Brooklyn Dodgers

 

Through a Blue Lens: The Brooklyn Dodger Photographs of Barney Stein, 1939-1957 by Dennis D'Agostino, Bonnie Crosby Hardcover from Triumph Books (IL) ISBN: 1572439521 As one of New York's legendary news photographers, Barney Stein covered everything from popes to presidents, from gangsters to glamour girls. But no job brought him more joy and fame than as the official team photographer for the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers. For two decades, his camera captured the Dodgers in all their glory, both on and off the field. Now, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers' last season in Brooklyn, Barney Stein's photos live again.

Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers by Peter Golenbock Paperback from Dover Publications ISBN: 0486477355 It's been over 50 years since they moved to Los Angeles, but the Brooklyn Dodgers remain ingrained in the fabric of our national pastime. Golenbock's oral history of these "lovable losers" tells the team's tale through the words of Pee Wee Reese, Leo Durocher, Duke Snider, and other Brooklyn greats.

The Greatest Ballpark Ever: Ebbets Field and the Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers by Robert M. McGee Paperback from Rutgers University Press ISBN: 0813536014 Generations after its demise, Ebbets Field remains the single most colorful and enduring image of a baseball park, with a treasured niche in the game's legacy and the American imagination. In this lively story of sports, politics, and the talented, hilarious, and charming characters associated with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Bob McGee chronicles the ballpark's vibrant history from the drawing board to the wrecking ball, beginning with Charley Ebbets and the heralded opening in 1913, on through the eras that followed. McGee weaves a story about how Ebbets Field's architectural details, notable flaws, and striking facade brought Brooklyn and its team together in ways that allowed each to define the other. Drawing on original interviews and letters, as well as published and archival sources, The Greatest Ballpark Ever explores the struggle of Charley Ebbets to build Ebbets Field, the days of Wilbert Robinson's early pennant winners, the eras of the Daffiness Boys, Larry MacPhail, and Branch Rickey, the tumultuous field leadership of Leo the Lip, the fiery triumph of Jackie Robinson, the golden days of the Boys of Summer, and Walter O'Malley's ignominious departure. With humor and passion, The Greatest Ballpark Ever lets readers relive a day in the raucous ballpark with its quirky angles and its bent right-field wall, with the characters and events that have become part of the nation's folklore.

Bums No More!: The Championship Season of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers by Stewart Wolpin Paperback from St Martins Pr ISBN: 0312150725 In all of sports history, there has rarely been a bond like the one that linked the Brooklyn Dodgers with their fans. Bums No More! is a brilliant account of the Dodgers' World Series victory--the year they finally beat the Yankees. More than a baseball book, in this nostalgic tribute for Brooklynites and baseball fans everywhere, over 125 photos capture the camaraderie and fervor of an entire borough.

Brooklyn's Dodgers: The Bums, the Borough, and the Best of Baseball, 1947-1957 by Carl E. Prince Paperback from Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0195115783 During the 1952 World Series, a Yankee fan trying to watch the game in a Brooklyn bar was told, "Why don't you go back where you belong, Yankee lover?" "I got a right to cheer my team," the intruder responded, "this is a free country." "This ain't no free country, chum," countered the Dodger fan, "this is Brooklyn." Brooklynites loved their "Bums"--Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, and all the murderous parade of regulars who, after years of struggle, finally won the World Series in 1955. One could not live in Brooklyn and not catch its spirit of devotion to its baseball club. In Brooklyn's Dodgers, Carl E. Prince captures the intensity and depth of the team's relationship to the community and its people in the 1950s. Ethnic and racial tensions were part and parcel of a working class borough; the Dodgers' presence smoothed the rough edges of the ghetto conflict always present in the life of Brooklyn. The Dodger-inspired baseball program at the fabled Parade Grounds provided a path for boys that occasionally led to the prestigious "Dodger Rookie Team," and sometimes, via minor league contracts, to Ebbets Field itself. There were the boys who lined Bedford Avenue on game days hoping to retrieve home run balls and the men in the many bars who were not only devoted fans but collectively the keepers of the Dodger past--as were Brooklyn women, and in numbers. Indeed, women were tied to the Dodgers no less than their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons; they were only less visible. A few, like Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Marianne Moore and working class stiff Hilda Chester were regulars at Ebbets Field and far from invisible. Prince also explores the underside of the Dodgers--the "baseball Annies," and the paternity suits that went with the territory. The Dodgers' male culture was played out as well in the team's politics, in the owners' manipulation of Dodger male egos, opponents' race-baiting, and the macho bravado of the team (how Jackie Robinson, for instance, would prod Giants' catcher Sal Yvars to impotent rage by signaling him when he was going to steal second base, then taunting him from second after the steal). The day in 1957 when Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, announced that the team would be leaving for Los Angeles was one of the worst moments in baseball history, and a sad day in Brooklyn's history as well. The Dodger team was, to a degree unmatched in other major league cities, deeply enmeshed in the life and psyche of Brooklyn and its people. In this superb volume, Carl Prince illuminates this "Brooklyn" in the golden years after the Second World War. This slim, illustrated volume makes a fascinating attempt at capturing in theoretical, sociological terms the love affair between the Dodgers--the team of Branch Rickey and Duke Snider, of Pee Wee Reese and, above all, Jackie Robinson--and the homely, family-oriented, working-class borough of Brooklyn in the 1950s. Robinson, a complex and courageous man, is captured here, warts and all; few remember that the gifted ballplayer denounced the great actor Paul Robeson to the House Un-American Activities Committee. But it's the glory of those summer days that lingers in the memories, and in the pages of this book.

After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball by Robert E. Murphy Hardcover from Union Square Press For New Yorkers especially Brooklynites 1957 will always be the year that lives in infamy. It was when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants delivered a one-two punch to the city by both abandoning their hometown for California. Millions of bereft and angry baseball fans wondered how such a thing could be allowed to happen: Who was to blame? After poring relentlessly through archives, original news stories, and government documents, Robert Murphy gives the most fully-researched answer to that question yet offered. Packed with history, rich in baseball lore and legend, this is a book that any New York history buff and all lovers of America's national pastime will relish. AFTER MANY A SUMMER reveals:  How baseball commissioner Ford Frick helped facilitate the teams' move to California Which plan for a new stadium would have appeased Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley and saved Brooklyn baseball How Robert Moses, who has received much blame, actually tried to solve the problem How O'Malley and Giants owner Horace Stoneham worked in tandem to make sure their popular rivalry would continue in LA How the two owners managed to carry out secret talks with California officials even while insisting they had no plans to leave New York

Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and theDodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles by Michael D'Antonio Paperback from Riverhead Trade From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist comes a revealing biography of "one of the most polarizing figures in baseball history" (The New York Times).  If ever there was a figure who changed the game of baseball, it was Walter O'Malley. Criticized in New York and beloved in Los Angeles, O'Malley was one of the most controversial owners in the history of American sports, altering the course of history when he uprooted the Dodgers and transplanted them to Los Angeles. While many critics attacked him, O'Malley looked to the future, declining to defend his stance. As a result, fans across the nation have never been able to stop arguing about him and his strategy-until now. Forever Blue is a uniquely intimate portrait of a man who changed America's pastime forever, a fascinating story fundamental to the history of sports, business, and the American West.

The Era, 1947-1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World by Roger Kahn Paperback from Bison Books ISBN: 0803278055 Celebrated sports writer Roger Kahn casts his gaze on the golden age of baseball, an unforgettable time when the game thrived as America's unrivaled national sport. The Era begins in 1947 with Jackie Robinson changing major league baseball forever by taking the field for the Dodgers. Dazzling, momentous events characterize the decade that followed-Robinson's amazing accomplishments; the explosion on the national scene of such soon-to-be legends as Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Bobby Thomson, Duke Snider, and Yogi Berra; Casey Stengel's crafty managing; the emergence of televised games; and the stunning success of the Yankees as they play in nine out of eleven World Series. The Era concludes with the relocation of the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, a move that shook the sport to its very roots.

The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers and Their Final Pennant Race Together by Michael Shapiro Paperback from Broadway Media Published: 2004- ISBN: 0767906888 In the bestselling tradition of The Boys of Summer and Wait 'Til Next Year, The Last Good Season is the poignant and dramatic story of the Brooklyn Dodgers' last pennant and the forces that led to their heartbreaking departure to Los Angeles. The 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers were one of baseball's most storied teams, featuring such immortals as Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, and Roy Campanella. The love between team and borough was equally storied, an iron bond of loyalty forged through years of adversity and sometimes legendary ineptitude. Coming off their first World Series triumph ever in 1955, against the hated Yankees, the Dodgers would defend their crown against the Milwaukee Braves and the Cincinnati Reds in a six-month neck-and-neck contest until the last day of the playoffs, one of the most thrilling pennant races in history. But as The Last Good Season so richly relates, all was not well under the surface. The Dodgers were an aging team at the tail end of its greatness, and Brooklyn was a place caught up in rapid and profound urban change. From a cradle of white ethnicity, it was being transformed into a racial patchwork, including Puerto Ricans and blacks from the South who flocked to Ebbets Field to watch the Dodgers' black stars. The institutions that defined the borough - the Brooklyn Eagle, the Brooklyn Navy Yard - had vanished, and only the Dodgers remained. And when their shrewd, dollar-squeezing owner, Walter O'Malley, began casting his eyes elsewhere in the absence of any viable plan to replace the aging Ebbets Field and any support from the all-powerful urban czar Robert Moses, the days of the Dodgers in Brooklyn were clearly numbered. Michael Shapiro, a Brooklyn native, has interviewed many of the surviving participants and observers of the 1956 season, and undertaken immense archival research to bring its public and hidden drama to life. Like David Halberstam's The Summer of '49, The Last Good Season combines an exciting baseball story, a genuine sense of nostalgia, and hard-nosed reporting and social thinking to reveal, in a new light, a time and place we only thought we understood. From the Hardcover edition.

Brooklyn Dodgers: The Last Great Pennant Drive, 1957 by John R. Nordell Jr. Kindle Edition from Tribute Books Media Published: 2007-   "No baseball summer is as memorable for me as that July when the Dodgers began a winning streak in a suddenly torrid, topsy-turvy National League pennant race." Fifty years after they played their last baseball game, the Brooklyn Dodgers are still remembered by millions of people. From 1947 to 1956 the Dodgers captured six out of ten National League pennants and they defeated the mighty New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series. The year 1957, however, is recalled mainly for the decision by Dodger president Walter O'Malley to move his team to Los Angeles the following year. Author John Nordell tells the story of the Dodgers' mid-season surge in the standings during that last year in Brooklyn. Using research from a variety of sources, Nordell recreates the excitement of following the Dodgers and their National League rivals in the daily drama of a five-team pennant race. The author also draws on his own youthful memories of that year and describes the unforgettable thrill of seeing a game at Ebbets Field. "No baseball summer is as memorable for me as that July when the Dodgers began a winning streak in a suddenly torrid, topsy-turvy National League pennant race." Fifty years after they played their last baseball game, the Brooklyn Dodgers are still remembered by millions of people. From 1947 to 1956 the Dodgers captured six out of ten National League pennants and they defeated the mighty New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series. The year 1957, however, is recalled mainly for the decision by Dodger president Walter O'Malley to move his team to Los Angeles the following year. Author John Nordell tells the story of the Dodgers' mid-season surge in the standings during that last year in Brooklyn. Using research from a variety of sources, Nordell recreates the excitement of following the Dodgers and their National League rivals in the daily drama of a five-team pennant race. The author also draws on his own youthful memories of that year and describes the unforgettable thrill of seeing a game at Ebbets Field.

The Dodgers - Giants Rivalry 1900 - 1957
by Marvin A. Cohen
(Paperback)

The Dodgers Encyclopedia
by William F. McNeil, Bill McNeil
(Hardcover)

The Brooklyn Dodgers (Images of Sports)
by Mark Rucker
(Paperback)

Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
by Peter Golenbock
Book Description: Before the team headed to Los Angeles in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were one of the most colorful and beloved teams in baseball. In Bums, bestselling author Peter Golenbock has compiled a fascinating oral history of the Ebbets Field heroes with recollections from former players, writers, front-office executives, and faithful fans. Dodgers legends such as Pee Wee Reese, Leo Durocher, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Ralph Branca, and many others recall the ups and downs of that unforgettable ball club in their own words.Among his many books are Dynasty, the definitive history of the 1949-1964 New York Yankees (also available from Contemporary Books); Wild, High, and Tight, his revealing biography of Yankees manager Billy Martin; and Wrigleyville, an oral history of the Chicago Cubs. He has been a frequent guest on many television shows, including A&E's Biography, ESPN's 50 Greatest Athletes, and Larry King Live. He lives in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
Paperback: 528 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.46 x 9.01 x 5.96
Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books; (May 1, )
ISBN: 0809223953

Brooklyn's Dodgers: The Bums, the Borough, and the Best of Baseball, 1947-1957
by Carl E. Prince
(Paperback)

The Brooklyn Dodgers: An Informal History
by Frank Graham, Jack Lang
First published in 1945 as part of the acclaimed Putnam series of team histories, Frank Graham’s colorful chronicle presents the Brooklyn Dodgers in “all their glory and all their daffiness” from the team’s beginnings as the Atlantics in 1883 through 1943, with a short summary of the 1944 season. 

In his foreword, Hall of Fame sports writer Jack Lang writes that “in an era that produced for New York sports fans such outstanding sportswriters as Grantland Rice, Sid Mercer, Bill Slocum, Bob Considine, and Tommy Holmes, one of the very best was Frank Graham, whose columns appeared in the New York Sun and later the Journal-American.” 

Graham covers every aspect of the Dodgers—games, fans, players, managers, executives. And these Dodgers produced their share of legends: Wee Willie Keeler, Mickey Owen, Dazzy Vance, Babe Herman, Charles H. Ebbets, Wilbert Robinson, Charles Byrne, Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher, Zack Wheat, Burleigh Grimes, Steve McKeever, Ed McKeever, Larry MacPhail, Max Carey, Dixie Walker, Branch Rickey, Dolph Camilli, Hugh Casey, Nap Rucker, Van Lingle Mungo, and the voice of the Dodgers, Red Barber. 

Dealing with the various executives, Graham notes that in the beginning, Charles Ebbets did everything from selling tickets and scorecards to helping out in the front office. In the 1930s, the inept Dodgers provoked laughter until Larry MacPhail moved from Cincinnati to Brooklyn in 1938; one year later, the Dodgers were contenders. When MacPhail departed for the Army after the 1942 season, Branch Rickey succeeded him. Rickey’s scouts signed every youngster who could hit, run, or throw, even though many of them were headed for the war. “When they came back in 1946,” Lang explains, “Rickey had cornered the market on the nation’s young talent—more than six hundred ballplayers.” 

This history of the Brooklyn Dodgers contains eighteen black-and-white illustrations. 

Paperback: 272 pages 
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (April 1, ) 
Language: English 
ISBN-10: 080932413X 

The Dodgers: Memories and Memorabilia from Brooklyn to L.A.
by Bruce Chadwick, David M. Spindel (Photographer)
(Hardcover - February 1993)

Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait
by Rachel Robinson
Listed under Jackie Robinson

Bums No More!: The Championship Season of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers
by Stewart Wolpin, Elliot Gould (Introduction)
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