History of the Brooklyn Dodgers - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the history of the team from 1958 onward, see History of the Los Angeles Dodgers
History of the Los Angeles Dodgers
The history of the Los Angeles Dodgers begins in the 19th century when the team was based in Brooklyn, New York.-Brooklyn Dodgers history:The franchise now known as the Dodgers was originally formed in 1883 as a member of the minor league Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs...

. For information on the franchise in general, see Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...

.

Early Brooklyn baseball

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

was home to numerous baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

clubs in the mid-1850s. Eight of 16 participants in the first convention

National Association of Base Ball Players

The National Association of Base Ball Players was the first organization governing American baseball. The first, 1857 convention of sixteen New York City clubs...

were from Brooklyn, including the Atlantic

Brooklyn Atlantics

The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty.Established in 1855, Atlantic was a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1857. In 1859, with a record of 11 wins and 1 loss, Atlantic emerged as the recognized champions of...

, Eckford, and Excelsior clubs that combined to dominate play for most of the 1860s. Brooklyn helped make baseball commercial, as the locale of the first paid admission games, a series of three all star contests matching New York and Brooklyn in 1858. Brooklyn also featured the first two enclosed baseball grounds, the Union Grounds

Union Grounds

Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862 and was the first baseball park enclosed entirely by a fence, thereby allowing proprietor William Cammeyer or his tenant to charge admission, permitting only paying customers to...

and the Capitoline Grounds

Capitoline Grounds

The Capitoline Grounds, also known as Capitoline Skating Lake and Base Ball Ground, was a baseball park in Brooklyn, New York from 1864 to 1880. It was built to rival nearby Union Grounds, also in Brooklyn...

; enclosed, dedicated ballparks accelerated the evolution from amateur

Amateur

An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....

ism to professional

Professional

A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

ism.

Despite the success of Brooklyn clubs in the first Association, officially amateur until 1869, they fielded weak teams in the succeeding National Association of Professional Base Ball Players

National Association of Professional Base Ball Players

The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players , or simply the National Association , was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 season...

, the first professional league formed in 1871. The Excelsiors no longer challenged for the amateur championship after the Civil War and never entered the professional NA. The Eckfords and Atlantics declined to join until 1872 and thereby lost their best players; Eckford survived only one season and Atlantic four, with losing teams.

The National League

National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

replaced the NA in 1876 and granted exclusive territories to its eight members, excluding the Atlantics in favor of the New York Mutuals

New York Mutuals

The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players. It was a charter...

, who had shared the same home grounds. When the Mutuals were expelled by the league, the Hartford Dark Blues

Hartford Dark Blues

The Hartford Dark Blues were a 19th century baseball team. The team was based in Hartford, Connecticut.-History:They were a member of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1874 and 1875 and the National League in 1876 and 1877...

club moved in, changed its name to The Brooklyn Hartfords and played its home games at Union Grounds in 1877 before disbanding.

The origin of the Dodgers

The team currently known as the Dodgers was formed (as the "Brooklyn Grays") in 1883 by real estate magnate and baseball enthusiast Charles Byrne

Charlie Byrne (baseball)

Charles H. Byrne was a New York realtor who was one of the original founders of the team that became the Brooklyn Dodgers....

, who convinced his brother-in-law Joseph Doyle

Joseph Doyle (baseball)

Joseph Doyle was the brother-in-law of Charlie Byrne and part of the original ownership team of what became the Brooklyn Dodgers.-External links:**...

and casino operator Ferdinand Abell

Ferdinand Abell

Ferdinand A. Abell was one of the original founders of the team that became the Brooklyn Dodgers. A Rhode Island casino owner, he put up most of the money to form the team in 1883 and also was the leading financing behind the building of Washington Park, the home of the ballclub.He stuck primarily...

to start the team with him. Byrne set up a grandstand on Fifth Avenue and named it Washington Park in honor of George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

. The team played in the minor Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs

International League

The International League is a minor league baseball league that operates in the eastern United States. Like the Pacific Coast League and the Mexican League, it plays at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball. It was so named because it had teams in both the United States...

that first season. Doyle became the first manager of the team, which drew 6,000 fans to its first home game on May 12, 1883 against the Trenton

Trenton, New Jersey

Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...

team. The team won the league title after the Camden Merritt club disbanded on July 20 and Brooklyn picked up some of its better players. The Grays were invited to join the American Association

American Association (19th century)

The American Association was a Major League Baseball league that existed for 10 seasons from to . During that time, it challenged the National League for dominance of professional baseball...

for the following season.

After winning the AA championship in 1889, the team moved to the National League

National League

and won the 1890 NL Championship, the first Major League team to win consecutive championships in two different leagues. Their success during this period was partly attributed to their absorbing the players of the defunct New York Metropolitans

New York Metropolitans

The Metropolitan Club was a 19th-century professional baseball team that played in New York City from 1880 to 1887...

and Brooklyn Ward's Wonders

Brooklyn Ward's Wonders

The Brooklyn Ward's Wonders was a team who played in the Players' League in 1890. The team's nickname derived from its superstar shortstop, hall of famer John Montgomery Ward. The team finished with a 76-56 record, good enough to finish in second place. Other notable players for Brooklyn that...

. In 1899, the Dodgers merged with the Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles (19th century)

The Baltimore Orioles were a 19th-century American Association and National League team from 1882 to 1899. The club, which featured numerous future Hall of Famers, finished in first place three consecutive years and won the Temple Cup championship in 1896 and 1897...

, as Baltimore manager Ned Hanlon became the club's new skipper and Charles Ebbets

Charles Ebbets

Charles Hercules Ebbets, Sr. was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1902 to 1925.-Biography:...

became the primary owner of the team.

The team's nickname

By 1890, New Yorkers (Brooklyn was a separate city until it became a borough in 1898) routinely called anyone from Brooklyn a "trolley dodger", due to the vast network of street car lines criss-crossing the borough as people dodged trains to cross the streets. When the second Washington Park burned down early in the 1891 season, the team moved to nearby Eastern Park, which was bordered on two sides by street car tracks. That's when the team was first called the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. That was soon shortened to Brooklyn Dodgers. Possibly because of the "street character" nature of Jack Dawkins, the "Artful Dodger" in Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

' Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...

, sportswriters in the early 20th Century began referring to the Dodgers as the "Bums".

Other team names used by the franchise which would finally be called the Dodgers were the Grays, the Grooms, the Bridegrooms, the Superbas and the Robins. All of these nicknames were used by fans and sportswriters to describe the team, but not in any official capacity. The team's legal name was the Brooklyn Base Ball Club. However, the Trolley Dodger nickname was used throughout this period, along with these other nicknames, by fans and sportswriters of the day. The team did not use the name in any formal sense until 1932, when the word "Dodgers" appeared on jerseys for the team. The "conclusive shift" came in 1933, when both home and road jerseys for the team bore the name "Dodgers".

Examples of how the many popularized names of the team were used interchangeably are available from newspaper articles from the period before 1932. A New York Times article describing a game the Dodgers played in 1916 starts out by referring to how "Jimmy Callahan, pilot of the Pirates, did his best to wreck the hopes the Dodgers have of gaining the National League pennant", but then goes on to comment "the only thing that saved the Superbas from being toppled from first place was that the Phillies lost one of the two games played". What is interesting about the use of these two nicknames is that most baseball statistics sites and baseball historians generally now refer to the pennant-winning 1916 Brooklyn team as the Robins. A 1918 New York Times article does use the nickname Robins in its title "Buccaneers Take Last From Robins", but the subtitle of the article reads "Subdue The Superbas By 11 To 4, Making Series An Even Break".

Another example of the interchangeability of the different nicknames is found on the program issued at Ebbets Field for the 1920 World Series

1920 World Series

-Game 1:Tuesday, October 5, 1920 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York-Game 2:Wednesday, October 6, 1920 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York-Game 3:Thursday, October 7, 1920 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York-Game 4:...

, which identifies the matchup in the series as "Dodgers vs. Indians", despite the fact that the Robins nickname had been in consistent usage at this point for around six years.

Rivalry with the Giants

The historic and heated rivalry between the Dodgers and the Giants

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....

is more than a century old. It began when both clubs played in New York City (the Dodgers in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

and the Giants in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

). When both franchises moved to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

after the 1957 season, the rivalry was easily transplanted, as the cities of Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

and San Francisco have long been rivals in economics, culture, and politics.

"Uncle Robbie” and the "Daffiness Boys"

Manager Wilbert Robinson

Wilbert Robinson

Wilbert Robinson , nicknamed "Uncle Robbie", was an American catcher, coach and manager in Major League Baseball...

, another former Oriole

Baltimore Orioles (19th century)

, popularly known as “Uncle Robbie", restored the Brooklyn team to respectability. His "Brooklyn Robins" reached the 1916

1916 World Series

In the 1916 World Series, the Boston Red Sox beat the Brooklyn Robins four games to one.Casey Stengel shone on offense for the Robins in the 1916 Series but the Red Sox pitching core ultimately proved too much for the denizens of Flatbush...

and 1920 World Series

1920 World Series

, losing both, but contending perennially for several seasons. Charles Ebbets and Ed McKeever died within a week of each other in 1925, and Robbie was named president while still field manager. Upon assuming the title of president, however, Robinson’s ability to focus on the field declined, and the teams of the late 1920s were often fondly referred to as the "Daffiness Boys" for their distracted, error-ridden style of play. Outfielder Babe Herman

Babe Herman

Floyd Caves "Babe" Herman was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who was best known for his several seasons with the Brooklyn Robins ....

was the leader both in hitting and in zaniness. The signature Dodger play from this era occurred when Herman doubled into a double play

Double play

In baseball, a double play for a team or a fielder is the act of making two outs during the same continuous playing action. In baseball slang, making a double play is referred to as "turning two"....

, in which three players – Dazzy Vance

Dazzy Vance

Charles Arthur "Dazzy" Vance was a star Major League Baseball starting pitcher during the 1920s.-Biography:...

, Chick Fewster

Chick Fewster

Wilson Lllyd "Chick" Fewster is a former Major League Baseball player. He played for the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, and Brooklyn Robins. In his career, he hit 6 home runs and drove in 167 RBI. He died of coronary occlusion at age 49.Fewster played for the Yankees in the...

, and Herman – all ended up at third base at the same time. After his removal as club president, Robinson returned to managing, and the club’s performance rebounded somewhat.

When Robinson retired in 1931, he was replaced as manager by Max Carey

Max Carey

Max George Carey was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who starred for the Pittsburgh Pirates and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1961...

. Although some suggested renaming the "Robins" the "Brooklyn Canaries", after Carey (whose last name was originally "Carnarius"), the name "Brooklyn Dodgers" returned to stay following Robinson's retirement. It was during this era that Willard Mullin

Willard Mullin

Willard Mullin was an American sports cartoonist. He is most famous for his creation of the "Brooklyn Bum", the personification of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team...

, a noted sports cartoonist

Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...

, fixed the Brooklyn team with the lovable nickname of "Dem Bums". After hearing his cab driver ask, "So how did those bums do today?", Mullin decided to sketch an exaggerated version of famed circus clown Emmett Kelly

Emmett Kelly

Emmett Leo Kelly , a native of Sedan, Kansas, was an American circus performer, who created the memorable clown figure "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Depression era.- Career development :...

to represent the Dodgers in his much-praised cartoons in the New York World-Telegram
New York World-Telegram
The New York World-Telegram, later known as the New York World-Telegram and Sun, was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966.-History:...

. Both image and nickname caught on, so much so many a Dodger yearbook cover, from 1951 through 1957, featured a Willard Mullin illustration of the Brooklyn Bum.

Perhaps the highlight of the Daffiness Boys era came after Wilbert Robinson left the dugout. In 1934

1934 in baseball

-Major League Baseball:*World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Detroit Tigers *All-Star Game, July 10 at Polo Grounds: American League, 9-7-Awards and honors:*Most Valuable Player:**American League: Mickey Cochrane, Detroit Tigers, C...

, Giants player/manager Bill Terry

Bill Terry

William Harold Terry was a Major League Baseball first baseman and manager. Considered one of the greatest players of all time, Terry was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954. In 1999, he ranked number 59 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee...

was asked about the Dodgers’ chances in the coming pennant race and cracked infamously, "Is Brooklyn still in the league?" Managed now by Casey Stengel

Casey Stengel

Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel , nicknamed "The Old Perfessor", was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in ....

(who played for the Dodgers in the 1910s and would go on to greatness managing the New York Yankees

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

), the 1934

1934 Brooklyn Dodgers season

Casey Stengel took over as manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but the team still finished in 6th place.- Offseason :* December, 1933: Art Herring was purchased by the Dodgers from the Detroit Tigers....

Dodgers were determined to make their presence felt. As it happened, the season entered its final games with the Giants

1934 New York Giants season

The 1934 New York Giants season was the tenth season for the club in the National Football League. The Giants denied the Bears a perfect season as the Giants went on to win what would become known as the "Sneakers Game".-Schedule:-Standings:...

tied with the St. Louis Cardinals

1934 St. Louis Cardinals season

The St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 53rd season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 43rd season in the National League. The Cardinals went 95-58 during the season and finished first in the National League...

for the pennant, with the Giants’ remaining games against the Dodgers. Stengel led his Bums to the Polo Grounds

Polo Grounds

The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963...

for the showdown, and they beat the Giants twice to knock them out of the pennant race. The "Gashouse Gang

Gashouse Gang

The Gashouse Gang was a nickname applied to the St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball team of .The Cardinals, by most accounts, earned this nickname from the team's generally very shabby appearance and rough-and-tumble tactics...

" Cardinals nailed the pennant by beating the Cincinnati Reds

Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....

those same two days.

One key development during this era was the 1938 appointment of Leland "Larry" MacPhail

Larry MacPhail

Leland Stanford "Larry" MacPhail, Sr. was an American lawyer, and an executive and innovator in Major League Baseball.-Biography:...

as Dodgers' general manager. MacPhail, who brought night baseball to MLB as general manager of the Reds, also introduced Brooklyn to night baseball and ordered the successful refurbishing of Ebbets Field. He also brought Reds voice Red Barber

Red Barber

Walter Lanier "Red" Barber was an American sportscaster.Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds , Brooklyn Dodgers , and New York Yankees...

to Brooklyn as the Dodgers' lead announcer in 1939, just after MacPhail broke the New York baseball executives' agreement to ban live baseball broadcasts, enacted because of the fear of what effect the radio calls would have on the home teams' attendance.

MacPhail remained with the Dodgers until 1942, when he returned to the Armed Forces for World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. (He later became one of the Yankees' co-owners, bidding unsuccessfully for Barber to join him in the Bronx as announcer.) MacPhail's son Leland Jr.

Lee MacPhail

Leland Stanford MacPhail, Jr. is an American retired front-office executive in Major League Baseball...

and grandson Andy

Andy MacPhail

Andy MacPhail is the former president of baseball operations for the Baltimore Orioles. He was the president/CEO of the National League Chicago Cubs from September 9, 1994 until October 1, 2006...

also became MLB executives.

The first major-league baseball game to be televised

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

was Brooklyn

1939 Brooklyn Dodgers season

The Brooklyn Dodgers started the year with a new manager, Leo Durocher, who became both the team's manager and starting shortstop. They also became the first New York team to have a regular radio broadcast, with Red Barber handed the announcers job...

's 6–1 victory over Cincinnati

1939 Cincinnati Reds season

The Cincinnati Reds season was a season in American baseball. The team finished first in the National League, winning the pennant by 4½ games over the St. Louis Cardinals with a record of 97-57...

at Ebbets Field on August 26, 1939. Batting helmet

Batting helmet

A batting helmet is the protective headgear worn by batters in the game of baseball or softball. It is meant to protect the batter's head from errant pitches thrown by the pitcher...

s were introduced to Major League Baseball by the Dodgers in 1941.

Breaking the color barrier

For most of the first half of the 20th century, no Major League Baseball team employed a black player. A parallel system of Negro Leagues

Negro league baseball

The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...

developed, but most of the Negro League players were denied a chance to prove their skill before a national audience. Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...

became the first African-American to play Major League baseball in the 20th Century when he played his first major league game on April 15, 1947 as a member of the Dodgers. Robinson's entry into the league was mainly due to General Manager Branch Rickey

Branch Rickey

Wesley Branch Rickey was an innovative Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967...

's efforts. The deeply religious Rickey's motivation appears to have been primarily moral, although business considerations were also present. Rickey was a member of The Methodist Church, the antecedent denomination to The United Methodist Church of today, which was a strong advocate for social justice

Social justice

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

and active later in the Civil Rights movement.

Besides selecting Robinson for his exceptional baseball skills, Rickey also considered Robinson's outstanding personal character in his decision, since he knew that boos

Booing

Booing is an act of showing displeasure for someone or something, generally an entertainer, by loudly yelling boo! or making other noises of disparagement, such as hissing. People may make hand signs at the entertainer, such as the thumbs down sign...

, taunts, and criticism would be directed at Robinson and that Robinson would have to be tough enough to withstand this abuse without attempting to retaliate.

The inclusion of Robinson on the team also led the Dodgers to move its spring training

Spring training

In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...

site. Prior to 1946, the Dodgers held their spring training in Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

. However, the city's stadium refused to host an exhibition game with the Montreal Royals

Montreal Royals

The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec, that existed from 1897–1917 and from 1928–60 as a member of the International League and its progenitor, the original Eastern League...

– the Dodgers’ own farm club – on whose roster Robinson appeared at the time, citing segregation laws. Nearby Sanford

Sanford, Florida

Sanford is a city in, and the county seat of, Seminole County, Florida, United States. The population was 38,291 at the 2000 census. As of 2009, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 50,998...

similarly declined. Ultimately, City Island Ballpark in Daytona Beach

Daytona Beach, Florida

Daytona Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, USA. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city has a population of 64,211. Daytona Beach is a principal city of the Deltona – Daytona Beach – Ormond Beach, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which the census bureau estimated had...

agreed to host the game with Robinson on the field. The team would return to Daytona Beach for spring training in 1947, this time with Robinson on the big club. Although the Dodgers ultimately built Dodgertown and its Holman Stadium

Holman Stadium (Vero Beach)

Holman Stadium is a baseball stadium in Vero Beach, Florida, built in 1953 to accommodate spring training for the Dodgers as part of a complex called Dodgertown. In addition to the Dodgers' spring games, it was also the home of the Vero Beach Devil Rays of the Florida State League, through the...

further south in Vero Beach

Vero Beach, Florida

Vero Beach is a city in Indian River County, Florida, USA. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 estimates, the city had a population of 16,939. It is the county seat of Indian River County...

, and played there for 61 spring training seasons from 1948 through 2008, Daytona Beach would rename City Island Ballpark to Jackie Robinson Ballpark in his honor.

This event was the continuation of the integration of professional sports in the United States, with professional football having led the way in 1946, with the concomitant demise of the Negro Leagues

Negro league baseball

, and is regarded as a key moment in the history of the American civil rights movement. Robinson was an exceptional player, a speedy runner

Stolen base

In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate...

who sparked the team with his intensity. He was the inaugural recipient of the Rookie of the Year award, which is now named the Jackie Robinson award in his honor. The Dodgers' willingness to integrate, when most other teams refused to, was a key factor in their 1947–1956 success. They won six pennants in those 10 years with the help of Robinson, three-time MVP Roy Campanella

Roy Campanella

Roy Campanella , nicknamed "Campy", was an American baseball player, primarily at the position of catcher, in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball...

, Cy Young Award winner Don Newcombe

Don Newcombe

Donald Newcombe , nicknamed "Newk", is an American former Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher who played for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers , Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians .Until 2011 when Detroit Tigers Pitcher Justin Verlander did it, Newcombe was the only baseball...

, Jim Gilliam

Jim Gilliam

James William Gilliam was an American second and third baseman and coach in Negro League and Major League Baseball who spent his entire major league career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. He was named the National League Rookie of the Year, and was a key member of ten NL championship...

, and Joe Black

Joe Black

Joseph Black was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro League and Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Redlegs, and Washington Senators who became the first black pitcher to win a World Series game, in 1952. Black died of prostate cancer at age 78.A native of Plainfield,...

. Robinson would eventually go on to become the first African-American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

"Wait ’til next year!"

After the wilderness years of the 1920s and 1930s, the Dodgers were rebuilt into a contending club first by general manager Larry MacPhail

Larry MacPhail

Leland Stanford "Larry" MacPhail, Sr. was an American lawyer, and an executive and innovator in Major League Baseball.-Biography:...

and then the legendary Branch Rickey

Branch Rickey

Wesley Branch Rickey was an innovative Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967...

. Led by Pee Wee Reese

Pee Wee Reese

Harold Peter Henry "Pee Wee" Reese was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers from to . A ten-time All Star, Reese contributed to seven National League championships for the Dodgers and, was inducted...

, Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...

and Gil Hodges

Gil Hodges

Gilbert Ray Hodges was an American Major League Baseball first baseman and manager. During an 18-year baseball career, he played in 1943 and from 1947–63, spending most of his career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers...

in the infield, Duke Snider

Duke Snider

Edwin Donald "Duke" Snider , nicknamed "The Silver Fox" and "The Duke of Flatbush", was a Major League Baseball center fielder and left-handed batter who played for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers , New York Mets , and San Francisco Giants .Snider was elected to the National Baseball Hall of...

in center field, Carl Furillo

Carl Furillo

Carl Anthony Furillo , nicknamed "The Reading Rifle" and "Skoonj," was a right fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers...

in right field, Roy Campanella

Roy Campanella

Roy Campanella , nicknamed "Campy", was an American baseball player, primarily at the position of catcher, in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball...

behind the plate, and Don Newcombe

Don Newcombe

on the pitcher's mound, the Dodgers won pennants in , , , , and , only to fall to the New York Yankees

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

in all five of the subsequent World Series.
The annual ritual of building excitement, followed in the end by disappointment, became a common pattern to the long suffering fans, and "Wait ’til next year!" became an unofficial Dodger slogan.

While the Dodgers generally enjoyed success during this period, in they fell victim to one of the largest collapses in the history of baseball. On August 11, 1951

1951 Brooklyn Dodgers season

The Brooklyn Dodgers led the National League for much of the season, holding a 13 game lead as late as August. However, a late season swoon and a hot streak by the New York Giants led to a classic three-game playoff series...

, Brooklyn led the National League by an enormous 13½ games over their archrivals, the Giants

1951 New York Giants (MLB) season

The New York Giants season saw the Giants finish the regular season in a tie for first place in the National League with a record of 96 wins and 58 losses. This prompted a three-game playoff against the Brooklyn Dodgers, which the Giants won in three games, clinched by Bobby Thomson's walk-off...

. While the Dodgers went 26–22 from that time until the end of the season, the Giants went on an absolute tear, winning an amazing 37 of their last 44 games, including their last seven in a row. At the end of the season the Dodgers and the Giants were tied for first place, forcing a three-game playoff for the pennant. The Giants took Game 1 by a score of 3–1 before being shut out by the Dodgers' Clem Labine

Clem Labine

Clement Walter Labine was an American right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball best known for his years with the Brooklyn & Los Angeles Dodgers from 1950 to 1960...

in Game 2, 10–0. It all came down to the final game, and Brooklyn seemed to have the pennant locked up, holding a 4–2 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning. Giants outfielder, Bobby Thomson

Bobby Thomson

Robert Brown "Bobby" Thomson was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "The Staten Island Scot", he was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants , Milwaukee Braves , Chicago Cubs , Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles .His season-ending three-run...

, however, hit a stunning three-run walk-off home run

Walk-off home run

In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. It must be a home run that gives the home team the lead in the bottom of the final inning of the game—either the ninth inning, or any extra inning, or any other regularly scheduled final inning...

off the Dodgers' Ralph Branca

Ralph Branca

Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball.From 1944 through 1956, Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers , Detroit Tigers , and New York Yankees...

to secure the NL Championship for New York. To this day Thomson's home run is known as the Shot Heard 'Round The World

Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball)

In baseball, the "Shot Heard 'round the World" is the term given to the walk-off home run hit by New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca at the Polo Grounds to win the National League pennant at 3:58 p.m...

.

In 1955 by which time the core of the Dodger team was beginning to age "next year" finally came. The fabled "Boys of Summer" shot down the "Bronx Bombers" in seven games, led by the first-class pitching of young left-hander Johnny Podres

Johnny Podres

John Joseph Podres was an American left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers...

, whose key pitch was a changeup

Changeup

A changeup is a type of pitch in baseball. Other names include change-of-pace, Bugs Bunny change-up, the dreaded equalizer, and simply change. The changeup is sometimes called an off-speed pitch, although that term can also be used simply to mean any pitch that is slower than a fastball...

known as "pulling down the lampshade" because of the arm motion used right when the ball was released. Podres won two Series games, including the deciding seventh. The turning point of Game 7 was a spectacular double play that began with left fielder Sandy Amoros

Sandy Amorós

Edmundo "Sandy" Amorós Isasi was a Cuban left fielder in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers. Amorós was born in Havana. He both batted and threw left-handed...

running down Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a former American Major League Baseball catcher, outfielder, and manager. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...

’s long fly ball, then throwing to shortstop

Shortstop

Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball fielding position between second and third base. Shortstop is often regarded as the most dynamic defensive position in baseball, because there are more right-handed hitters in baseball than left-handed hitters, and most hitters have a tendency to pull the...

Pee Wee Reese

, who doubled up a surprised Gil McDougald

Gil McDougald

Gilbert James McDougald was an American infielder who spent all ten seasons of his Major League Baseball career with the New York Yankees from 1951 to 1960. He was a member of eight American League pennant winners and five World Series Champions. He was also the AL Rookie of the Year in 1951 and...

at first base to preserve the Dodger lead. The Dodgers won 2–0.

Although the Dodgers

1956 Brooklyn Dodgers season

The 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers edged out the Milwaukee Braves to win the National League title. The Dodgers again faced the New York Yankees in the World Series...

lost the World Series to the Yankees

1956 New York Yankees season

The New York Yankees season was the 54th season for the team in New York, and its 56th season overall. The team finished with a record of 97-57, winning their 22nd pennant, finishing 9 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians. New York was managed by Casey Stengel. The Yankees played their home games...

in (during which the Yankees pitcher Don Larsen

Don Larsen

Donald James Larsen is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. During a 15-year baseball career, he pitched from 1953-67 for seven different teams. Larsen is best known for pitching the sixth perfect game in baseball history, doing so in game 5 of the 1956 World Series...

pitched the only postseason perfect game

Perfect game

A perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base. Thus, the pitcher cannot allow any hits, walks, hit batsmen, or any opposing player to reach base safely for any...

in baseball history, and the only post-season no-hitter for the next 54 years), it hardly seemed to matter. Brooklyn fans had their memory of triumph, and soon that would be all they were left with – a victory that decades later would be remembered in the Billy Joel

Billy Joel

William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...

single "We Didn't Start the Fire

We Didn't Start the Fire

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song by Billy Joel. Its lyrics are made up from rapid-fire brief allusions to over a hundred headline events between March 1949 and 1989, when the song was released on his album Storm Front...

", which included the line, "Brooklyn's got a winning team."

Move to California

Real estate businessman Walter O'Malley

Walter O'Malley

Walter Francis O'Malley was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from to . He served as Brooklyn Dodgers chief legal counsel when Jackie Robinson broke the racial color barrier in...

had acquired majority ownership of the Dodgers in 1950, when he bought the shares of his co-owners, Branch Rickey and the estate of the late John L. Smith. Before long he was working to buy new land in Brooklyn to build a more accessible and better arrayed ballpark than Ebbets Field

Ebbets Field

Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball park located in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, USA, on a city block which is now considered to be part of the Crown Heights neighborhood. It was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. It was also a venue for professional football...

. Beloved as it was, Ebbets Field had grown old and was not well served by infrastructure, to the point where the Dodgers could not sell the park out even in the heat of a pennant race (despite largely dominating the league from 1946

1946 in baseball

-Major League Baseball:*World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Boston Red Sox *All-Star Game, July 9 at Fenway Park: American League, 12–0-Other champions:*Negro League World Series: Newark Eagles over Kansas City Monarchs...

to 1957

1957 in baseball

-Major League Baseball:*World Series: Milwaukee Braves over New York Yankees ; Lew Burdette, MVP*All-Star Game, July 9 at Busch Stadium: American League, 6-5-Other champions:*Caribbean World Series: Marianao *College World Series: California...

).

New York City Construction Coordinator Robert Moses

Robert Moses

Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...

, however, sought to force O'Malley into using a site in Flushing Meadows, Queens – the site for what eventually became Shea Stadium

Shea Stadium

William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...

. Moses's vision involved a city-built, city-owned park, which was greatly at odds with O'Malley's real-estate savvy. When it became clear to O'Malley that he was not going to be allowed to buy any suitable land in Brooklyn, he began thinking elsewhere.

Walter O'Malley was free to purchase land of his own choosing but needed Robert Moses to condemn land along the Atlantic Railroad Yards (O'Malley's preferred choice) in downtown Brooklyn under Title I authority. Title I gave the city municipality power to condemn land for the purpose of building what it calls "public purpose" projects. Moses's interpretation of "public purpose" was to build public parks, public housing and public highways/bridges. What O'Malley wanted was for Moses to use this authority rather than pay market value for the land. With Title I, the city, aka Robert Moses, could have sold the land to O'Malley at a below market price. Robert Moses refused to honor O'Malley's request and responded by saying, "If you want the land so bad, why don't you purchase it with your own money?"

Meanwhile, non-stop transcontinental air travel had become routine during the years since the Second World War, and teams were no longer bound by much slower railroad timetables. Because of these transportation advances, it became possible to locate teams further apart – as far west as California – while maintaining the same game schedules.

When Los Angeles officials attended the 1956 World Series

1956 World Series

The 1956 World Series of Major League Baseball was played between the New York Yankees and the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers during the month of October 1956. The Series was a rematch of the 1955 World Series...

looking to entice a team to move to the City of Angels

Los Ángeles

, they were not even thinking of the Dodgers. Their original target had been the Washington Senators (who would in fact move to Bloomington, Minnesota

Bloomington, Minnesota

Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...

to become the Minnesota Twins

Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...

in 1961

1961 in baseball

-Major League Baseball:*World Series: New York Yankees over Cincinnati Reds ; Whitey Ford, MVP*All-Star Game , July 11 at Candlestick Park: National League, 5-4 *All-Star Game , July 31 at Fenway Park: 1–1 tie...

). At the same time, O'Malley was looking for a contingency in case Moses and other New York politicians refused to let him build the Brooklyn stadium he wanted, and sent word to the Los Angeles officials that he was interested in talking. Los Angeles offered him what New York would not: a chance to buy land suitable for building a ballpark, and own that ballpark, giving him complete control over all its revenue streams.

Meanwhile, Giants owner Horace Stoneham

Horace Stoneham

Horace C. Stoneham was the principal owner of Major League Baseball's New York/San Francisco Giants from the death of his father, Charles Stoneham, in 1936 until 1976. During his ownership, the team won National League pennants in 1936, 1937, 1951, 1954 and 1962, a division title in 1971, and a...

was having similar difficulty finding a replacement for his team's antiquated home stadium, the Polo Grounds

Polo Grounds

The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963...

. Stoneham was considering moving the Giants to Minneapolis, but was persuaded instead to move them to San Francisco, ensuring that the Dodgers would have a National League rival closer than St. Louis. So the two arch-rival teams, the Dodgers and Giants, moved out to the West Coast together after the 1957 season.

The Brooklyn Dodgers played their final game at Ebbets Field on September 24, 1957

1957 in baseball

, which the Dodgers

1957 Brooklyn Dodgers season

The 1957 Brooklyn Dodgers season was overshadowed by Walter O'Malley's threat to move the Dodgers out of Brooklyn if the city did not build him a new stadium in that borough. When the best the mayor could promise was a stadium in Queens, O'Malley made good on his threats and moved the team to Los...

won 2–0 over the Pittsburgh Pirates

1957 Pittsburgh Pirates season

‎- Regular season :The Pittsburgh Pirates played the Brooklyn Dodgers in the final game at Ebbets Field. The game was contested on September 24, 1957, and Brooklyn pitcher Danny McDevitt pitched a complete game. He had nine strikeouts while allowing just five hits...

.

On April 18, 1958

1958 in baseball

-Major League Baseball:*World Series: New York Yankees over Milwaukee Braves ; Bob Turley, MVP*All-Star Game, July 8 at Memorial Stadium: American League, 4-3-Other champions:*Caribbean World Series: Marianao *College World Series: USC...

, the Los Angeles Dodgers played their first game in LA, defeating the former New York and now new San Francisco Giants

1958 San Francisco Giants season

The San Francisco Giants season involved the 80-74 team finishing in third place in the National League standings, twelve games behind the NL Champion Milwaukee Braves in their inaugural season in The Golden Gate City.- Offseason :...

, 6–5, before 78,672 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University of Southern California Trojans football team...

. Sadly, catcher Roy Campanella

Roy Campanella

Roy Campanella , nicknamed "Campy", was an American baseball player, primarily at the position of catcher, in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball...

, left partially paralyzed in an off-season accident, was never able to play for Los Angeles.

A 2007

2007 in film

This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...

HBO film, Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush, is a documentary covering the Dodgers history from early days to the beginning of the Los Angeles era. In the film the story is related that O'Malley was so hated by Brooklyn Dodger fans, after the move to California, that it was said, "If you asked a Brooklyn Dodger fan, if you had a gun with only two bullets in it and were in a room with Hitler, Stalin and O'Malley, who would you shoot? The answer: O'Malley, twice!"

Early Brooklyn baseball

The origin of the Dodgers

The team's nickname

Rivalry with the Giants

"Uncle Robbie” and the "Daffiness Boys"

Breaking the color barrier

"Wait ’til next year!"

Move to California

See also