100 Things Dodgers Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Jon Weisman

with a borrowed line that once belonged to the Dodgers,” Hall wrote. “Wait ‘til next year.”
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    Dick Nen
    Dick Nen’s first major league at-bat came against St. Louis Cardinals ace Bob Gibson, which means that Dick Nen’s first major league at-bat resulted in an out. The product of Banning High and Long Beach State had joined the major league roster of his now-local team earlier in the day—September 18, 1963—although Nen made his debut far from home and comfort. The host Cardinals led the Los Angeles Dodgers 5–1 in the top of the eighth behind four-hit, no-walk pitching by Gibson, and were six outs away from cutting the Dodgers’ NL lead to two games with 11 days remaining in the regular season.
    Nen did make solid contact against Gibson, lining out to center field, and if anything that might have been a sign that Gibson was tiring—letting a scrub get wood on him. Maury Wills and Jim Gilliam followed with singles, Wally Moon walked to load the bases, and then Tommy Davis singled to left field to cut the Cardinal lead in half. Bobby Shantz relieved Gibson and walked Frank Howard to load the bases, then gave up a sacrifice fly to Willie Davis. But a second reliever, Ron Taylor, retired Bill Skowron on a groundout, leaving the Dodgers down by a run. Nen stayed in the game at first as part of a triple switch, which meant that he would be due up again as the second batter of the ninth.
    Dick Nen’s second major league at-bat is still going on. When you mention unsung heroes in Dodgers history, Nen is one of the first names to enter the conversation because against Taylor, the left-handed Nen slugged a long drive over the right-field wall to tie the game. Dick Nen. Dick Nen! The Dodgers then rode Ron Perranoski’s six innings of shutout relief to a 6–5, 13-inning victory, and ended up burying the Cardinals six games back.
    Dick Nen’s second major league hit would come nearly 21 months later with another team in another league and before a crowd of 4,294—at Dodger Stadium of all places, but as a member of the Washington Senators in a road game against the California Angels. Nen, the father of major league reliever Robb Nen, never had another moment like he had in St. Louis in his first major league game. Then again, most of us have never had a moment like that, period.

23. Piazza
    The 1970s brought the Popeye arms of Steve Garvey and the 1980s had the majestic swing of Pedro Guerrero. But in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers, there might not have been a hitter as startling, as eye-popping, as fall-back-in-your-seat-in-amazing as Mike Piazza.
    His story as a Dodger was forever poisoned by his ungracious, day-the-music-died trade by the Dodgers to the Florida Marlins, shortly after the O’Malley family sold the team to News Corp.-owned Fox, and without the consent of general manager Fred Claire. Piazza’s name evokes as much lament as wonder. Sandy Koufax retired young, but he retired as a Dodger. Garvey and Fernando Valenzuela gave Los Angeles their best years, Kirk Gibson his best moment. All had the time they needed to celebrate a World Series title.
    Piazza was unique in Los Angeles history: a player firmly established as a future Hall of Famer that the Dodgers aloha ’ed with several Cooperstown-caliber years remaining. That the hitter who replaced him, Gary Sheffield, was his measure with the bat (with a higher career Los Angeles Dodger OPS+ than Piazza) footnotes the shock but doesn’t reduce it.
    Piazza emerged from an obscurity quite differently from Valenzuela’s, but from obscurity nonetheless. He began his professional career as an anecdote. He was the scion of a Tommy Lasorda boyhood chum named Vince Piazza, and the Dodgers selected him in the 62 nd round of the June 1988 draft, after 1,389 other players and before only 43 others, as a favor. The ties between Lasorda and the elder Piazza were such that when Piazza