Forever Blue: The True Story Of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles Question. Who is the most hated man in the history of the borough of Brooklyn? Most people would answer Walter O'Malley. However, after reading Forever Blue the truth can finally be told that New York City Planner Robert Moses is the real villain in this sad story. The hearts of millions in Brooklyn were broken forever when, before the 1958 baseball season, the Dodgers packed up and headed west to the sunny climate of Los Angeles. The New York Giants, who played at the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan, also left that year for San Francisco. National League baseball was now history in New York. A generation of New Yorkers was denied the chance to see the likes of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Willie Mays.
The reasons behind the Dodgers moving west is a long and complicated tale. O'Malley tried for over ten years to build a new, state of the art domed baseball stadium in Brooklyn. Ebbets Field, the Dodgers home since the early 1920's, was one of the smallest ballparks in the Major Leagues. Also, parking was virtually non-existent for a nation that was just beginning its love affair with the automobile in the late 40's. And crime in the Ebbets Field area was increasing after World War II as many returning GI's fled to Long Island. Time and time again, O'Malley was dismissed by Moses, who had no love neither of the game of baseball nor for the working class folks of Brooklyn.
Michael D'Antonio was granted unlimited access to the vast O'Malley archives as well as interviewing former Dodger players, executives, and friends. Forever Blue is full of new details in this sad story. Highlights include new information about the so called strained relationship between Jackie Robinson and Walter O'Malley. The two men were closer than most believed. Although Branch Rickey was the man who integrated Major League Baseball, O'Malley traveled to Cuba to see a Cuban infielder during the early search for a player who would break segregation. In 1965, O'Malley integrated the major league coaching staff with two minorities and also built a golf course at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida to provide recreational opportunities for black players, who were banned from the private country club in town.
One touching moment revealed in the book is how Walter O'Malley comforted Ralph Branca after he gave up the 'shot heard around the world' homerun to the Giants' Bobby Thompson. This was the playoff game that put the Giants in the World Series. As devoted as he was to winning, O'Malley went to Branca in the locker room and told him, "Remember, it's only a game".
Robert Moses rejected O'Malley's preferred site for a new ballpark at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. Instead, Moses promised the land in question to a developer for housing that was never built. A new stadium in Brooklyn could have helped save the borough from decades of economic struggle. Instead, O'Malley had no choice but to move the Dodgers to California.
Forever Blue also deals in depth with the struggles O'Malley encountered in dealing with the Los Angeles politicians and the controversial building of Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. This is a first rate book that will appeal to all fans of baseball and to those who wish to better understand New York City politics in the post World War II era.
Forever Blue: The True Story Of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles
By Michael D'Antonio (Penguin/Riverhead Books)
Article by Scott Acton:
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