In Brooklyn we still look at the Dodgers as traitors and root hardest against them - that devastation has been passed down for generations. I have a 1947 vintage Dodgers hat and the "B" on it is just beautiful
The first baseball game I ever went to was in 1951 when I was 6 years old and my dad took me to see the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. I'm now two months shy of 80 and the only thing I remember from that game was that I didn't like the peanuts. When the city started to demolish Ebbets Field my dad went to the stadium and filled an old mayonnaise jar with dirt from the infield and put it on the mantel in our living room. That jar was still on the mantel when he died in 2001. As he requested, that mayonnaise jar of infield dirt from Ebbets Field was buried with him. He was a Dodger fan through and through and like Tommy Lasorda, he bled Dodger Blue. Edit 11/11: About not liking peanuts, I learned later that you are supposed to take them out of the shell before you eat them.
I was in DC last week to watch the Dodgers and Nationals. I gentleman sat near me. He had a Brooklyn jacket and hat on. Told me he saw the Dodgers play in Brooklyn. Pretty cool to think of him watching games in Ebbetts field
Much respect to the OG in that game for still being a dodgers fan since the Brooklyn days & 4 still attending games to watch his team play, Hats off to this man I always loved the Brooklyn Dodgers and I didn't even know that the dodgers went to that to the series the world series that many times and was a big threat and rival of the Yankees which I'm kind of proud to hear lol 😊 Sorry Yankees but I love my Dodgers Real rap anybody that knows me knows I'm not lying I have always loved the Dodgers because I knew they were originally from Brooklyn and had a field in Brooklyn they played in Brooklyn and signed one of the best players to ever Play the game of baseball and they also did at a time and way in a period that no one else was doing it!!! Brooklyn style of course!!!😊 I'm very upset and saddened to hear that the Dodgers didn't get to slide right into home Base on Pacific Street & Atlantic Ave. Where the Brooklyn Nets play now would have been Dodgers stadium, "Brooklyn Dodgers" stadium 🤔 to think about that is crazy & I don't know much about this Robert Moses dude but I don't like the fact that he didn't make the deal with the Dodgers just thinking about the Dodgers would have been playing still in Brooklyn if he would have sealed that deal by securing them that land for the Dodgers to continue being the Brooklyn Dodgers, who's stadium could have been right in Brooklyn right by that train station at Atlantic Ave Pacific Street When you think about it Yankee stadium is right by 161st Train Station so picture Brooklyn Dodgers stadium right by Atlantic Ave & Pacific Street 4th avenue The d train could have got you to see the Brooklyn Dodgers or the New York Yankees play That would have been Huge bucks for the New York Transit system so I think that was a stupid move on there behalf as well and I'm not feeling the fact that the guy sold Dodgers to Los Angeles anyway he should have found someone else in Brooklyn!!!!! It's crazy I have always always wanted Brooklyn to have a baseball team and I've always felt that we lost out in something Huge when we lost the Dodgers but anyways Did the OG in dodger stadium ever mention if he was was originally from Brooklyn??🤔
My dad grew up in the same neighborhood as Jackie Robinson in Pasadena, CA in the 1930s. As a child of color (Latino) my dad faced many of the same challenges as Jackie Robinson. It’s still hard for me to get my head around that. My mom was born in Chavez Ravine. She still does very well at 97 living at home independently in Pasadena. My first live World Series game last night was better than any dream I ever had about seeing baseball. Freddie for President 2032!
You were there last night? Wow. Must’ve been unbelievable. I’m from the Pasadena area (Temple city) Also. Many years ago I moved to the Lake Tahoe area, but I still had a San Gabriel Valley phonebook. Do you remember phonebooks? Anyway… I was reading an article about Jackie Robinson’s brother Mack (he was a silver medal winner in the 1936 Olympics). The article mentioned he lives in Pasadena, so for the heck of it I looked his name up in the phonebook and it was there. I called the number and talked to his wife for about 20 minutes… She was gracious and friendly, I was a little starstruck. We talked about Jackie, breaking into the big leagues… And Mack at the 36 Olympics in Berlin. it was incredibly cool getting a little piece of history from somebody who was there. So I can say that I talked to Jackie Robinson’s sister-in-law. Nice to hear your mother is doing well at 97… boy the changes in the world she must’ve seen.
@@bobbest8627 I presently live in San Jose and I wanted to be in LA for the excitement of the Series. I figured watching the games from The Boat in San Gabriel would be a lot of fun. I just happened to look up ticket prices as I rode the Metro to North Hollywood (breakfast at Bob’s Big Boy). Prices were almost reasonable so I bought a ticket about 10am. Well Worth It! My son was working so he could not be with me in LA. NEXT time he will. I’ll be wearing my Dodgers jersey with Daddy-O on the back!
@@bobbest8627 That's really amazing. I knew of Mack from my PCC days (I also grew up in TC), but didn't learn until just recently he was a silver medalist. What years did you go to TCHS?
@ the Boat!! Bobs big boy! You’re gonna make me cry! My daughter still lives in Temple city and I grew up there in the 70s. Walking distance from Clermans Boat and Northwoods. I still get down there three times a year at least. I played baseball in Temple city. In the 70s we usually wound up at Bob’s big boy (in Arcadia) every Friday or Saturday night after going to a backyard party where, in a lot of cases, Van Halen was the band. I didn’t know there were any bobs big boy still around. Up in Northern Nevada now, and the hard-core giants fan.
Robert Moses was the reason that the Dodgers moved. He was the reason for a lot of bad things that happened in postwar NYC. O’Malley didn’t want to leave
There's a great documentary on Robert Moses on PBS which details not only that aspect of NYC urban renewal but other maneuvers taken by him. His prejudice AND stubbornness creat a NYC that, in effect, still suffers from to this day.
Robert Moses was not elected to anything, yet he wielded enormous power. Especially since he was not originally a New Yorker, but came from New Haven, Connecticut.
Robert Caro's book "The Power Broker" goes into this, but if you don't want to manage a ~1,000-page-book, the podcast 99% Invisible is currently reviewing it
This video omits the fact that the Dodgers did move immediately to Dodger Stadium upon moving to LA. The stadium was not built and ready until 1962. For four seasons, the Dodgers played in the LA Colosseum, a magnificent venue that was totally inappropriate for baseball. Like the Polo Grounds in New York, the Colosseum had field dimensions that would ruin the game of baseball. Yet, the Dodgers played there and actually won their first post move world series championship in 1959.
Well done! I'm from New York and a Mets fan so I really appreciated this video. The LA Dodgers has been successful in creating THEIR own legacy, but it's important not to forget where they came from.
First baseball game I went to was the Hollywood Stars. My Dad bought a space on the leftfield fence and put an ad for his business there. I have a picture of me standing in left field and the ad behind me! Great times.
Also, don’t underestimate the reason for the move to the west coast by Major league baseball at the time. Walter O’Malley’s former nemesis with the Brooklyn Dodgers, a.k.a. Branch Rickey hated O’Malley. And after O’Malley ousted him from Brooklyn, he had come up with the idea to start a third major league on the west coast called the continental league. Major league baseball saw this as an affront to their authority and power, and we’re already plotting to move teams to California before the Continental league could get started. Branch Rickey wanted to take the Pacific coast league and basically transported into the third major-league a.k.a. the continental league. It would’ve worked except Ricky had no friends hardly in baseball anymore. Walter O’Malley seen to that. After the teams moved to California and the continental league was never going to get off the ground Ricky wound up in Pittsburgh and helped build a 1960 world championship team.
Rickey actually ended up in Pittsburgh after O'Malley ousted him. John Galbreath, one of the Pirates' owners, fired him after 5 losing seasons and it was after that that Rickey attempted to form the Continental League.
Good video. My step-mother was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan in 3p, 40s and 50s. Was very uset when they left. Became a Mets fan, then moved to New England and followed both the Mets and Red Sox. My father, sister and I being lifelong Red Sox fans, and my step-brothers and step-sister being in the same boat as my step-mother, you can imagine what it was like in our house during the '86 World Series lol
Poor Jackie. All the abuse he took took to be baseball's first black player since Fleetwood Walker. He was also a Rickey boy, which is why O'Malley traded to the New York Giants, which is why he retired, rather than play for them. I feel that's what led to Jackie's premature death.
I always thought the stress led to the high blood pressure and diabetes that took his life at 53. Even then he was virtually blind, and had he lived, might have lost his legs. Jackie belongs on Mt. Rushmore. Not baseball's. America's.
Larry Doby took as much if not more abuse than Jackie being the first black player in the American League with NONE of the press coverage Jackie continually gets, no disrespect for Jackie intended. I mean does anyone know who Larry was, what team he played for, or who signed him?
Yes,,O'Malley convinced Horace Stoneham to go to California with him, & it didn't take much convincing! Because of one politician, we lost 2 baseball teams!!
From what I read, baseball wanted two teams in CA. Maybe for travel purposes. It was mainly trains back then. So O’Malley talked the Giants to go to CA with him.
The Dodgers wasn't the only team New York lost during that era, falls under the radar the New York Giants moving to San Francisco, is crazy to see New York from 3 teams to one in such a short period of time.
@@master-kq3nwat the time it wasn’t. NYC was by far the largest city in country at the time. Cities out west and down south weren’t that populated and most were too small to have teams before the 1960s. That’s why Chicago to this day has two teams that have been there since the 1800s. That’s why at one point, Philadelphia, Boston and St. Louis all had two teams at one point. The NYC metro area has 23.5 million people. That’s more people than the combined metro population of all the NL central cities. If a third team were to have been created 50+ years ago the region could have easily supported a third team, though it likely would have been put in NJ, probably in the Meadowlands.
My Uncle was involved in the early negotiations with the City of New York to keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn. He worked on the concept of extending the IRT subway line to where Kings Plaza is now. That way people would be able to take the subway and the Belt Parkway to the new field. Moses however was sold on the Flushing locations and what he wanted back then; he got. So after running two Worlds Faits into the ground, Moses was responsible for forcing the departure of the bums.
My father grew up in Brooklyn and was a rabid Dodger far. He watched this and went nuts when it said Robinson retired at the end of the 1955 season. He retired at the end of the 1956 season, the Dodgers last season in Brooklyn.
My dad grew up a Giants fan, went to the Polo Grounds often, and constantly talked about '51, how they overcame that huge deficit, and of course Thompson. It must have been a great time to be a fan growing up, with the Dodgers in Brooklyn, Giants at the Polo Gr, and the Yanks in the Bronx.
Great video. My Mom was a diehard Brooklyn Dodger fan, who was continually harassed by her Italian dominant community for her betrayal of the Yankees by following them. She always blamed O'Malley for leaving Brooklyn, forever echoed by many folks I recall, as that "damned O'Malley", by moving to LA. As you pointed out, it was indeed, Robert Moses who was the culprit. His strategy was that "whoever chose Flushing Meadows" (HIS choice) as the locale for a sports complex, would be the sole occupier of a stadium. His dreams as a city planner were thwarted in developing Flushing Meadows; first during the Great Depression, and then due to WW2, to creating a massive facility of his dreams. He had a brief showing in the 1939 Worlds Fair, situated where his vision was to completed. The Giants were tied to Manhattan, and the Dodgers to Brooklyn, yet he could care less. Accommodating fan desire was secondary. It was William Shea, who broke MLB's expansion stranglehold, that got the Mets to exist as a team, and give NY a 2nd team again. In Flushing Meadows.
At their inception as an expansion team in 1962 the New York Mets adopted the representative blue color of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the orange of the New York Giants, the teams that had relocated to California seeking greener pastures. Some also say that the pinstripes used in the Mets uniforms were a tribute to the team that remained in the state, the New York Yankees of the American League.
Weeks before he was murdered Martin Luther King Jr said that he was grateful to Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe for helping him in his struggle for Human Rights.
Couple mistakes in the documentary. First Horace Stoneham did not convince O’Malley to move to California. It was the other way around Stoneham already was going to move his Giants to Minnesota because he owned the AAA affiliate, but Walter O’Malley convinced him to move further west only because baseball had told O’Malley he could not move the Dodgers to California unless another team went with him, for the simple reason to travel would’ve been too much to go to the West Coast just for one city, needed at least two cities. And second off Jackie Robinson did not retired in 1955. He retired in 1957. Overall a very good documentary. Very interesting and very informative.
Nice video. Thanks. Jackie Robinson retired at the end of the 1956 season. The Dodgers were trading him to the Giants, and he retired rather than switch teams at that point in his career.
My father worked in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn and told us he used to see different Dodgers driving home after their games. He said Campanella was a crazy driver and remarked some day he would be in a terrible accident. I’m still aDodger fan.
When I was in school, our softball high school coach was a substitute teacher, he was drafted & played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, not sure if he ever played at Ebbett’s Field but he’d come into class wearing his Brooklyn jacket every time.
Excellent video. I was always taught that Chavez Ravine was forcefully de-occupied directly in preparation for Dodger Stadium to be built, not that it was mostly for housing projects. Good to be informed on a location I live less than a 10 minute drive away from.
@Catdaddyacab This short RUclips doc from LATimes gives you some idea of what really happened - with some of the people who lived through it. There are many other docs on RUclips about Chavez Ravine. ruclips.net/video/v1LvQvRpfvg/видео.htmlsi=lMxeek44aLF09m76
@@RosalindaMorales-n4i It was not a ruse by the designers, but the city officials. They already had plans for a community with public housing, schools, parks, and all kind of amenities. The city pulled the rug out of the plan for BS reasons leaving the residents stranded.
I saw the Dodgers play in Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. I walked there and left with a baseball filled with autographs. I just put it in my dresser draw and over time all the autographs faded. Sandy, Gilliam, Reese, Snyder, and more.
That’s why I’m a Mets fan today because my father and grandfather loved the Dodgers and were crushed when they left. No way were they going to be Yankee fans. Mets were born and my dad became Mets fan. I was taken to Shea in ‘84 when I was 8 and saw Doc Gooden pitch and Strawberry hit a home run that still hasn’t landed. From that day forward I’ve been a Mets fan. LFGM!
I became Mets fan in 1983 after Strawberry came along. I had watched him and Gooden during minor league years. Then cemented it with Gooden and everything else during the mid to late 80's. I don't obsess over sports I used to. But have fond memories of those days.
@@exposethenwo6491 this year was my favorite year, this team had no business becoming as gritty and resilient as they did. If we get a few more like vientos and alvarez out of acuna baty mauricio jett and gilbert sustainable winning will be here for minimum of 5 yrs... soto manaea and wheeler ought to be affordable
As much as the Brooklyn dodgers were such a great story, moving to LA was the best thing they could of done. It must be said, the way the stadium in LA came about is tragic. However, it was a product of the time and they wouldn’t of been treated differently in any part of this country. It’s wrong, and a stain on LA and this country, as many things are. But now the LA Dodgers and baseball itself are something that brings the community together. It’s their duty to continue to be a bright spot in LA to mend the troubled beginnings.
This is really well told, nice job. The proposed Brooklyn stadium was actually going to have a roof -- not domed, but similar to how SoFi has open air between roof and field.
Great video. There's a lot of people out there that think the Dodgers were the ones who caused the force removal of the Chavez Ravine community, when it was actually the city of LA that caused it.
Most of the adults living in Chavez Ravine were illegal squatters in housing that was below code requirements, built without permits to what they were used to in Mexico, on land they had no right to build nor live on. The City of Los Angeles, after much legal wrangling, only had to compensate legal property owners for their eminent domain displacement as per Amendment V in the Constitution’s Bill Of Rights. Nonetheless, although it took several years, money was raised to compensate displaced residents for public relations reasons. This went to people as a good will gesture, not because it was a legal requirement. If Dodger Stadium hadn’t been built there it’s entirely possible the residents would have been evicted anyhow. The L.A. Police Department recruit training center is just down the road leading to the stadium. There was already talk of using eminent domain for land to expand the facility.
Two huge inflexible egoists. I can add a little to the story that might clarify some things. The Giants were already looking to move to Minneapolis which housed their AAA team at that time. In order to get approval from the league owners O’Malley had to have another team out west for travel reasons and he talked Stoneham into going to San Francisco. O’Malley may have been a shrewd businessman but he was a sneak. He ran Branch Rickey out of Brooklyn by manipulating the widow of one of the former owners in order to accomplish that and gain control of the team. Moses was an arrogant bureaucrat who wouldn’t even try to be flexible. Result Brooklyn lost its baseball identity.
I read somewhere that while LA was courting the Dodgers, they were also talking with Calvin Griffith of the Washington Senators, who eventually moved to Minneapolis and became the Twins. I didn’t know the Giants could’ve potentially gone there. Yeah I thought that O'Malley talked Stonham into moving to San Francisco.
The Senators ended up in Minnesota, even though it wasn't necessary. D.C. Stadium (later named after Robert F. Kennedy), the very first of the cookie-cutter ballparks, was due to be ready in 1962. But Clark W. Griffith wouldn't wait. President Kennedy informed both the Senators and the Redskins that they would have to sign black players. Also, the stadium was owned by the National Parks Service. They would not put up with segregated seating. (Griffith wanted to restrict blacks to the worst seats: upper deck, center field.) Griffith said, "No way." In one of the worst mistakes in baseball history, the American League allowed the Senators to move to Minnesota, then put an expansion team in Washington. Griffith's reason for moving? "You have fewer blacks here." The worst part is that the 1965 World Series would have been in Washington, if the Senators had stayed.
I don't use the term tragic to define sports teams, but the Brooklyn Dodgers may be that rare exception. For years of saying "there's always next year" with a WS, they finally get one. Then, three years later, they're gone.
for the record , specific to the intro mentioning sullivan ave and flatbush ave. sullivan ave is sullivan place . and it doesnt intersect with flatbush ave. here are the 4 steets that surrounded the field. bedford ave, sullivan place , mckeever place ,and montgomery st. main entrance was located at sullivan and mckeever. left field line was mckeever and montgomery. center field was montgomery and bedford. right field line was sullivan and bedford.
You're right. There was a ton of research I had to on this video and as soon as i uploaded i realized one of the only facts i got wrong was the first one i said🤦♂
@@baseballheirloomsJackie Robinson retired from baseball ⚾ after the 1956 season, not '55. Robbie retired rather than playing for the hated New York Giants, although it would have been fun to see him as a teammate of Willie Mays.
I think the bonus baby rule held Koufax development back.The rule was all bonus babies had to be on the major league roster and the manager Alston didn't like to play young players.Robinson and Alston got into a argument about Koufax not really getting a fair chance to play.Robinson felt that soon as Koufax had a bad game he would get benched and not play for weeks at time. If Koufax played in the minor leagues learning how to pitch instead of mostly riding the bench. I think he would have became a star much sooner.
I’ve seen another documentary that said that it was the league that required that the Giants had to move to the west coast with the Dodgers in order for them (Dodgers) to be allowed to leave.
Before they were the Trolley Dodgers, they were also called the Brookiyn Bridegrooms and Brooklyn Superbas. Their official name from 1914-1932 was the Brooklyn Robins, named for then manager Wilbert Robinson but sports writers kept referring them also as the Dodgers and Superbas interchangeably. in 1932, the team allowed Brooklyn sportswriters to choose a permanent name, and the name Dodgers won out.
Ebbets Field was also enshrined in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" play. I grew up in California and that's how I first heard about Ebbets Field.
Ralph Carson of Carson-Roberts ad agency was instrumental in convincing Walter O'Malley to move to LA. Ralph would run ads in the local Brooklyn papers when the Dodgers games were rained out saying "Mr. O'Malley, It's Baseball Playing Weather in Los Angeles". Ralph ended up with some of the best season ticket seats available.
I had a buddy from Brooklyn when I was in the service. He was a big-time Mets fan, hated the Yankees, and almost hated the LA Dodgers as much, kind of a generational thing handed down from his father and grandfather who grew up near Flatbush. I was totally in line with his hatred for the Yankees, a generational thing in my family, but I never had any hate for the Dodgers. I always wanted to get to their ballpark, but some bucket list items, like that and taking in a game and Fenway will remain just that, bucket list items.
I'd like to make a point about the significance of Chavez Ravine. I'm not sure one could say that _all_ of the residents of Mexican descent were immigrants, exactly. I'd imagine a great many of the families were already living in what was Mexico when it suddenly became American territory in 1848. I had a friend in the military who was Mexican by ancestry, but his family had roots, and a ranch in California going back centuries. I think we, Americans, too often forget that the American Southwest used to be the Mexican Northwest.
Very little about the story of the Chavez Ravine inhabitants. We Mexicans are always ignored in Amerca's history. But we are/ will be a large part , have great family values, and work very hard. We will make America greater for our families future and everyone else's who love America.
Outside of the frontispiece facade, Ebbets Field was not an architectural masterpiece, as any older baseball historian will tell you. It was pretty utilitarian. ⚾️
I live in the UK & have been a Dodgers fan since I saw two games there back in 1990 when vacationing on the west coast. I only read about the controversial treatment of the residents of Chavez Ravine fairly recently & even though I had absolutely no part in that, it still causes me a certain amount of guilt. PS : And I am super delighted by our recent WS win over the Bronx Bombers - GO DODGERS!! 😎
As a kid from the LES of NY, the dodgers gave us free tickets to the games & we loved the outings even though I was a Yankee fan.... the Yankees hardly ever did that for us...
Here’s the way I analyze the Dodgers’ move to LA: all parties (eventually & essentially) received what they wanted. Yes I know the move caused generational pain for Brooklyn fans. But everyone still got what they wanted: *W O’Malley received his new ballpark for the Dodgers. They’ve been a gold mine ever since. *Robert Moses built the MLB ballpark he wanted WHERE he wanted it (Shea in Queens…and the current Citi Field sits there also) *MLB was desperate to get into Cali & the LA market, and they received TWO teams in 1958 and opened the eventual floodgates for populating the United States west of the Mississippi with MLB franchises (Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Wash State, more cities in Cali…and possibly Nevada soon) *Brooklyn received the Barclays Centre and received the NBA (and for a short time the NHL) *Brooklynites/Long Islanders received the NL replacement for the Dodgers in the Mets in 62 *And Brooklyn received their minor league Cyclones, in Coney Island, to get pro baseball back in the borough Everyone, despite blood sweat and tears, essentially, received what they wanted.
No O Malley wanted to Stay in Brooklyn Moses full of himself wanted power and more of it its my way or the highway OMalley got a deal from Los Angeles he couldn't refuse or a fool would free land use a field to play in ( small but ready for play) in until a more advanced suitable place was ready
When I was visiting friends in New York City, I took a walk through the nearby park and there were several older fellows sitting on benches by a table where two were playing a game of chess. I noticed one man had a black cap with an orange NY logo, I stopped and gestured and said "Giants fan, huh?". He looked up and said, "That's 'NEW YORK GIANTS', I hope that bastard Horace Stoneham is burning in hell!" In baseball, some wounds never heal.
At about the 10:06 mark, it stated that, in 1956, NY Giants owner, Horace Stoneham, was planning on moving his team to San Francisco. However, as the story goes, he was already looking at Minneapolis, where his AAA Minneapolis Millers were playing, and where the A-phase of a stadium (in Bloomington, Minn.) was already located.
Mí respeto para usted no sabes la atención a su disertación y elocuencia tan serias y ciertas. Un fuerte abrazo y las gracias por tu contribución al pueblo 🇵🇷
It is my understanding that the Giants were going to move to Minneapolis however, O'Malley talked Stoneman in moving to San Francisco. I grew up as a Dodgers fan and could not believe they would leave Brooklyn. One of the greatest businesses moves, however.
I lived in Brooklyn for a decade and went to the apartments were Ebbetts field use to be, it's sad that nothing reminds me of that era or stadium in there.
The sports radio shows of today especially in nyc would never of let the Dodgers and Giants leave . The radio stations would fire all fans up to kick in the doors of city hall in outrage !
I was a 15 YO New Yorker who attended game 3 or 4 of the '55 series, don't recall which. It was a fantastic place to be for a teenager. I still see Campy coming to the plate. Yankee lover and Dodger hater from way back. Moved to Cal 15 years later in '70 and of course am a big Dodgers and Giants follower. Re Robert Moses: He gets a lot of bad press these days but he was the man when I was growing up. First off, he was not corrupt, but well could have been given his power. Second, his parkways and beaches were for the common good. Jones Beach remains an institution to this day. Spent many a weekend body surfing at this beautiful place.
When the Dodgers were called the Superbs, they played at a Ballpark in Brooklyn on 4th Ave. Their clubhouse less than a block away was the Old Stonehouse where George Washington slept.
It was ALWAYS ROBERT MOSES’ fault. Walter O’Malley wanted to move to South Brooklyn, but Moses demanded the team move to Flushing Meadows in Queens. Enter Los Angeles, when they were a viable, growing city. They offered the Dodgers WAY MORE and no Moses BS. Failed excuse for a human being Mayor Robert Wagner did nothing and so O’Malley took the team to where they were APPRECIATED, then the stupid New Yorkers blamed HIM for six decades instead of the REAL CULPRIT, the effete egotistical, Moses. And that is EXACTLY how it went down. (And I was there to see it!)
ironic the Dodgers refer to "Trolley Dodgers" because it was around the time that the Dodgers moved to LA that the last of the old time trolleys were dismantled and never ran again, a few lines ran into the early 60s but all the trolleys that ran anywhere near what would become Dodger Stadium was completely cease operations right around 1957.
Brooklyn agreed to become part of NYC at least partly for practical reasons. Brooklyn is on Long Island, and there is not much fresh water on Long Island. As the City of Brooklyn was growing more and more, it was becoming more and more difficult for Brooklyn to get sufficient fresh water for its growing population. Joining the newly formed NYC in 1898 enabled Brooklyn to tap into the NYC water supply, which came mainly from Westchester County, New York, near what is now the White Plains Airport.
You are in a room with O,Malley, Hitler and Stalin. You have a gun but only 2 bullets. What do you do? You shoot O,Malley twice. That’s from the documentary.
Long story short: Walter O’Malley wanted a new stadium built in Brooklyn where the Barclays Center is today, Robert Moses refused to give O’Malley the land. Robert Moses counter-offered O’Malley with land in Flushing Meadows (where Citi Field is now), but O’Malley refused saying “Either we play in Brooklyn, or else we leave New York altogether.” Moses calls O’Malley on his bluff, and the Dodgers leave for Los Angeles.
The answer is simple: More Money in LA. By the mid-1950’s, Southern California was growing extremely rapidly, so it was a booming, untapped baseball market. Also, since New York and Brooklyn were the highest cost of construction areas at that time, it was far easier and cheaper to build a large, modern baseball stadium in LA.
Ultimately, it was inevitable that baseball would spread west. The fact it was the Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants was instrumental in making it work out well for MLB. At that time in the 50's the Pacific Coast League on the west coast was considered by many comparable to MLB. It would have been difficult to get fans to come watch an expansion team with a poor record. By sending teams with storied histories and a few great players in their primes sealed the deal for the move to work out well for MLB. And it stopped any effort to start another league in its tracks. It paved the way for MLB to become big business. Much of the big business on sports is negative imho. But that is the nation we live in today, where if you are the best at something, especially sports, you will get paid well for it. That is better than the owners having complete control over players like slaves and paying them peanuts as a result.
Something worthy of mentioning is that O’Malley wrote to Moses for years for his plans to build the new ballpark and he was constantly denied. Even when the Mayor of New York arranged for them to meet face to face, Moses ignored O’Malley’s argument for the ballpark. California was the only right choice with the offer of dirt cheap land and a huge fanbase that wanted baseball in the West Coast
Blue and orange have been New York's colors since it was New Amsterdam. Indeed, when NYC's official flag was being desigbed in the early Twentieth Century the designers remarked "In our flag, the colors are Dutch, the arms are English, the crest is distinctively American, but the flag as such is the flag of the City, which has grown from these beginnings to be the home of all nations, the great cosmopolitan city of the world, the City of New York." The MTA made an interesting visual pun on this when they assigned colors to the subway lines. The two main IRT lines were assigned red and green [primary colors for the first subways], and the two yrunk lines if what had been the IND [New York's city-owned independent subway system] of vourse got blue and orange.
Its a trip how New York & California are connected through the Dodgers, Giants, & Mets.
And in a lot of other ways. As crazy different that the two cities are, there are many ways in which they are similar.
and Yankees.
Nevada with Oakland
That's nice that they're connected
In Brooklyn we still look at the Dodgers as traitors and root hardest against them - that devastation has been passed down for generations. I have a 1947 vintage Dodgers hat and the "B" on it is just beautiful
The first baseball game I ever went to was in 1951 when I was 6 years old and my dad took me to see the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. I'm now two months shy of 80 and the only thing I remember from that game was that I didn't like the peanuts. When the city started to demolish Ebbets Field my dad went to the stadium and filled an old mayonnaise jar with dirt from the infield and put it on the mantel in our living room. That jar was still on the mantel when he died in 2001. As he requested, that mayonnaise jar of infield dirt from Ebbets Field was buried with him. He was a Dodger fan through and through and like Tommy Lasorda, he bled Dodger Blue.
Edit 11/11: About not liking peanuts, I learned later that you are supposed to take them out of the shell before you eat them.
This was so cool to read! Im an 80s baby and a Dodger fan also but wow youve seen so much history over the years!
This is incredible. Baseball.
sure it was
tears came out of my eyes reading this post amazing
Wow!❤
I was in DC last week to watch the Dodgers and Nationals. I gentleman sat near me. He had a Brooklyn jacket and hat on. Told me he saw the Dodgers play in Brooklyn. Pretty cool to think of him watching games in Ebbetts field
great man must have been 80 years young, respect
Much respect to the OG in that game for still being a dodgers fan since the Brooklyn days & 4 still attending games to watch his team play, Hats off to this man I always loved the Brooklyn Dodgers and I didn't even know that the dodgers went to that to the series the world series that many times and was a big threat and rival of the Yankees which I'm kind of proud to hear lol 😊
Sorry Yankees but I love my Dodgers Real rap anybody that knows me knows I'm not lying I have always loved the Dodgers because I knew they were originally from Brooklyn and had a field in Brooklyn they played in Brooklyn and signed one of the best players to ever Play the game of baseball and they also did at a time and way in a period that no one else was doing it!!!
Brooklyn style of course!!!😊 I'm very upset and saddened to hear that the Dodgers didn't get to slide right into home Base on Pacific Street & Atlantic Ave. Where the Brooklyn Nets play now would have been Dodgers stadium, "Brooklyn Dodgers" stadium 🤔 to think about that is crazy
& I don't know much about this Robert Moses dude but I don't like the fact that he didn't make the deal with the Dodgers just thinking about the Dodgers would have been playing still in Brooklyn if he would have sealed that deal by securing them that land for the Dodgers to continue being the Brooklyn Dodgers, who's stadium could have been right in Brooklyn right by that train station at Atlantic Ave Pacific Street
When you think about it Yankee stadium is right by 161st Train Station so picture Brooklyn Dodgers stadium right by Atlantic Ave & Pacific Street 4th avenue The d train could have got you to see the Brooklyn Dodgers or the New York Yankees play That would have been Huge bucks for the New York Transit system so I think that was a stupid move on there behalf as well and I'm not feeling the fact that the guy sold Dodgers to Los Angeles anyway he should have found someone else in Brooklyn!!!!!
It's crazy I have always always wanted Brooklyn to have a baseball team and I've always felt that we lost out in something Huge when we lost the Dodgers but anyways
Did the OG in dodger stadium ever mention if he was was originally from Brooklyn??🤔
That was my grandpappy, he told me about meeting you
i wanna meet this man!!
@@kingrama2727 He was a great man. Pleasure talking to him
My dad grew up in the same neighborhood as Jackie Robinson in Pasadena, CA in the 1930s.
As a child of color (Latino) my dad faced many of the same challenges as Jackie Robinson. It’s still hard for me to get my head around that.
My mom was born in Chavez Ravine. She still does very well at 97 living at home independently in Pasadena.
My first live World Series game last night was better than any dream I ever had about seeing baseball.
Freddie for President 2032!
You were there last night? Wow. Must’ve been unbelievable.
I’m from the Pasadena area (Temple city) Also. Many years ago I moved to the Lake Tahoe area, but I still had a San Gabriel Valley phonebook.
Do you remember phonebooks?
Anyway… I was reading an article about Jackie Robinson’s brother Mack (he was a silver medal winner in the 1936 Olympics). The article mentioned he lives in Pasadena, so for the heck of it I looked his name up in the phonebook and it was there. I called the number and talked to his wife for about 20 minutes… She was gracious and friendly, I was a little starstruck. We talked about Jackie, breaking into the big leagues… And Mack at the 36 Olympics in Berlin. it was incredibly cool getting a little piece of history from somebody who was there. So I can say that I talked to Jackie Robinson’s sister-in-law.
Nice to hear your mother is doing well at 97… boy the changes in the world she must’ve seen.
@@bobbest8627 I presently live in San Jose and I wanted to be in LA for the excitement of the Series. I figured watching the games from The Boat in San Gabriel would be a lot of fun. I just happened to look up ticket prices as I rode the Metro to North Hollywood (breakfast at Bob’s Big Boy). Prices were almost reasonable so I bought a ticket about 10am.
Well Worth It!
My son was working so he could not be with me in LA. NEXT time he will. I’ll be wearing my Dodgers jersey with Daddy-O on the back!
@@bobbest8627, Jackie also lettered at UCLA in baseball, football, basketball, and track and field.
@@bobbest8627 That's really amazing. I knew of Mack from my PCC days (I also grew up in TC), but didn't learn until just recently he was a silver medalist. What years did you go to TCHS?
@ the Boat!! Bobs big boy!
You’re gonna make me cry! My daughter still lives in Temple city and I grew up there in the 70s. Walking distance from Clermans Boat and Northwoods. I still get down there three times a year at least. I played baseball in Temple city. In the 70s we usually wound up at Bob’s big boy (in Arcadia) every Friday or Saturday night after going to a backyard party where, in a lot of cases, Van Halen was the band.
I didn’t know there were any bobs big boy still around. Up in Northern Nevada now, and the hard-core giants fan.
Robert Moses was the reason that the Dodgers moved. He was the reason for a lot of bad things that happened in postwar NYC. O’Malley didn’t want to leave
There's a great documentary on Robert Moses on PBS which details not only that aspect of NYC urban renewal but other maneuvers taken by him. His prejudice AND stubbornness creat a NYC that, in effect, still suffers from to this day.
Robert Moses was an idiot
Robert Moses was not elected to anything, yet he wielded enormous power. Especially since he was not originally a New Yorker, but came from New Haven, Connecticut.
It reminds me of our problems with these bureaucrats in D.C. today.
Robert Caro's book "The Power Broker" goes into this, but if you don't want to manage a ~1,000-page-book, the podcast 99% Invisible is currently reviewing it
This video omits the fact that the Dodgers did move immediately to Dodger Stadium upon moving to LA. The stadium was not built and ready until 1962. For four seasons, the Dodgers played in the LA Colosseum, a magnificent venue that was totally inappropriate for baseball. Like the Polo Grounds in New York, the Colosseum had field dimensions that would ruin the game of baseball. Yet, the Dodgers played there and actually won their first post move world series championship in 1959.
well said. that 250 foot deep/40 high left field wall was ridiculous
When you play in an odd stadium for half the season, like fenway, home field advantage arises.
I'd like to see this stadium I wonder if anyone has made videos about it
@@mjisthegoat88 Wally Moon would disagree.
They didn't immediately play at Dodgers stadium
My Dad took me to the Ground breaking ceremony of Dodger Stadium ... 1959 ... I was four years old !!!
Real OG
Well done! I'm from New York and a Mets fan so I really appreciated this video. The LA Dodgers has been successful in creating THEIR own legacy, but it's important not to forget where they came from.
As a Braves fan, it would have been great if the Dodgers stayed in BK.
@@jeremiah_12would have been great to see the braves stay in Boston too
Great story telling. As an LA native and Dodger fan it was nice to see both perspectives.
I was born in Brooklyn and my father was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan when they moved he became a Mets fan! Now im a die hard mets fan!!! Thanks Dad!!!
Excellent video - although Ebbets Field was the intersection of Sullivan Place and Bedford Ave in Flatbush
First baseball game I went to was the Hollywood Stars. My Dad bought a space on the leftfield fence and put an ad for his business there. I have a picture of me standing in left field and the ad behind me! Great times.
Also, don’t underestimate the reason for the move to the west coast by Major league baseball at the time. Walter O’Malley’s former nemesis with the Brooklyn Dodgers, a.k.a. Branch Rickey hated O’Malley. And after O’Malley ousted him from Brooklyn, he had come up with the idea to start a third major league on the west coast called the continental league. Major league baseball saw this as an affront to their authority and power, and we’re already plotting to move teams to California before the Continental league could get started. Branch Rickey wanted to take the Pacific coast league and basically transported into the third major-league a.k.a. the continental league. It would’ve worked except Ricky had no friends hardly in baseball anymore. Walter O’Malley seen to that. After the teams moved to California and the continental league was never going to get off the ground Ricky wound up in Pittsburgh and helped build a 1960 world championship team.
Rickey actually ended up in Pittsburgh after O'Malley ousted him. John Galbreath, one of the Pirates' owners, fired him after 5 losing seasons and it was after that that Rickey attempted to form the Continental League.
Joe E Brown built
That
Robert moses
@@caseyedward2890 Joe E Brown wasn’t the one who brought Roberto Clemente with him from Brooklyn. Branch Rickey did that.
Yes indeed
Good video. My step-mother was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan in 3p, 40s and 50s. Was very uset when they left. Became a Mets fan, then moved to New England and followed both the Mets and Red Sox. My father, sister and I being lifelong Red Sox fans, and my step-brothers and step-sister being in the same boat as my step-mother, you can imagine what it was like in our house during the '86 World Series lol
Poor Jackie. All the abuse he took took to be baseball's first black player since Fleetwood Walker. He was also a Rickey boy, which is why O'Malley traded to the New York Giants, which is why he retired, rather than play for them. I feel that's what led to Jackie's premature death.
I always thought the stress led to the high blood pressure and diabetes that took his life at 53. Even then he was virtually blind, and had he lived, might have lost his legs. Jackie belongs on Mt. Rushmore. Not baseball's. America's.
Diabetes killed Jackie.
@@fuktrumpanzeeskum exactly....
Larry Doby took as much if not more abuse than Jackie being the first black player in the American League with NONE of the press coverage Jackie continually gets, no disrespect for Jackie intended.
I mean does anyone know who Larry was, what team he played for, or who signed him?
@@jmad627 Larry Doby made his ML debut with the Cleveland Indians, about four months after Jackie made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
It wasn’t O’Malley’s fault, I think the real blame should be on Robert Moses
It was, I’m currently reading The Power Broker he ruled with an iron fist
Sounds about right!
I’m an LA dodgers fan from LA ! We love you Brooklyn!
The Dodgers staying in Brooklyn was not meant to be.
Totally Moses fault, he died a very sad man
i was told the Giants were planning a move to minnesota and it was the dodgers who convinced them to join them in california
The Cleveland Indians were also talking about a move to Minnesota around the same time
Yes,,O'Malley convinced Horace Stoneham to go to California with him, & it didn't take much convincing! Because of one politician, we lost 2 baseball teams!!
From what I read, baseball wanted two teams in CA. Maybe for travel purposes. It was mainly trains back then. So O’Malley talked the Giants to go to CA with him.
by the late 50s getting to the Polo grounds was not safe.... Uptown Harlem was getting pretty dangerous by then..
@@paulgentile1024 I read the same thing around Ebbets Field...
We all miss you Jackie Robinson...🤗🇺🇸🗽✨😇.. #42
Went to 8 games in Ebbetts Field . Glad I was able to go to Ebbetts .
The Dodgers wasn't the only team New York lost during that era, falls under the radar the New York Giants moving to San Francisco, is crazy to see New York from 3 teams to one in such a short period of time.
Yes three teams was too much for one city
Weren’t
@@master-kq3nwat the time it wasn’t. NYC was by far the largest city in country at the time. Cities out west and down south weren’t that populated and most were too small to have teams before the 1960s. That’s why Chicago to this day has two teams that have been there since the 1800s. That’s why at one point, Philadelphia, Boston and St. Louis all had two teams at one point.
The NYC metro area has 23.5 million people. That’s more people than the combined metro population of all the NL central cities. If a third team were to have been created 50+ years ago the region could have easily supported a third team, though it likely would have been put in NJ, probably in the Meadowlands.
@@Not_Sal yea but that time la didn't have team so new owner decide move dodgers to l.a,
My Uncle was involved in the early negotiations with the City of New York to keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn. He worked on the concept of extending the IRT subway line to where Kings Plaza is now. That way people would be able to take the subway and the Belt Parkway to the new field. Moses however was sold on the Flushing locations and what he wanted back then; he got. So after running two Worlds Faits into the ground, Moses was responsible for forcing the departure of the bums.
Great documentary's truly hard to fine amongst huge batches of junk. THIS was a great one!
My father grew up in Brooklyn and was a rabid Dodger far. He watched this and went nuts when it said Robinson retired at the end of the 1955 season. He retired at the end of the 1956 season, the Dodgers last season in Brooklyn.
1957 was the Dodgers' last season in Brooklyn. I was at the second-to-last game. The Dodgers beat the Phillies 7 to 3.
My dad grew up a Giants fan, went to the Polo Grounds often, and constantly talked about '51, how they overcame that huge deficit, and of course Thompson. It must have been a great time to be a fan growing up, with the Dodgers in Brooklyn, Giants at the Polo Gr, and the Yanks in the Bronx.
Robinson was traded to the Giants at the end of the '56 season. The trade was never completed as Robinson had then retired...
Great video. My Mom was a diehard Brooklyn Dodger fan, who was continually harassed by her Italian dominant community for her betrayal of the Yankees by following them. She always blamed O'Malley for leaving Brooklyn, forever echoed by many folks I recall, as that "damned O'Malley", by moving to LA. As you pointed out, it was indeed, Robert Moses who was the culprit. His strategy was that "whoever chose Flushing Meadows" (HIS choice) as the locale for a sports complex, would be the sole occupier of a stadium. His dreams as a city planner were thwarted in developing Flushing Meadows; first during the Great Depression, and then due to WW2, to creating a massive facility of his dreams. He had a brief showing in the 1939 Worlds Fair, situated where his vision was to completed. The Giants were tied to Manhattan, and the Dodgers to Brooklyn, yet he could care less. Accommodating fan desire was secondary. It was William Shea, who broke MLB's expansion stranglehold, that got the Mets to exist as a team, and give NY a 2nd team again. In Flushing Meadows.
At their inception as an expansion team in 1962 the New York Mets adopted the representative blue color of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the orange of the New York Giants, the teams that had relocated to California seeking greener pastures. Some also say that the pinstripes used in the Mets uniforms were a tribute to the team that remained in the state, the New York Yankees of the American League.
And the Mets used the NY on the caps the Giants once wore
@@michaelleroy9281 Yes, they managed to design a similar although different logo for the caps.
Baseball trivia is the BEST
I had a.friend who always referred to the Dodgers as Brooklyn. I was years since they left to move to LA. He was a fan from way back when.
Weeks before he was murdered Martin Luther King Jr said that he was grateful to Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe for helping him in his struggle for Human Rights.
Get tfck out with the racist card!
civil rights, it was malcolm who better understood the difference
Couple mistakes in the documentary. First Horace Stoneham did not convince O’Malley to move to California. It was the other way around Stoneham already was going to move his Giants to Minnesota because he owned the AAA affiliate, but Walter O’Malley convinced him to move further west only because baseball had told O’Malley he could not move the Dodgers to California unless another team went with him, for the simple reason to travel would’ve been too much to go to the West Coast just for one city, needed at least two cities. And second off Jackie Robinson did not retired in 1955. He retired in 1957. Overall a very good documentary. Very interesting and very informative.
The documentary didn’t state Jackie Robinson retired in 1955 and it didn’t state Stoneham convinced O’Malley -
@@cryptobill6188it does state that Jackie retired after the 55 season which is false but it’s a small flaw in a wonderful documentary. Loved it.
@@Francisk77 I’ll have to watch again, but yes despite minor flaws it was an excellent documentary
LOL, you didn't really watch it the first time @@cryptobill6188
LOL, you didn't really watch it the first time @@cryptobill6188
Nice video. Thanks. Jackie Robinson retired at the end of the 1956 season. The Dodgers were trading him to the Giants, and he retired rather than switch teams at that point in his career.
To me it was a punch to the gut that the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn, NY.
My father worked in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn and told us he used to see different Dodgers driving home after their games. He said Campanella was a crazy driver and remarked some day he would be in a terrible accident. I’m still aDodger fan.
When I was in school, our softball high school coach was a substitute teacher, he was drafted & played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, not sure if he ever played at Ebbett’s Field but he’d come into class wearing his Brooklyn jacket every time.
Excellent video. I was always taught that Chavez Ravine was forcefully de-occupied directly in preparation for Dodger Stadium to be built, not that it was mostly for housing projects. Good to be informed on a location I live less than a 10 minute drive away from.
The housing project was a ruse
@@RosalindaMorales-n4i ah that sounds plausible. I should look into this on my own. Thank you.
@Catdaddyacab This short RUclips doc from LATimes gives you some idea of what really happened - with some of the people who lived through it. There are many other docs on RUclips about Chavez Ravine. ruclips.net/video/v1LvQvRpfvg/видео.htmlsi=lMxeek44aLF09m76
@@RosalindaMorales-n4i It was not a ruse by the designers, but the city officials. They already had plans for a community with public housing, schools, parks, and all kind of amenities. The city pulled the rug out of the plan for BS reasons leaving the residents stranded.
Sheesh, I bet traffic was horrific on Friday 😅
I like this video!!! I wish that it has more views and likes.
Thank you! Share it around to get it there!!
The year they left I was born near the stadium in Brooklyn.Pissed me off.
You were born pissed off!?
It was meant to happen for a reason. To be a yankee fan.
Lol I'm pissed off we didn't get a Subway Series like 2000 when the New York Mets bowed out in the NLCS to the Dodgers
@@Rattlor😂😂😂
I saw the Dodgers play in Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. I walked there and left with a baseball filled with autographs. I just put it in my dresser draw and over time all the autographs faded. Sandy, Gilliam, Reese, Snyder, and more.
Chuck Connors played for Brooklyn. He played in the NBA for the Boston Celtics. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears but became the Rifleman instead.
That’s why I’m a Mets fan today because my father and grandfather loved the Dodgers and were crushed when they left. No way were they going to be Yankee fans. Mets were born and my dad became Mets fan. I was taken to Shea in ‘84 when I was 8 and saw Doc Gooden pitch and Strawberry hit a home run that still hasn’t landed. From that day forward I’ve been a Mets fan. LFGM!
I became Mets fan in 1983 after Strawberry came along. I had watched him and Gooden during minor league years. Then cemented it with Gooden and everything else during the mid to late 80's. I don't obsess over sports I used to. But have fond memories of those days.
@ Did you see the incredible run the Mets just had taking the Dodgers to game 6 in the NLCS? The current Mets are no joke. ‘25 is going to be amazing!
@@Sol_1nvictus5813 Yes. My favorite years are 1985-86.
@@exposethenwo6491 this year was my favorite year, this team had no business becoming as gritty and resilient as they did. If we get a few more like vientos and alvarez out of acuna baty mauricio jett and gilbert sustainable winning will be here for minimum of 5 yrs... soto manaea and wheeler ought to be affordable
As much as the Brooklyn dodgers were such a great story, moving to LA was the best thing they could of done.
It must be said, the way the stadium in LA came about is tragic. However, it was a product of the time and they wouldn’t of been treated differently in any part of this country. It’s wrong, and a stain on LA and this country, as many things are. But now the LA Dodgers and baseball itself are something that brings the community together. It’s their duty to continue to be a bright spot in LA to mend the troubled beginnings.
Dude! Your narration and production were excellent. Go (Los Angeles) Dodgers!
The Giants left New York for San Francisco the same year as the Dodgers left for Los Angeles, yet no one ever asks why the Giants left.
Love how the supposed “original LA team” came from Brooklyn. Long before the Dodgers the Angels and San Diego were playing baseball.
Yes, and the Angels go back to the early 1900s.
Don’t forget the Hollywood Stars, a fierce rival of the Angels
@@garybrewster5657 Yep. Sadly, history is written by the winners and believed by the ignorant.
Yeah, The old pacific coast league.
The best thing the Angels did was prevent Barry from getting a ring.
This is really well told, nice job. The proposed Brooklyn stadium was actually going to have a roof -- not domed, but similar to how SoFi has open air between roof and field.
Great video. There's a lot of people out there that think the Dodgers were the ones who caused the force removal of the Chavez Ravine community, when it was actually the city of LA that caused it.
I’m wondering how many of the Chavez ravine residents were not immigrants, and had lived there for generations when LA was still Mexico.
None
Most of the adults living in Chavez Ravine were illegal squatters in housing that was below code requirements, built without permits to what they were used to in Mexico, on land they had no right to build nor live on. The City of Los Angeles, after much legal wrangling, only had to compensate legal property owners for their eminent domain displacement as per Amendment V in the Constitution’s Bill Of Rights. Nonetheless, although it took several years, money was raised to compensate displaced residents for public relations reasons. This went to people as a good will gesture, not because it was a legal requirement. If Dodger Stadium hadn’t been built there it’s entirely possible the residents would have been evicted anyhow. The L.A. Police Department recruit training center is just down the road leading to the stadium. There was already talk of using eminent domain for land to expand the facility.
Two huge inflexible egoists. I can add a little to the story that might clarify some things. The Giants were already looking to move to Minneapolis which housed their AAA team at that time. In order to get approval from the league owners O’Malley had to have another team out west for travel reasons and he talked Stoneham into going to San Francisco. O’Malley may have been a shrewd businessman but he was a sneak. He ran Branch Rickey out of Brooklyn by manipulating the widow of one of the former owners in order to accomplish that and gain control of the team. Moses was an arrogant bureaucrat who wouldn’t even try to be flexible. Result Brooklyn lost its baseball identity.
I read somewhere that while LA was courting the Dodgers, they were also talking with Calvin Griffith of the Washington Senators, who eventually moved to Minneapolis and became the Twins. I didn’t know the Giants could’ve potentially gone there.
Yeah I thought that O'Malley talked Stonham into moving to San Francisco.
The Senators ended up in Minnesota, even though it wasn't necessary. D.C. Stadium (later named after Robert F. Kennedy), the very first of the cookie-cutter ballparks, was due to be ready in 1962. But Clark W. Griffith wouldn't wait. President Kennedy informed both the Senators and the Redskins that they would have to sign black players. Also, the stadium was owned by the National Parks Service. They would not put up with segregated seating. (Griffith wanted to restrict blacks to the worst seats: upper deck, center field.) Griffith said, "No way." In one of the worst mistakes in baseball history, the American League allowed the Senators to move to Minnesota, then put an expansion team in Washington. Griffith's reason for moving? "You have fewer blacks here." The worst part is that the 1965 World Series would have been in Washington, if the Senators had stayed.
@@davidlafleche1142No use crying over split milk.
I don't use the term tragic to define sports teams, but the Brooklyn Dodgers may be that rare exception. For years of saying "there's always next year" with a WS, they finally get one. Then, three years later, they're gone.
for the record , specific to the intro mentioning sullivan ave and flatbush ave.
sullivan ave is sullivan place . and it doesnt intersect with flatbush ave.
here are the 4 steets that surrounded the field.
bedford ave, sullivan place , mckeever place ,and montgomery st.
main entrance was located at sullivan and mckeever.
left field line was mckeever and montgomery.
center field was montgomery and bedford.
right field line was sullivan and bedford.
You're right. There was a ton of research I had to on this video and as soon as i uploaded i realized one of the only facts i got wrong was the first one i said🤦♂
@@baseballheirloomsJackie Robinson retired from baseball ⚾ after the 1956 season, not '55. Robbie retired rather than playing for the hated New York Giants, although it would have been fun to see him as a teammate of Willie Mays.
Very interesting video. I believe Koufax was an eratic rookie pitcher in 1957 when they still played in Brooklyn.
Koufax broke in with the Dodgers in 1955, not '57, so he was in his third season in '57. Koufax didn't come into his own as a pitcher until 1961.
No Koufax was a young wild as hell rookie in 1955 not 1957.
I think the bonus baby rule held Koufax development back.The rule was all bonus babies had to be on the major league roster and the manager Alston didn't like to play young players.Robinson and Alston got into a argument about Koufax not really getting a fair chance to play.Robinson felt that soon as Koufax had a bad game he would get benched and not play for weeks at time. If Koufax played in the minor leagues learning how to pitch instead of mostly riding the bench. I think he would have became a star much sooner.
Really well done!
I like to think of the current team as the Brooklyn Dodgers of Los Angeles.
I’ve seen another documentary that said that it was the league that required that the Giants had to move to the west coast with the Dodgers in order for them (Dodgers) to be allowed to leave.
People are on here bragging that they saw the Dodgers play in Brooklyn.
That's nothing.
I saw them play in Jersey City.
Before they were the Trolley Dodgers, they were also called the Brookiyn Bridegrooms and Brooklyn Superbas. Their official name from 1914-1932 was the Brooklyn Robins, named for then manager Wilbert Robinson but sports writers kept referring them also as the Dodgers and Superbas interchangeably. in 1932, the team allowed Brooklyn sportswriters to choose a permanent name, and the name Dodgers won out.
You left out the acres of land, besides Chavez Ravine, that O’Malley was given by the city of LA. Making him extra millions.
As a kid I saw the newly relocated Dodgers play in the L.A. Coliseum. Who I didn't get to see was a childhood hero Roy Campanella.
Ebbets Field was also enshrined in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" play. I grew up in California and that's how I first heard about Ebbets Field.
Ralph Carson of Carson-Roberts ad agency was instrumental in convincing Walter O'Malley to move to LA. Ralph would run ads in the local Brooklyn papers when the Dodgers games were rained out saying "Mr. O'Malley, It's Baseball Playing Weather in Los Angeles". Ralph ended up with some of the best season ticket seats available.
Some of the old timers living in Brooklyn and elsewhere are still rooting for them Dodgers...
Let's Go!!! Woohooo
In 1962, and for years after, the Mets logo (depicted at the 12:10 mark), also included an "NY" in the lower left, just above the "M" in "Mets".
I had a buddy from Brooklyn when I was in the service. He was a big-time Mets fan, hated the Yankees, and almost hated the LA Dodgers as much, kind of a generational thing handed down from his father and grandfather who grew up near Flatbush. I was totally in line with his hatred for the Yankees, a generational thing in my family, but I never had any hate for the Dodgers. I always wanted to get to their ballpark, but some bucket list items, like that and taking in a game and Fenway will remain just that, bucket list items.
I'd like to make a point about the significance of Chavez Ravine. I'm not sure one could say that _all_ of the residents of Mexican descent were immigrants, exactly. I'd imagine a great many of the families were already living in what was Mexico when it suddenly became American territory in 1848. I had a friend in the military who was Mexican by ancestry, but his family had roots, and a ranch in California going back centuries. I think we, Americans, too often forget that the American Southwest used to be the Mexican Northwest.
This is a great documentary, well done
Very little about the story of the Chavez Ravine inhabitants. We Mexicans are always ignored in Amerca's history. But we are/ will be a large part , have great family values, and work very hard. We will make America greater for our families future and everyone else's who love America.
Outside of the frontispiece facade, Ebbets Field was not an architectural masterpiece, as any older baseball historian will tell you. It was pretty utilitarian. ⚾️
I live in the UK & have been a Dodgers fan since I saw two games there back in 1990 when vacationing on the west coast.
I only read about the controversial treatment of the residents of Chavez Ravine fairly recently & even though I had absolutely no part in that, it still causes me a certain amount of guilt.
PS : And I am super delighted by our recent WS win over the Bronx Bombers - GO DODGERS!! 😎
As a kid from the LES of NY, the dodgers gave us free tickets to the games & we loved the outings even though I was a Yankee fan.... the Yankees hardly ever did that for us...
Here’s the way I analyze the Dodgers’ move to LA: all parties (eventually & essentially) received what they wanted.
Yes I know the move caused generational pain for Brooklyn fans. But everyone still got what they wanted:
*W O’Malley received his new ballpark for the Dodgers. They’ve been a gold mine ever since.
*Robert Moses built the MLB ballpark he wanted WHERE he wanted it (Shea in Queens…and the current Citi Field sits there also)
*MLB was desperate to get into Cali & the LA market, and they received TWO teams in 1958 and opened the eventual floodgates for populating the United States west of the Mississippi with MLB franchises (Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Wash State, more cities in Cali…and possibly Nevada soon)
*Brooklyn received the Barclays Centre and received the NBA (and for a short time the NHL)
*Brooklynites/Long Islanders received the NL replacement for the Dodgers in the Mets in 62
*And Brooklyn received their minor league Cyclones, in Coney Island, to get pro baseball back in the borough
Everyone, despite blood sweat and tears, essentially, received what they wanted.
It’s amazing that no one in California calls it cali, yet those who don’t live here do.
Very interesting.
No O Malley wanted to Stay in Brooklyn Moses full of himself wanted power and more of it its my way or the highway OMalley got a deal from Los Angeles he couldn't refuse or a fool would free land use a field to play in ( small but ready for play) in until a more advanced suitable place was ready
@@ec1628 you can thank LL Cool J for that (1987)
🎶I’m going back to Cali, Cali, Cali. 🎶😂
@@MikeCee7It’s still true. Only those outside of CA or those trying to be dope use that term.
Can't count Brooklyn getting what it wanted. It took over 50 years for Barclay's to come to be.
There were three teams slicing up one market, New York, while two major markets were available on the west coast. Purely a business decision.
Great video with all the black and white images felt like a real documentary
When I was visiting friends in New York City, I took a walk through the nearby park and there were several older fellows sitting on benches by a table where two were playing a game of chess. I noticed one man had a black cap with an orange NY logo, I stopped and gestured and said "Giants fan, huh?". He looked up and said, "That's 'NEW YORK GIANTS', I hope that bastard Horace Stoneham is burning in hell!" In baseball, some wounds never heal.
There is a fantastic HBO Documentary called “The Ghosts Of Flatbush.” I can’t say enough good things about it.
At about the 10:06 mark, it stated that, in 1956, NY Giants owner, Horace Stoneham, was planning on moving his team to San Francisco. However, as the story goes, he was already looking at Minneapolis, where his AAA Minneapolis Millers were playing, and where the A-phase of a stadium (in Bloomington, Minn.) was already located.
"close to winning it all but always found a way to lose" you sure you're not talking about current day dodgers?
Until October 30th, 2024…
Mí respeto para usted no sabes la atención a su disertación y elocuencia tan serias y ciertas.
Un fuerte abrazo y las gracias por tu contribución al pueblo 🇵🇷
It is my understanding that the Giants were going to move to Minneapolis however, O'Malley talked Stoneman in moving to San Francisco. I grew up as a Dodgers fan and could not believe they would leave Brooklyn. One of the greatest businesses moves, however.
I lived in Brooklyn for a decade and went to the apartments were Ebbetts field use to be, it's sad that nothing reminds me of that era or stadium in there.
Good ole urban renewal. Everything including people today are disposable and it all started with urban renewal
The sports radio shows of today especially in nyc would never of let the Dodgers and Giants leave . The radio stations would fire all fans up to kick in the doors of city hall in outrage !
O’Malley wanted to build a domed stadium in Flatbush. Moses said no.
I was a 15 YO New Yorker who attended game 3 or 4 of the '55 series, don't recall which. It was a fantastic place to be for a teenager. I still see Campy coming to the plate. Yankee lover and Dodger hater from way back. Moved to Cal 15 years later in '70 and of course am a big Dodgers and Giants follower. Re Robert Moses: He gets a lot of bad press these days but he was the man when I was growing up. First off, he was not corrupt, but well could have been given his power. Second, his parkways and beaches were for the common good. Jones Beach remains an institution to this day. Spent many a weekend body surfing at this beautiful place.
When the Dodgers were called the Superbs, they played at a Ballpark in Brooklyn on 4th Ave. Their clubhouse less than a block away was the Old Stonehouse where George Washington slept.
George Washington pretty much slept everywhere rumor has it 😉
Superbas, they were the Brooklyn Superbas from 1899-1910
It was ALWAYS ROBERT MOSES’ fault. Walter O’Malley wanted to move to South Brooklyn, but Moses demanded the team move to Flushing Meadows in Queens. Enter Los Angeles, when they were a viable, growing city. They offered the Dodgers WAY MORE and no Moses BS. Failed excuse for a human being Mayor Robert Wagner did nothing and so O’Malley took the team to where they were APPRECIATED, then the stupid New Yorkers blamed HIM for six decades instead of the REAL CULPRIT, the effete egotistical, Moses. And that is EXACTLY how it went down. (And I was there to see it!)
ironic the Dodgers refer to "Trolley Dodgers" because it was around the time that the Dodgers moved to LA that the last of the old time trolleys were dismantled and never ran again, a few lines ran into the early 60s but all the trolleys that ran anywhere near what would become Dodger Stadium was completely cease operations right around 1957.
Short answer: Robert Moses.
Long answer: Robert Moses, real estate, and everything else.
Great Video!!!
Brooklyn agreed to become part of NYC at least partly for practical reasons. Brooklyn is on Long Island, and there is not much fresh water on Long Island. As the City of Brooklyn was growing more and more, it was becoming more and more difficult for Brooklyn to get sufficient fresh water for its growing population. Joining the newly formed NYC in 1898 enabled Brooklyn to tap into the NYC water supply, which came mainly from Westchester County, New York, near what is now the White Plains Airport.
Wasnt Ebbets at the corner of Sullivan and McKleever?
You are in a room with O,Malley, Hitler and Stalin. You have a gun but only 2 bullets. What do you do? You shoot O,Malley twice. That’s from the documentary.
This was a great video
Long story short: Walter O’Malley wanted a new stadium built in Brooklyn where the Barclays Center is today, Robert Moses refused to give O’Malley the land. Robert Moses counter-offered O’Malley with land in Flushing Meadows (where Citi Field is now), but O’Malley refused saying “Either we play in Brooklyn, or else we leave New York altogether.” Moses calls O’Malley on his bluff, and the Dodgers leave for Los Angeles.
Great job !
Sad….It’s still Brooklyn Dodgers
Heartbreaking for the fans to see their team move far away
great job! excellent work!
Great video!
The answer is simple: More Money in LA. By the mid-1950’s, Southern California was growing extremely rapidly, so it was a booming, untapped baseball market. Also, since New York and Brooklyn were the highest cost of construction areas at that time, it was far easier and cheaper to build a large, modern baseball stadium in LA.
Ultimately, it was inevitable that baseball would spread west. The fact it was the Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants was instrumental in making it work out well for MLB. At that time in the 50's the Pacific Coast League on the west coast was considered by many comparable to MLB. It would have been difficult to get fans to come watch an expansion team with a poor record. By sending teams with storied histories and a few great players in their primes sealed the deal for the move to work out well for MLB. And it stopped any effort to start another league in its tracks. It paved the way for MLB to become big business.
Much of the big business on sports is negative imho. But that is the nation we live in today, where if you are the best at something, especially sports, you will get paid well for it. That is better than the owners having complete control over players like slaves and paying them peanuts as a result.
The Dodgers franchise played 68 seasons in New York; next season will be No. 68 in Los Angeles.
Thanks, really interesting video. I had heard that the Giants and Dodgers agreed in tandem to move to California. Was that not true?
Something worthy of mentioning is that O’Malley wrote to Moses for years for his plans to build the new ballpark and he was constantly denied. Even when the Mayor of New York arranged for them to meet face to face, Moses ignored O’Malley’s argument for the ballpark. California was the only right choice with the offer of dirt cheap land and a huge fanbase that wanted baseball in the West Coast
Blue and orange have been New York's colors since it was New Amsterdam. Indeed, when NYC's official flag was being desigbed in the early Twentieth Century the designers remarked "In our flag, the colors are Dutch, the arms are English, the crest is distinctively American, but the flag as such is the flag of the City, which has grown from these beginnings to be the home of all nations, the great cosmopolitan city of the world, the City of New York."
The MTA made an interesting visual pun on this when they assigned colors to the subway lines. The two main IRT lines were assigned red and green [primary colors for the first subways], and the two yrunk lines if what had been the IND [New York's city-owned independent subway system] of vourse got blue and orange.