Brooklyn Dodgers- the Ghosts of Flatbush

PhilL

PhilL

Joined
Oct 1, 1999
Messages
6,490
I just saw on HBO a wonderful documentary about the Brooklyn Dodgers.
http://www.hbo.com/events/brooklyndodgers/index.html
I was born in Brooklyn, walking distance to Ebbets Field and Da Bums were my team. I haven’t watched a baseball game since Walter O’Malley took my team away. After 50 years it’s still a sore spot. If every evil person that ever lived was in one room and I had a gun with just two bullets, I would shoot O’Malley twice. They broke a little kids heart.

I found out in the documentary that actually O’Malley didn’t want to leave Brooklyn, that the real villain was Robert Moses. O’Malley had the perfect spot for a new stadium, right in downtown Brooklyn, but Moses said no. Moses wanted the new stadium in Queens. The Brooklyn Dodgers in Queens? I don’t think so. Not only did O’Malley take the Dodgers away, he also talked the Giants into going west with him. May he rot in Hell.

The Main Event of the World Series of Poker is on now. I know more Poker players by name and face than I do Baseball players. Brooklyn has always been a special place, the Brooklyn Dodgers were an amazing team. If you’re into Baseball and have HBO I do highly recommend this documentary.
 
Thanks, PhilL.

I don't know much about the Brooklyn Dodgers, just the LA Dodgers. I started seeing them play when they were playing in the LA Coliseum. My dad had my older brother and me pick out a "favorite" Dodger. I picked Duke Snider. Don't ask me why. But he was MY Dodger. I even went to Duke Snider Night at The Coliseum. I was soooo excited.

Years later, when I was playing softball in junior high school, and Duke Snider had retired, he was holding an autograph session at a batting cage place, I think. Well, it was somewhere. And he signed my glove. I was really disappointed that he had not shaved that day. He looked really scruffy. I wish I knew what happened to that glove. I think it was stolen on the 4th of July at a picnic in the park.

Yep. Love the Dodgers. Haven't been following them for years, though.

I'll have to watch that HBO special. Learn a little more about the Dodgers.

Judy
 
I don't know anything about the Dodgers after they left Brooklyn, and I don't blame any of the players that went West. I do know that in LA that it wasn't like Brooklyn. The team wasn't just a team, it was friends, neighbors and family. They were a part of the community. You could go bowling at Gil Hodges Lanes. You'll see in the documentary that when Gil Hodges went into a batting slump priests would ask for prayers that he come out of it. Where else would something like that happen?

Aside from not watching baseball I was a fairly normal kid. I played Little League Ball, I collected and traded Baseball cards. I just never talked baseball, I didn't watch it and I didn't follow it. My Dad and my friends continued to follow baseball, but didn't berate me because I didn't. Maybe I over reacted, but I really did feel betrayd.
 
good show-i saw it last week-
im a mets man myself-

i never liked the lala dodgers or sanfran geeaants-

heck i still have a problem with the football giants playing in new jersey-it just aint right
 
Went to many a game at Ebbets Field when I was a kid. My favorite player was Gil Hodges. I wore number 14 and played first base in the little league.
 
Goldtanker said:
Went to many a game at Ebbets Field when I was a kid. My favorite player was Gil Hodges. I wore number 14 and played first base in the little league.
Click to expand...

Don't laugh at me, I'm really, really old. Was Gil Hodges a catcher? I know Johnny Roseboro was. I was just in early elementary school when I went to my first Dodger game in LA. Being a tomboy, I was in 7th Heaven. I loved the 7th inning stretch. Peanuts, frozen chocolate malteds, soda, hot dogs. And I loved the clapping "rallies" when everyone in the stands would start clapping. I kept saying to my Dad, "Let's start a Rally!!"

I didn't know much about baseball, I had to have been only 6 or 7 y/o. I would always ask my older brother questions like, "Should we cheer?" "Was that a good play?" "What happened?"

I had not yet learned to play baseball at that time, just watched my older brother play.

I did collect baseball cards with my brother and the other boys on the street. Not that I knew if a player was good or not. I remember trading a Wally Moon for somebody. I think someone told me later I got screwed out of that card. Ah, who cares. I had fun and the boys were really tolerant of my brother's little sister.
 
PhilL...that show was awesome...even my wife, who is not a baseball fan, found it very interesting!
 
Totally Judy said:
Was Gil Hodges a catcher? I know Johnny Roseboro was.
Click to expand...

Gil Hodges was the 1st baseman, Roy Campanella was the catcher. I have no idea who Johnny Roseboro was.

I may have told this story before, but before the start of the 1955 World Series they had a furniture sale at Ebbet's Field. My parents went to look at new furniture and took me and my cousin Johnny along with them. My cousin Johnny was a couple of years older and my hero, whatever he did, I did. Johnny sees a gate that leads right out onto the field. The gate wasn't locked, so we snuck away and onto the field. At first we just stood on the side and looked up at the stands. It was a amazing, the field was beautiful. We started running around the bases, into the dugout, taking imaginary swings from Home plate. Then some guys start screaming at us from the stands. It seems that they had just finished the field for the World Series, and we had messed it up pretty good. Not much they could do to an 8 and 10 year old except get my parents. I don't even remember getting spanked for it. If we had it would have been worth it
 
"Campy" never went to LA. He was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident in 1958. So Roseboro never played for the BROOKLYN Dodgers. Which is why I don't remember him.
 
From what I can find, Roseboro was with the Dodgers in 1957:

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Johnny Roseboro was the Dodger catcher for a decade, playing in four World Series with them. Late in his career he was also the regular catcher on the division-winning 1969 Minnesota Twins.

Roseboro came up in 1957 with the Brooklyn Dodgers when Roy Campanella was the regular catcher. Campanella had his accident, and Roseboro became the starting catcher when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. He won two Gold Gloves and was named to three All-Star teams while with the Dodgers, as well as being named to the All-Star team once while with the Twins.

Although a catcher, he had some speed, hitting 44 triples in his career and finishing in the top ten in the league in triples a couple of seasons. He also stole 67 bases in his career.

In 1967, when the Dodgers as a team hit only .236, Roseboro's .272 average was one of the team's best.

An altercation between Roseboro and Juan Marichal was one of the most publicized events of the 1960's. Many years later the two became friends.

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Judy
 
Judy, you're right. It looks like Roseboro played 35 games in Brooklyn in 1957.
By that time most everyone knew that the Dodgers were gone, lame ducks if you would. They couldn't give seats away at Ebbet's Field.

Roy Campanella's last game was Sept. 29, 1957.
 
Though I've never been a baseball fan I watched the show .Born and raised in Brooklyn and a teenager at the time baseball was a big part of life in Brooklyn.As they mentioned it's impossible to explain in words the feelings about the Brooklyn Dodgers. The town really went into deep depression when the Dodgers left and they never forgave O'Malley !! For most Dodger fans the Dodgers no longer existed when they moved.They weren't talked about or thought about !...As far as Moses -he was really a dictator -while some of his projects were conceived with great forethought ,some were really dictatorial.There was an interesting book about him published some years ago for those who are interested...That was a different time.Many Dodgers lived in my neighborhood and kids would knock on their doors for autographs.Players didn't get extraordinary salaries at that time and it was a game .When O'malley moved them baseball became a big business....The 'good old days 'in Brooklyn have wonderfull memories for me.
 
I watched the documentary again this morning with my wife, who is in no way interested in baseball. She thought it was great.

When I played Little League, I played every position at one time or another, but I spent most of my time as a catcher. I was a big fan of Roy Campanella and Yogi Berra (of the NY Yankees). I also pitched for a while and one of my Dodger pitching heros was Sandy Koufax. Sandy and I went to the same high school, Lafayette H.S., he was ahead of me by about 14 years. In Lafayette Koufax was better known for his playing basketball rather than baseball. Another fan of Koufax was actor/director Ron Howard, he wanted to be a pitcher like Sandy. What stopped Ron was when he found out that he made more per week than Koufax made for the year. They really didn't make a lot back then.
 
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