1959 World Series

The 1959 World Series featured the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers beating the American League champion Chicago White Sox, four games to two. It was the first pennant for the White Sox in 40 years (since the 1919 Black Sox Scandal). They would have to wait until their championship season of 2005 to win another pennant. The Dodgers won their first pennant since moving from Brooklyn in 1958 by defeating the Milwaukee Braves, two games to none, in a best-of-three-games pennant playoff. It was the Dodgers' second World Series championship in five years, their first in Los Angeles, and marked the first Championship for a West Coast team. It was the first ever World Series in which no pitcher for either team pitched a complete game.

Vin Scully remarked at the beginning of the official World Series film, "What a change of scenery!" This was the first Series since 1948 in which no games were played in New York, breaking the streak of the city that documentary filmmaker Ken Burns later called the 1950s' "Capital of Baseball". The Yankees won the AL pennant every year from 1949 through 1964, except for 1954, when the Cleveland Indians finished first (lost to the New York Giants in the World Series), and 1959 when the White Sox finished first. Al Lopez was the manager of both these teams.

The Dodgers found an unlikely hero when Chuck Essegian, who hit only one home run in 1959 and had only six in his career to that point, set a World Series record with two pinch-hit home runs.

Due to the best-of-three playoff, Game 1 was deferred from Wednesday, September 30, to Thursday, October 1. The normal travel days were retained between Games 2 and 3, and Games 5 and 6, resulting in the rare event of a Series with no Saturday game scheduled.

Games 3, 4 and 5 were:

• The first World Series games ever played on the West Coast;
• The first and only played in Memorial Coliseum;
• The only games in World Series history to exceed 90,000 in attendance: Game 5 drew 92,706 fans (a major league record as of 2012, unlikely to be broken under current arrangements, as no current MLB stadium has a capacity of even 70,000)

Larry Sherry of the Dodgers was the fifth consecutive pitcher to win the World Series Most Valuable Player Award (in only the fifth year it was awarded), following Johnny Podres (Brooklyn, 1955), Don Larsen (New York, 1956), Lew Burdette (Milwaukee, 1957), and Bob Turley (New York, 1958). Sherry, who had been born with club feet, finished all four games the Dodgers won, winning two and saving two. His brother Norm was the Dodgers' backup catcher.

Ted Kluszewski played for the losing "Pale Hose", but still managed to drive in a World Series record ten runs, and became the first player to have double-digit RBI totals for any length Series.

The Dodgers became the second National League team to win a World Series after relocating (the 1957 Milwaukee Braves being the first).

This was the most recent World Series to host the final World Series games of its host venues, a "distinction" it lost to the 2003 World Series after the original Yankee Stadium (1923) closed following the 2008 Major League Baseball season and the Florida Marlins moved out of Sun Life Stadium after the 2011 season.