The Excelsiors no longer challenged for the amateur championship after the Civil War (1861–1865) and never entered the professional NAPBBP (aka NA).

[3] Nicknamed by reporters the "Grays" for their uniforms, the team played in the minor league Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs that first season.

The Grays won the league title after the Camden Merritt club in New Jersey disbanded on July 20 and Brooklyn picked up some of its better players.

The Grays were invited to join the two-year-old professional circuit, the American Association (founded 1882) to compete with the eight-year-old NL for the 1884 season.

The middle years of the decade were disappointing, a slump the Spalding Guide rather primly ascribed to management tolerating drunkenness among the players.

[7] The nickname was still new enough in September 1895 that a newspaper reported that "'Trolley Dodgers' is the new name which eastern baseball cranks [fans] have given the Brooklyn club.

A New York Times article describing a game the Dodgers played in 1916 starts out by referring to how "Jimmy Callahan, pilot of the Pirates, did his best to wreck the hopes the Dodgers have of gaining the National League pennant", but then goes on to comment, "the only thing that saved the Superbas from being toppled from first place was that the Phillies lost one of the two games played.

However, the city's stadium refused to host an exhibition game with the Montreal Royals – the Dodgers’ own farm club – on whose roster Robinson appeared at the time, citing segregation laws.

They won six pennants in those 10 years with the help of Robinson, three-time MVP Roy Campanella, Cy Young Award winner Don Newcombe, Jim Gilliam, and Joe Black.

After the wilderness years of the 1920s and 1930s, the Dodgers were rebuilt into a contending club first by general manager Larry MacPhail and then the legendary Branch Rickey.

Led by Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Gil Hodges in the infield, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo in the outfield, Roy Campanella behind the plate, and Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, and Preacher Roe on the pitcher's mound, the Dodgers won pennants in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953, only to fall to the New York Yankees in all five of the subsequent World Series.

The annual ritual of building excitement, followed in the end by disappointment, became a common pattern to the long suffering fans, and "Wait ’til next year!"

Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson, however, hit a stunning three-run walk-off home run off the Dodgers' Ralph Branca to secure the NL Championship for New York.

The turning point of Game 7 was a spectacular double play that began with left fielder Sandy Amorós running down Yogi Berra's long fly ball, then throwing to shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who relayed to first baseman Gil Hodges to double up a surprised Gil McDougald to preserve the Dodger lead.

Lawyer and real estate businessman Walter O'Malley had acquired majority ownership of the Dodgers in 1950, when he bought Rickey's 25 percent share of the team and secured the support of the widow of another equal partner, John L. Smith.

Beloved as it was, Ebbets Field had grown old and was not well served by vehicular infrastructure, to the point where the Dodgers could not "sell out" the park to maximum capacity even in the heat of a pennant race, despite dominating the league from 1946 to 1957.

Moses refused to honor O'Malley's request and responded, "If you want the land so bad, why don't you purchase it with your own money?".

Because of advances in civil aviation, it became possible to locate teams farther apart – as far west as California – while maintaining the same busy game schedules.

At the same time, O'Malley was looking for a contingency in case Moses and other New York politicians refused to let him build the Brooklyn stadium he wanted, and sent word to the Los Angeles officials that he was interested in talking.

At the same time, the National League was not willing to approve the Dodgers' move unless O'Malley found a second team willing to join them out west, largely out of concern for travel costs.

[30] Meanwhile, Giants owner Horace Stoneham was having similar difficulty finding a replacement for his team's antiquated home stadium, the Polo Grounds.

[31] Catcher Roy Campanella, left partially paralyzed in an off-season automobile accident on January 28, 1958, was never able to play for the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

[38] Upon assuming the title of president, however, Robinson's ability to focus on the field declined, and the teams of the late 1920s were often fondly referred to as the "Daffiness Boys" for their distracted, error-ridden style of play.

The signature Dodger play from this era occurred when three players – Dazzy Vance, Chick Fewster, and Herman – ended up at third base at the same time.

[39] It was during this era that Willard Mullin, a noted sports cartoonist, fixed the Brooklyn team with the lovable nickname of "Dem Bums".

", Mullin decided to sketch an exaggerated version of famed circus clown Emmett Kelly to represent the Dodgers in his much-praised cartoons in the New York World-Telegram.

[39] In 1934, Giants player/manager Bill Terry was asked about the Dodgers’ chances in the coming pennant race and cracked infamously, "Is Brooklyn still in the league?"

In the subsequent years after their pennant-winning season in 1947, they would sign Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella, and Jim Gilliam from the Negro leagues, adding to an already tremendous team.

The Dodgers made the World Series in 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956 (winning championships in 1955) and were a historic pennant race away from making it in 1951, in part because they were the first to accept African American players.

Dave BancroftDan BrouthersRoy CampanellaMax Carey1Kiki CuylerLeo Durocher2Burleigh Grimes1 Ned HanlonBilly HermanGil HodgesWaite HoytHughie JenningsWillie KeelerJoe KelleyGeorge Kelly Tony LazzeriFreddie LindstromErnie LombardiAl LópezHeinie ManushRabbit MaranvilleRube Marquard Tommy McCarthyJoe McGinnityJoe MedwickPee Wee ReeseJackie RobinsonWilbert Robinson†Duke SniderCasey Stengel2 Dazzy VanceArky VaughanLloyd WanerPaul WanerJohn Montgomery Ward1Zack WheatHack Wilson The Dodgers have retired seven numbers in the history of the franchise related to its tenure in Brooklyn.