1988 Los Angeles Sports: The Lakers & Dodgers Lead Up Hollywood Dreams
This is part of a series of sports history articles celebrating the best in 1988 sports. This piece asks the question of which geographic fan base had the best year in ’88.
There is not much doubt about where the place to be a sports fan was in 1988. You wanted to be in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Lakers had defined the city’s sports life throughout the 1980s, having already won four titles. In 1988 they won a repeat title. Today, successive NBA championships are the norm, but in 1988 it was the first time in nineteen years a team had gone back-to-back.
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The Dodgers were not without a track record of success themselves. The city’s baseball franchise won consecutive National League pennants in 1977-78, and then won the World Series in 1981. Division titles in 1983 and 1985 followed. The expectations weren’t great coming into 1988, but the results were. The Dodgers won another World Series title, with an upset of the heavily favored Oakland A’s, a series whose signature moment still lives on in baseball lore.
It was the Lakers and Dodgers who were at the heart of Hollywood Dreams, but like any great film, there were quality supporting actors.
The USC-UCLA football rivalry had a strong year with excellent quarterbacks. Both teams were in the mix for the national title and their head-to-head game was winner-take-all for a Rose Bowl bid. And the Rams, still several years away from bolting to St. Louis, had a crazy up-and-down year that teased with Super Bowl hopes, taunted with despair, and ended up with at least a playoff appearance.
Read more about the 1988 Los Angeles Lakers
Read more about the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers
Read more about the 1988 USC-UCLA Football Rivalry
Read more about the 1988 Los Angeles Rams
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