There have been plenty of great players who have suited up for the Dodgers in their illustrious history spanning both the years in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. There are also some interesting connections that bring not only those two cities together, but also different generations of players together as well.
For this exercise, we went to the Oracle of Baseball within Baseball-Reference.com, an exercise that connects baseball players in the same way that “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” finds converging timelines between Hollywood stars. So, in this article, we will look at MLB and Negro League players that overlap to form a chain between two of the most iconic names in Los Angeles Dodgers history.
What MLB players connect Dodgers legends Jackie Robinson and Clayton Kershaw?
Let’s start our exercise in the 1945 season for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues, where Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige were on the same roster for a team that finished second in the Negro American League with a 43-32-3 record.
Interestingly, while Paige and Robinson were star names on the team, it was Booker McDaniel who would lead the Monarchs that season in bWAR at 3.7, thanks in part to pitching stats that included 13 complete games in 14 starts (25 games) as well as five saves.
Of course, both Robinson and Paige would Major League Baseball as well, and it’s with an MLB team that our chain continues.