OCTOBER 6, 1959 | LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – The biggest crowd to watch a major league baseball game – 92,706 – packed the Los Angeles Coliseum on this date in 1959 for game 5 of the World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The mammoth Coliseum was the Dodgers’ home during their first few years in Southern California (after moving from Brooklyn in 1957) until Dodger Stadium was built in 1962. A high screen had to be erected in left field because the coliseum’s dimensions (more suited for football than baseball) made the fence so short.
Oh, by the way, White Sox starter Dick Donovan beat a young Sandy Koufax 1-0.
The second and third largest baseball crowds were the other two World Series games played in Los Angeles that year. The Dodgers went on to defeat the White Sox in 6 games. It was the Dodgers first World Series appearance since leaving Brooklyn after the 1957 season, and the first White Sox World Series since the 1919 Black Sox scandal 40 years earlier.
The biggest crowd to watch a major league game of any kind was set the spring of 2008, also at the LA Coliseum. The 50th anniversary of the Dodgers playing at the Coliseum brought 115,300 out to watch an exhibition between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox.
Contributing Sources
October 6, 1959 box score & play-by-play
Baseball-Almanac
MLB attendance records
