GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN – PART 4

There are places in this world that become legendary, mystic and just wonderful, and in the sports world one such place did exist. Even to this day. People miss it and wonder why things happen. Brooklyn is just that place.

Brooklyn Dodgers 1889-1957

After winning the AA championship in 1889, the team moved to the National League and won the 1890 NL Championship, playing in Washington Park. They absorbed players of the defunct New York Metropolitans and Brooklyn Ward's Wonders. and the Dodgers merged with the Baltimore Orioles, as Baltimore manager Ned Hanlon became the club's new skipper and Charles Ebbets became the primary owner of the team.

Never officially called the Dodgers until 1932, the franchise used the Grays, the Grooms, the Bridegrooms, the Superbas and the Robins. Fans and sportswriters used these names to describe the team, but not in any official capacity. The legal name was the Brooklyn Base Ball Club. Trolley Dodger was the most used nickname throughout this period. Robins meant the manager Wilbert Robinson. Then in 1932, the name was emblazoned across the chest of the home uniforms for the first time, and eventually put on the road uniforms as well.

The first major-league baseball game to be televised was Brooklyn's 6–1 victory over Cincinnati at Ebbets Field on August 26, 1939.

In 1947, the Dodgers, under the direction of Branch Rickey, a true innovator in the game, broke the racial barriers that barred black players form Major League Baseball and signed Jackie Robinson to a contract with the parent club, which changed the course of the game.

The Dodgers were a hard luck perennial losing club, who finally started to jell in the early 40’s, shedding their bungling, laughable image for the most part. Not to say they were completely hopeless, they won a pennant in 1916, and 1920 as the Brooklyn Robins, the victim of an unassisted triple play against the Cleveland Indians, Twenty one years later they won again, and played against the New York Yankees, where Mickey Owen made history for his passed ball that cost Brooklyn, then known as the Dodgers the series. Then in 1947 and again in 1949 they won the pennant only to lose to the New York Yankees. The Fifties started out just as bad when it came to Series play, especially against the Yankees, when they won the pennants of: 1952, 53, 55 and 56, all against the New York Yankees. In 1955 however, the famous “Wait till next year” finally came, as they got their revenge on the Yankees. In 1956, their last year in the World Series, they were victimized once again, this time by an unknown pitcher by the name of Don Larson, who pitched the only perfect game in World Series history!

1956 was an eye opener for management, as the team looked to build a new stadium to replace the antiquated old ball park called Ebbets Field. A local was selected but Robert Moses opposed it and the beloved Dodgers decided to move, abandoning the “Flock”, the “Flatbush Faithful, dem Bums”!

In 1958, was the beginning of the:

Los Angeles Dodgers - 1958 to present.

All the old Brooklyn star players moved with the team, some fading and some of the youngsters from the farms began to mature and become great stars. The Los Angeles franchise achieved immediate success winning the pennant and World Series in their second year in LA in 1959, and winning 9 pennants and 5 World Championships since they moved.

Such stars as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Ron Cey, Ron leFebevre and Steve Garvey made their mark in the record books.

That’s all I wrote, folks!