing station-to-station baseball.
But they lost.
It wasn't just a regular loss, either. It was a collapse of epic proportions that still haunts old-school fans from Echo Park to Santa Monica. We’re talking about a team that won 102 games and still found a way to watch the Fall Classic from the dugout. It’s the kind of season that reminds you why baseball is the most beautiful, frustrating sport ever conceived.
The Year Maury Wills Broke the Game
Before 1962, nobody really cared about the stolen base. It was a secondary tool, something you did if the pitcher was napping. Then Maury Wills happened. He didn't just lead the league; he redefined what offensive pressure looked like. Wills finished the season with 104 stolen bases. To put that in perspective, he broke Ty Cobb’s modern record of 96, which had stood since 1915.
He was the spark plug for the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers offense.
Wills wasn't a power hitter. He hit exactly six home runs that year. But he walked, he bunted, and he tormented catchers until they literally couldn't throw straight. He won the National League MVP over Willie Mays, which is a sentence that sounds insane today but made total sense at the time. When Maury got on first, everyone in the stadium knew he was going to second. And usually third.
The Dodgers played "small ball" before it had a cool nickname. They scratched out runs. They relied on speed and defense because they knew their pitching staff was essentially a cheat code.
Sandy Koufax and the Beginning of a Legend
If Wills was the engine, the left arm of Sandy Koufax was the high-octane fuel. People forget that 1962 was the year Koufax truly became Koufax. Before this, he was a guy with a blazing fastball who couldn't always find the plate.
In '62, he found it.
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He threw his first career no-hitter on June 30 against the Mets. He was dominant. But here is the "what-if" that kills Dodgers fans: the finger injury. Koufax developed a circulatory problem in his left index finger—basically a crushed artery—that nearly cost him his hand. He missed two months.
Despite missing a massive chunk of the season, Koufax still led the league in ERA with a 2.54 mark. Don Drysdale, meanwhile, was a workhorse. Big D went 25-9 with a 2.83 ERA, winning the Cy Young Award. When you have two Hall of Famers at the top of their lungs like that, you aren't supposed to lose a pennant race.
The New Home: Dodger Stadium Opens
1962 wasn't just about the stats. It was about the move. After years of playing in the cavernous, weirdly shaped Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum—where the left-field fence was so close it was basically a joke—the team finally moved into Dodger Stadium.
It was a palace.
The fans showed up in droves. The 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers drew over 2.7 million fans that year, which was a massive record for the time. The atmosphere was electric. The stadium was built for pitching, with deep dimensions that favored the power arms of Drysdale and Koufax. Everything felt perfect. The team was winning, the stadium was full, and a World Series berth felt like an absolute certainty.
Then came September.
The Great Collapse and the Three-Game Playoff
The Giants. It’s always the Giants.
San Francisco, led by Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda, refused to go away. On September 20, the Dodgers had a four-game lead with only seven games left to play. You don't lose that. Except, they did. They went 2-5 down the stretch, while the Giants surged.
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They ended the season tied. 101 wins each.
Because this was 1962, they didn't have a one-game "wild card" style tiebreaker. They played a best-of-three series. It was a brutal, nerve-wracking three days.
- Game 1: The Giants crushed them 8-0. Billy Pierce threw a gem, and Mays hit two homers.
- Game 2: The Dodgers fought back. It was a messy, four-hour marathon that L.A. won 8-7 on a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
- Game 3: This is the one that hurts.
The Dodgers were leading 4-2 going into the top of the ninth inning at Dodger Stadium. The fans were ready to celebrate. But the wheels didn't just come off; the entire car disintegrated. A series of walks, a Duke Snider error, and a wild pitch allowed the Giants to roar back for four runs.
The Dodgers lost 6-4.
The season was over. 102 wins (including the playoff win) and nothing to show for it but a "thanks for playing" card.
Why This Team Still Matters Today
You can't talk about the history of West Coast baseball without the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers. They represent the bridge between the old Brooklyn era and the modern L.A. dynasty.
Think about the roster depth. You had Tommy Davis, who drove in 153 runs. That’s a number that feels like a typo in the modern era. Nobody drives in 153 runs anymore. Davis was a hitting machine, batting .346 to take the batting title. You had Frank Howard, a literal giant of a man who provided the power. You had the veteran leadership of Leo Durocher in the dugout as a coach.
But the 1962 season also taught the Dodgers a hard lesson about depth and injury management. Relying so heavily on Koufax and Drysdale meant that when Koufax went down, the margin for error vanished.
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Lessons From 1962 for Modern Baseball Fans
If you're looking for actionable insights from this historic season, there are a few things that still apply to how we analyze the game today:
Speed is an underrated disruptor.
In a world of "Three True Outcomes" (home runs, walks, strikeouts), the 1962 Dodgers prove that a high-pressure running game can win over 100 games. If a team can find a way to replicate Maury Wills' ability to distract pitchers, they gain a massive psychological edge.
Pitching wins games, but health wins championships.
The Dodgers had the best rotation in baseball, but Koufax's finger injury was the silent killer. When building a fantasy team or evaluating a real-world roster, look for "innings eaters" rather than just high-ceiling stars.
Never underestimate the rivalry.
The Dodgers-Giants rivalry isn't just marketing fluff. 1962 is the ultimate proof that these two teams will always find a way to ruin each other's lives.
Context matters for stats.
When you see Tommy Davis’s 153 RBIs, remember he was hitting behind a guy who was almost always on second or third base (Wills). Stats don't exist in a vacuum; they are a product of the ecosystem around them.
The 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers were a team of destiny that missed their turn. They would go on to win the World Series in 1936 and 1965, mostly with the same core, but '62 remains the "lost" year. It was a season of records, a new stadium, and a heartbreaking finish that defined the grit of the franchise for decades to come.
If you want to truly understand the DNA of Los Angeles baseball, start with 1962. It’s all there: the glitz, the speed, the dominant pitching, and the dramatic, soul-crushing ending.
To dive deeper into this era, your next move should be looking at the 1963 season to see how they sought revenge against the Yankees—it’s one of the most satisfying "bounce-back" stories in the history of the sport. You could also compare Maury Wills' 1962 spray charts to modern base-stealers like Elly De La Cruz to see how the geometry of the game has shifted.