The screen monster  

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - Many football games have been played in stadiums built for baseball, but not too many baseball games have been played in stadiums built for football. What the Dodgers had to do to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to prepare for this day, April 7, 1958, is a big reason why.

Before the transplanted Brooklyn Dodgers could play the first official major league game west of St. Louis they had to erect a 42-foot screen in left field because the foul pole was only 201 feet away - about the distance normally seen in slow pitch softball. Straight away left was only about 250 feet. On the other hand, because the Coliseum is rectangular straight away right was 440 feet from home.

There was a distinct advantage playing in the mammoth coliseum however, it held a lot of people. Game 5 of the 1959 World Series between the Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox still holds the record for the biggest crowd to watch a major league baseball game that mattered - 92,706.

The Dodgers spent four seasons (1958-1961) in, at the time, the home of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams waiting for Dodger Stadium to be completed. As much as Dodger fans poured into the Coliseum they liked the new Dodger Stadium more when it opened in ‘62. A major league attendance record (at the time) was set with 2,755,184 fans.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCE:
The Coliseum revisited

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