Photos: Roz Wyman dies; council member helped bring the Dodgers to L.A.
Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro looks on after hitting a single in the seventh inning of a 6-0 loss to the Cardinals on Friday. Castro’s single turned out to be the game-winning run in the Cubs’ 5-3 victory over the Cardinals. Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images
After a morning meeting at the Wilpon family’s country home in Palm Harbor, Fla., baseball legend Whitey Ford showed up with his wife, daughter, son and grandson. On the morning of June 19, Ford was the winning owner of the White Sox when he won the first World Series in 86 years. On June 20, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ford, 82, also joined the Dodgers in 2014. The Wilpons gave two-time Cy Young winner Sandy Koufax the keys to the Dodgers’ parking lot in 1962, and he moved his family and a small team (including two young Dodgers, Sandy Amoros and Jack Graney) to Los Angeles that year.
Ford took the Dodgers to their first postseason in 1955 (lost in the NLCS), to their last World Series in 1963 (lost to the Yankees), and their first championship as Dodgers in 1965.
Ford’s daughter, Roz, died on May 30 at age 53. The Dodgers honored the family and the Chicago Cubs in a pregame ceremony before the July 4 game against St. Louis.
“We have lost the best,” Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw said after his Game 3 victory. “She and I both know how important this game truly is in life…. The most important thing in life is to get better, and she really, really did. She always felt like this has been her life’s work, and she lived it to the fullest every single day.”
The Dodgers used Kershaw seven times in the playoffs. He finished 3-0 (5.17 ERA) in the World Series against the Cardinals and the Cubs. The Cardinals, of course, swept a three-game home-field series, which, given baseball’s scheduling, makes it impossible to declare Kershaw a “winner.”
The Cubs, meanwhile, have gone from losing the 2016 NL wild card to the NL Central champion. They lost Game 1 of the World Series to the Boston Red Sox and have made it to the NL Championship Series once. They advanced to the
