The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together

Rating:
Summary: The Boys of Summer in Their Autumn
Review: Books relating to specific years have been popular over the past several years with mixed results. Author Michael Shapiro has provided us with an outstanding portrait of an aging Brooklyn Dodgers' team going down to the wire in the 1956 season to eek out a pennant over the Milwaukee Braves during the final days of the season. The book is really two separate stories. One involving a lot of politics between Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley and Robert Moses, an appointed New York official, over the location of a new playing site for the Dodgers. Moses wanted a site located on the present site of Shea Stadium while O'Malley wanted one nearer to Ebbets Field. Shapiro labels Moses as the villain in the move of the Dodgers while O'Malley needed help in acquiring a new stadium, but was not going to get it. Los Angeles promised him more than New York would even consider, so Walter made the move. The one thing O'Malley and Moses shared in common, according to Shapiro, was an ignorance between the team and its fans. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed with the politics involved between both sides in trying to get the deal each wanted, but Shapiro is very thorough in his research. The book's chapters are divided into each month of the baseball season and what took place during each month. A separate chapter is provided for the last week of the season and the World Series. Interesting stories about players such as Robinson, Campanella, Erskine, Reese, Furillo, Newcombe, Labine, and an early season pickup of Sal "The Barber" Maglie from the Cleveland Indians make for very interesting reading even if you are familiar with the Dodgers of this era from other books. It is ironic that former Giant and Dodger rival, Sal "The Barber" Maglie, was to be very instrumental in bringing the Dodgers home with the 1956 pennant. Interesting details of the deal that sent Maglie to the Dodgers from the Indians are provided. Maglie also authored his only no-hitter during the final week of the '56 season, before being victimized by Don Larsen's perfect game in the 5th game of the Series. For the most part America wanted the Milwaukee Braves to win the '56 pennant just to have a new team in the Series, but the St. Louis Cardinals snuffed out the Braves' hopes in St. Louis while the Dodgers were beating the Pirates in Brooklyn. If you feel you have read enough of the Brooklyn Dodgers in previous books, you owe it to yourself to read about this storied team during their Last Good Season.

Rating:
Summary: Brooklyn As It Was
Review: Even though I was only five years old when the Dodgers left Brooklyn, I always had a fond spot in my heart for the team. I collected Brookyn Dodger yearbooks over the years. This book, by Michael Shapiro, brought out many interesting facts which I did not know, such as it was only at the end of the season did the Dodgers actually sell out any games. Even though Ebbets Field only held 32,000 I assumed there were several sell outs during the season. Yes,the Dodgers were profitable but O'Malley was a business man and saw (like the Braves) he could make significantly more money. Knowing that area of Brooklyn, that if the stadium was built in 1957 and the teams which would have included Koufax and Drysdale they would have succeeded greatly. Also, the book points out the relationship between Robinson, Campenella and Newcombe. I was not aware of the relationship between the three. I could not believe Newcombe left Ebbets Field, after getting knocked out of the 7th game of the World Series. Yanks start Johnny Knucks against the leagues MVP and Cy Young winner and Newcombe gets knocked out and leaves the Field. I found it incredible that the day after the World Series the team leaves for Japan. I wonder how todays players would react. I wonder why Rachel Robinson declined to be interviewed by the author, I believe she could have added greatly to experiences at Ebbets Field and Brooklyn in the 1950's. I enjoyed the part when Sal Maglie first came to the Dodgers and his reception in the clubhouse. The best part was describing Brookyn in the 1940's and how it was transforming in the 1950's. I read the Boys of Summer many years ago, but this book by Michael Shapiro is clearly superior. I would recommend this book to any baseball fan from that era, especially Brooklyn Dodger fans. Both O'Malley and especially Robert Moses are the real villians here.

Rating:
Summary: Brooklyn As It Was
Review: Even though I was only five years old when the Dodgers left Brooklyn, I always had a fond spot in my heart for the team. I collected Brookyn Dodger yearbooks over the years. This book, by Michael Shapiro, brought out many interesting facts which I did not know, such as it was only at the end of the season did the Dodgers actually sell out any games. Even though Ebbets Field only held 32,000 I assumed there were several sell outs during the season. Yes,the Dodgers were profitable but O'Malley was a business man and saw (like the Braves) he could make significantly more money. Knowing that area of Brooklyn, that if the stadium was built in 1957 and the teams which would have included Koufax and Drysdale they would have succeeded greatly. Also, the book points out the relationship between Robinson, Campenella and Newcombe. I was not aware of the relationship between the three. I could not believe Newcombe left Ebbets Field, after getting knocked out of the 7th game of the World Series. Yanks start Johnny Knucks against the leagues MVP and Cy Young winner and Newcombe gets knocked out and leaves the Field. I found it incredible that the day after the World Series the team leaves for Japan. I wonder how todays players would react. I wonder why Rachel Robinson declined to be interviewed by the author, I believe she could have added greatly to experiences at Ebbets Field and Brooklyn in the 1950's. I enjoyed the part when Sal Maglie first came to the Dodgers and his reception in the clubhouse. The best part was describing Brookyn in the 1940's and how it was transforming in the 1950's. I read the Boys of Summer many years ago, but this book by Michael Shapiro is clearly superior. I would recommend this book to any baseball fan from that era, especially Brooklyn Dodger fans. Both O'Malley and especially Robert Moses are the real villians here.

Rating:
Summary: A baseball book with intellect and insight
Review: I found this book gripping in its remarkable story line. It is indeed much more than a baseball book in its insights into the social history of the time and place. The depictions of the team and its season made thrilling reading even though I knew the end of the tale. I was surprised,resistant, but ultimately convinced by the author's careful marshalling of documentary evidence that O'Malley really wasn't the evildoer that I had always pictured. It's a terrific read and a marvelous book.

Rating:
Summary: If You Liked The Boys of Summer, You'll Love This
Review: I was born in Brooklyn about four years after the Dodgers left for Los Angeles, so I never had the opportunity to experience the Brooklyn Dodgers firsthand, but Michael Shapiro does a wonderful job capturing the Dodgers final years in Brooklyn, and the struggle between Dodger owner Walter O'Malley, who wanted a new stadium in Brooklyn, and New York' master builder Robert Moses, who had other plans for the Brooklyn site and wanted (and eventually did) build a stadium in Queens.
Shapiro tells the story of the fight between O'Malley and Moses, and he truly captures how important the Dodgers were to Brooklyn. Although the team in their last few years in Brooklyn did not draw particularly well, they were still beloved, and an important part of the borough -- with stars such as Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges living in Brooklyn during the season, their wives shopping in local stores, and their children attending the local schools.
To a certain extent I'm sure many of the Brooklyn fans thought their team would never leave. The book illustrates, however, that the teams' fate was in the hands of O'Malley, a businessman only interested in turning a profit, and Moses, a planner who virtually ruled over New York for decades, was more powerful than many mayors, and literally changed the face of the city as well as the state. The fans, caught in the middle, counted for nothing.
Shapiro also portrays the personalities of many of the Dodger stars, with insight into clubhouse relationships and why they performed so well as a team.
In many ways this book is a study in urban politics and baseball. He shows how one affected the other in a profound way, and ultimately, with the move of the Dodgers and Giants to the West Coast, brought baseball into a new era.
If you like baseball or have an interest in New York politics, then this book is for you. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A great yet sad read
Review: I was just 3 years old the last time the Brooklyn Dodgers went to the World Series. In 1956 the Dodgers were an aging team and were probably not even the best team in the NL (that being the Milwaukee Braves). Ironically by picking up old enemy Sal Maglie, Brookyn won the pennant on the last day of the season. They lost the World Series to the Yankees in 7 games (Game 5 was Larsen's Perfect Game) and it was a credit to them that they were able to take a superior Yankee team the distance.
The next year the Dodgers finished third and were a team that was "past it's prime and past its time." Walter O'Malley was not a nice man by any means. He was devoted to his family and had a great sense of business but as Michael Shapiro points out, should not have been a baseball owner. O'Malley was strictly a bottom line owner - he counted how many butts were in the seats at Ebbets Field. If you went to one game a season but followed the Dodgers passionately over TV, the radio and newspapers, and argued about them in the luncheonette, then by O'Malley's reckoning you were not a real fan. O'Malley missed the mystical connection between team and fans. However as Shapiro makes known, the real villain was the ubiquitous and dictatorial Robert Moses and the notorious way that business was done (and is still done) in New York. Moses refused to condemn land (something he loved doing - condemning land) to build a new stadium. At heart Moses (as was O'Malley) was not even a baseball fan and had little connection to the average Joe Sixpack who followed the team. Shapiro's book as well as being a great account of the 1956 season, is in ceratin ways a sociology and urban history book of New York in the 1950's as well. It is apparent that as beloved as the Dodgers were, they have been romanticized by people such as Roger Kahn way out of proportion. Jackie Robinson comes across as a fierce competitor whose will to win was unmatched, but as not such a nice person. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to follow the ups and downs of a legendary team and have the truth revealed about the 1958 move to Los Angeles.

Rating:
Summary: A winner
Review: If you've ever read the Power Broker, if you've ever read The Boys of Summer, if you are curious about that postwar period that shaped the country, if you like baseball, then this is required reading. Fast pace, good background on the politics and personalities, a gripping pennant race. Elegantly vivid sentences like the one describing how at one point the politicos had a plan for a Jetson-like Brooklyn; the author said it could have been something that Robert Moses and Josef Stalin drew up together on a cocktail napkin.

Rating:
Summary: Superb look at the Dodgers and Brooklyn
Review: Michael Shapiro has done a fabulous job of bringing the 1956 National League pennant race to life. Reading this book makes that season as vivid as if it were this year's season. His telling of the machinations of Walter O'Malley and Robert Moses gives a great look at New York in the Fifties. Although long time Brooklyn residents may disagree, Shapiro points to Moses as the real villain behind the Dodgers' exit from New York. His reasoning is sound and he does a great job of showing O'Malley to be the conniving businessman he was.

Rating:
Summary: Superb look at the Dodgers and Brooklyn
Review: Michael Shapiro has done a fabulous job of bringing the 1956 National League pennant race to life. Reading this book makes that season as vivid as if it were this year's season. His telling of the machinations of Walter O'Malley and Robert Moses gives a great look at New York in the Fifties. Although long time Brooklyn residents may disagree, Shapiro points to Moses as the real villain behind the Dodgers' exit from New York. His reasoning is sound and he does a great job of showing O'Malley to be the conniving businessman he was.

Rating:
Summary: A great yet sad read
Review: Michael Shapiro, a journalism professor at Columbia, grew up hating Walter O'Malley for moving the beloved Dodgers from the borough of Brooklyn to the sprawling wasteland of Los Angeles. Shaprio was only 4 at the time the Dodgers and Giants abandoned their fans for the West Coast and nutured a long and virilent hatred of O'Malley for most of his life. "The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together" not only tells of the story of the only season the Brooklyn Dodgers ever played as defending World Champions, but reexamines the economics and urban planning issues that compelled O'Malley to make the big move.

The pennant race was a pretty good one, with the Dodgers clinching the the title on the final day of the season after battling off the upstart Cincinnati Reds of Frank Robinson and Wally Post, and the Milwaukee Braves of Henry Aaron, Ed Matthews, and Walter Spahn. The Dodgers indeed became the World Champions, finally defeating their cross-town rivals the New York Yankees when young southpaw Johnny Podres pitched a shutout in the deciding 7th game, but they were also getting old. Jackie Robinson would be playing his final season. The Dodgers would make it back to the World Series but lose again to the Yankees and fall victim to Don Larsen's perfect game.

But while the baseball season had plenty of on field drama, behind the scenes O'Malley wanted to build a new domed stadium designed by visionary architect R. Buckminster Fuller of Princeton at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues in Brooklyn. Ebbets field had lots of character, but it was old and it was small. Consequently, O'Malley told Mayor Robert F. Wagner and New York City's powerful urban planner Robert Moses that unless the city helped him build a new stadium for the Dodgers, the team was going to have to move. If you saw the Ken Burns documentary on "Baseball" you may well recall that Ebbets Field was built on a part of Brooklyn known as "Pig Town." O'Malley wanted to build his new stadium on the site of a meat market and needed the city to condemn the property so he could afford to buy it. However, Moses was planning yet another housing project for the same piece of land.

Of course, we know that no domed stadium grew in Brooklyn, but it still hard to shift the presumption of guilt from O'Malley to Moses. Shapiro points out that ever since he forced out Branch Rickey from the Dodger ownership in 1950 O'Malley had pushed for a new stadium. But O'Malley looked and talked the part of the villain in this story. The simple explanation, offered by Dodgers vice president Buzzie Bavasi, was that O'Malley "loved money too damn much." However, Shapiro provides ample evidence in "The Last Good Season" that O'Malley loved other things, such as his wife Kay, and that while he cannot be forgiven for the great sin of abandonment, there are mitigating circumstances that should be taken into account. More importantly, Shapiro is able to point to correspondence between O'Malley and Moses that showed O'Malley wanted to stay in Brooklyn but that Moses had already made up his mind.

But just as it is impossible to talk about the Brooklyn Dodgers team of 1956 without going back in history, the story of O'Malley and Moses goes back earlier as well. The most horrible revelation in the book for Brooklyn fans is that in 1953 Moses was apparently willing to let O'Malley build a new ballpark near the Pratt Institute. Moses then offered instead an unattractive site in Bedford-Stuyvesant and as the two exchanged letters it becomes painfully clear that the Brooklyn Dodgers, the heart of the borough, would not be allowed to build anywhere near its geographical center.

In the end, while the Dodgers played out their final season on the field, it is Moses whose dream of a modern stadium in Flushing Meadows, Queens, would end up with the creation of the New York Mets. But O'Malley became rich moving the Dodgers to Los Angeles and that ends up being the biggest sign of guilt in the public consciousness. Ironically, Shapiro makes a case for, if not forgiving O'Malley, then at least understanding that his greatest sin was that he could not see baseball as ever being more than a business. As such, O'Malley was certainly the most blatant owner to be hungry for money, but he was certainly not the only one in baseball.

As a Yankee fan I bear no love for the Dodgers, whatever coast they were playing on, but I certainly extend them the same sort of respect that Achilles had for Hector, Grant had for Lee, and Johnson and Bird had for each other. I picked up this book wanting to read about Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella and the other great ballplayers we see on the cover, safe in the knowledge that the Yankees would win the World Series. But instead what was captivating was the doomed dance between O'Malley and Moses as the days of the Dodgers in Brooklyn were numbered. As both a fan and a journalist, Shaprio's book provides both passion and objectivity. Those who love baseball should make a point of reading about these boys this summer.