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Jim Gilliam: The Forgotten Dodger
Raised by his mother in the Jim Crow South, Jim Gilliam’s passion was baseball. His career was a journey beginning on the sandlots of Nashville to a pro career launched in the Negro Leagues to the first wave of Black players breaking the segregated gates of Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Jim "Junior" Gilliam never commanded the spotlight, yet he was instrumental in the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers reaching seven World Series, winning four, during his career. He never had a permanent position and was frequently the subject of trade rumors. Remembered as a role player, Gilliam sacrificed his statistics for the good of the team.
His career as a player and a coach with the Dodger franchise spanned three decades. He often entered spring training without a permanent position in the lineup or as trade bait, but still averaged 140 games played over 14 seasons, including two seasons as a player-coach. Gilliam would have likely surpassed half a century or more with the organization had he not died from complications of a brain hemorrhage at age 49, on the eve of the 1978 World Series, where he was slated to coach first base.
In the first book-length biography of the Dodgers great, Stephen W. Dittmore tells the story of Gilliam’s rise in the baseball world, from rough times in the Negro Leagues to more glamorous times in the majors. Gilliam’s story parallels the many changes in Major League Baseball, from segregated rosters to the first Black stars, as told in this deeply researched account of the forgotten Dodger.
Jim "Junior" Gilliam never commanded the spotlight, yet he was instrumental in the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers reaching seven World Series, winning four, during his career. He never had a permanent position and was frequently the subject of trade rumors. Remembered as a role player, Gilliam sacrificed his statistics for the good of the team.
His career as a player and a coach with the Dodger franchise spanned three decades. He often entered spring training without a permanent position in the lineup or as trade bait, but still averaged 140 games played over 14 seasons, including two seasons as a player-coach. Gilliam would have likely surpassed half a century or more with the organization had he not died from complications of a brain hemorrhage at age 49, on the eve of the 1978 World Series, where he was slated to coach first base.
In the first book-length biography of the Dodgers great, Stephen W. Dittmore tells the story of Gilliam’s rise in the baseball world, from rough times in the Negro Leagues to more glamorous times in the majors. Gilliam’s story parallels the many changes in Major League Baseball, from segregated rosters to the first Black stars, as told in this deeply researched account of the forgotten Dodger.
- GenresBaseball
340 pages, Paperback
Published February 4, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 28, 2025
“The Play”. This is how a photo of Jim Gilliam’s catch of a Zoilo Versailles line drive to third base in the seventh game of the 1965 World Series was captioned and it’s a very appropriate moniker for the defining moment of Jim Gilliam’s long career with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. This book by Stephen Dittmore captures the life and career of “Junior” and is a very good tribute to a much beloved player for this storied franchise.
“The Play” is not a spectacular snag of a ground ball with a miraculous throw to first base, like Brooks Robinson did in the 1970 World Series. It is not a no-look catch of a deep fly ball running full speed toward the wall like Willie Mays did in the 1954 World Series. It was simply Gilliam knowing what situation was in the game (Fifth inning, his team ahead 2-0 and his pitcher having trouble throughout the game so far) and what he needed to do to give his team its best chance to win.
This is really a perfect illustration of not only Gilliam’s baseball career with the Dodgers but also a good analogy to the book and Dittmore’s writing. There’s really nothing fancy or very different about this than other sports biographies but it’s well-written, well-researched and provides a lot of insight into Gilliam’s personal life as well as his baseball life.
A reader will not only learn that Gilliam played well in the Negro Leagues but had to wait his “turn” during the early days of the integration of Major League Baseball, but also his frustrations during his time with the Dodgers that even despite all-star game apoeances and solid play every season, he never really had a chance to settle in one position. Gilliam’s personal life and his two marriages as well as his competitive nature away from the diamond, like in bridge and golf.
The other aspect of the book I really enjoyed, mainly because it makes a reader stop and think, was Dittmore’s description of racism in organized baseball. While he does write about Gilliam’s encounters with this during his playing career, what sets this book apart from others on this topic is Dittmore’s description of the “Four Gates” of denial to Blacks of various positions in the game. The First Gate was broken by Jackie Robinso to allow Black players. The Second Gate was to break the unwritten quota system to allow only a small number of Black players in any one team. The third Gate was for Blacks to gain coaching positions (a natural for Gilliam who did become a Dodgers coach) and finally the Fourth Gate - managing a Major League team, accomplished by Frank Robinson in 1975.
There’s plenty to learn in the book not only about Jim Gilliam and the game of baseball, including some unique terms. If you have never heard of the phrase “snatch coconuts” and want to learn about ot and so much more about the life of Jim Gilliam, this book comes highly recommended. For the record, I never heard this term before reading the book and it refers to changing a player’s position.
I wish to thank Mr. Dittmore for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
“The Play” is not a spectacular snag of a ground ball with a miraculous throw to first base, like Brooks Robinson did in the 1970 World Series. It is not a no-look catch of a deep fly ball running full speed toward the wall like Willie Mays did in the 1954 World Series. It was simply Gilliam knowing what situation was in the game (Fifth inning, his team ahead 2-0 and his pitcher having trouble throughout the game so far) and what he needed to do to give his team its best chance to win.
This is really a perfect illustration of not only Gilliam’s baseball career with the Dodgers but also a good analogy to the book and Dittmore’s writing. There’s really nothing fancy or very different about this than other sports biographies but it’s well-written, well-researched and provides a lot of insight into Gilliam’s personal life as well as his baseball life.
A reader will not only learn that Gilliam played well in the Negro Leagues but had to wait his “turn” during the early days of the integration of Major League Baseball, but also his frustrations during his time with the Dodgers that even despite all-star game apoeances and solid play every season, he never really had a chance to settle in one position. Gilliam’s personal life and his two marriages as well as his competitive nature away from the diamond, like in bridge and golf.
The other aspect of the book I really enjoyed, mainly because it makes a reader stop and think, was Dittmore’s description of racism in organized baseball. While he does write about Gilliam’s encounters with this during his playing career, what sets this book apart from others on this topic is Dittmore’s description of the “Four Gates” of denial to Blacks of various positions in the game. The First Gate was broken by Jackie Robinso to allow Black players. The Second Gate was to break the unwritten quota system to allow only a small number of Black players in any one team. The third Gate was for Blacks to gain coaching positions (a natural for Gilliam who did become a Dodgers coach) and finally the Fourth Gate - managing a Major League team, accomplished by Frank Robinson in 1975.
There’s plenty to learn in the book not only about Jim Gilliam and the game of baseball, including some unique terms. If you have never heard of the phrase “snatch coconuts” and want to learn about ot and so much more about the life of Jim Gilliam, this book comes highly recommended. For the record, I never heard this term before reading the book and it refers to changing a player’s position.
I wish to thank Mr. Dittmore for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
April 11, 2025
Unexpectedly sad after reading the book, though I don’t believe the subject had a particularly sad life. Not a gripping style of writing, though not sure the subject that a particularly gripping career. He did have one that spanned some compelling years for his team the Dodgers and he was an important piece of that success though not one of the stars. I always thought fondly of him, but now I am just sad.
February 23, 2025
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: MY FIRST GAME AS A BROOKLYN BOY… WAS AT EBBETS FIELD… AND I SAW JUNIOR GILLIAM PLAY… AND MY FAMILY MOVED THE EXACT SAME TIME…AS OUR BELOVED BUMS TO LOS ANGELES… AND I SAW HIM PLAY THE REST OF HIS ENTIRE CAREER… ** I-SURE-AS-HELL-NEVER-FORGOT-HIM… NEITHER DID OTHER OLD-SCHOOL FANS! **
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My review of this book… in order to (as always)… benefit the people who want to read a review… to see if they want to purchase this book or not… is not… the usual straight forward operation. The author creates a conundrum… for a dedicated reader and reviewer like me… as I not only know… in intricate… first hand… chapter and verse detail… Jim “Junior” Gilliam’s… career… but had direct involvement with a member of his family… for a short time… and even went to his house… and his Mother’s house. So I feel I have two obligations… one is to verify the importance… the impact… and dedication to baseball… and our beloved **BROOKLYN AND LOS ANGELES DODGERS… I.E. *** OUR-BELOVED-BUMS ***… that Gilliam had! Historically… let me immediately make clear… that “JUNIOR” … he will always be in my heart as “JUNIOR” (his early career nickname) as well as Jim… was undeniably… **THE MOST TEAM ORIENTED… MY STATS DON’T MATTER… ONLY THE TEAM WINNING MATTERED… SACRIFICING… WITH OR WITHOUT… BEING ASKED… WHETHER FOR A SEASON… OR A GAME… OR… AN AT BAT… OR A SPECIFIC PITCH… that ever existed… not just in Dodger history… but by any player… for any team… in the seventy-years… that I have had a love affair with baseball. (Though the current shameful demise of the game that used to truly be the National Pastime… has left me past the point of despair… that any psychiatrist… or marriage counselor… or even… any world famous negotiator… could fix!)
Junior entered Major League baseball… in the years that followed Jackie Robinson breaking the color line. Though the doors for black players were open… there was definitely an “unspoken” quantity limit on teams. As I was raised the right way… as to our family way of being totally color-blind when it came to our treatment of our fellow human beings… and the fact that Jackie Robinson was my parents idol… my idol… my son’s idol… and now my Granddaughter’s idol… so much so… that every softball and soccer uniform they have worn is the HOLY-GRAIL-NUMBER-FORTY-TWO! The only reason… I feel it’s necessary to state that… is so someone can’t contort… what I’m about to describe… as a major literary shortcoming of the author in this book. I would say almost seventy-per-cent of this book… is nothing but repetitive … that every single step of Gilliam’s career… year… month… day… game… second… was limited… or denied… because of racism. I have literally read… almost every meaningful book about Jackie Robinson the last sixty-years… and not one of them… consistently… like a broken record… repeated the same mantra… regardless of the situation. Some of the books on Jackie… might have 35-40 per-cent about the racial battles he had to fight… but the remaining 60-65 per-cent of the book… was breathtaking… athletic action and achievements! The reader would be caught up in the game by game… competitive action… and the microscopic investigation into players on both sides… on the field and off. Unfortunately… what the author repetitively… hammers away on… comes... at the extreme cost of very shallow… actual baseball action…
Here’s a perfect example: Our Beloved-Bums… pulled off one of the greatest upsets in World Series history in 1963. The Dodgers were gigantic underdogs to the hated and mighty New Y0rk Yankees. The Dodgers not only beat the Yankees… but they swept them four straight! I know from actual life experience… having not only lived through it… but I was pitching in a Winter League Babe Ruth League championship game in Los Angeles on the day of the fourth game… my team manager… was going crazy because he had bet on the Dodgers to sweep at 250-1 odds. When the Dodgers won… and we won… he took us and all the parents to celebrate at DON DRYSDALE’S DUGOUT IN VAN NUYS! Now in addition to the sweep… in game one… Sandy Koufax not only pitched and won… he broke the then all-time record of most strikeouts by a pitcher in a World Series game… by striking out FIFTEEN! The author’s entire coverage of this monumental historic series… in this book… is two and one-eighth pages… and it doesn’t even mention Koufax’s strikeout record. And that is a pretty accurate synopsis of actual baseball action coverage throughout the book. Yet the beginning of the book… lists every single house from birth that Gilliam lived in… including the actual street address… and who lived in the house… and comes across that this was copied out of census reports. And any baseball game discussions… sound like it was just snippets from a box score.
When Gilliam passed away at forty-nine years-old… right before the 1978 World Series… the Eulogy was given by Reverend Jesse Jackson… and he… like the author in this book… emphasized the racial road blocks in greater volume… than Gilliam’s accomplishments… and the complaints regarding that eulogy… by perhaps… the friendliest… loving… Brooklyn… fan favorite and teammate… Carl “OISK” Erskine… and another… by Dodger great… Steve Garvey… in my opinion… echo… my comments about this book.
“AS POWERFUL AS JACKSON’S EULOGY WAS, ERSKINE WHO PLAYED WITH GILLIAM FROM 1953-59, REMEMBERED THE EULOGY’S FOCUS WAS NOT ON GILLIAM’S CHARACTERISTICS AS A PERSON, BUT RATHER ON THE SYSTEMIC RACISM GILLIAM FACED IN HIS LIFE. “I REMEMBER THE FUNERAL VIVIDLY AND JESSE JACKSON, I THOUGHT HE DIDN’T GIVE JIM ENOUGH CREDIT IN HIS EULOGY.”
“STEVE GARVEY, A DODGER STAR FIRST BASEMAN IN THE 1970,s, ALSO BELIEVED JACKSON’ S EULOGY DID NOT EMBODY THE PERSON GILLIAM WAS. (JACKSON) SAID THAT JIM GILLIAM, THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE, HAD ALWAYS BEEN CHALLENGED. BECAUSE OF HIS RACE, HE HAD TROUBLE ACHIEVING HIS GOALS, THAT IT WAS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE,” GARVEY WROTE IN 1986. “I COULD HAVE MISINTERPRETED THIS, BUT I DON’T THINK I DID. AND I DON’T THINK GILLIAM FELT THAT WAY… THAT IMAGE OF WALKING AGAINST THE WIND, THAT MIGHT BE APT FOR SOME… PROBABLY IT WAS FOR JACKIE ROBINSON… BUT I DON’T THINK IT FIT JIM.”
The observations of “OISK”… and Garvey… mirror my feelings on this entire book. Gilliam deserves to never be forgotten… as he was the absolute eternal definition of a team player… and along with SANDY KOUFAX… AND JOHNNY PODRES (WHO PITCHED AND WON THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME IN BROOKLYN DODGERS HISTORY… A COMPLETE GAME 2-0 SHUTOUT 5 DAYS AFTER HIS TWENTY-THIRD BIRTHDAY… TO BEAT THE HATED YANKEES IN GAME SEVEN OF THE 1955 WORLD SERIES)… ARE THE ONLY PLAYERS TO BE ON FOUR BROOKLYN/LOS ANGELES DODGER WORLD CHAMPIONS!
Junior will never be forgotten!
Note: There are numerous typos throughout the book.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
My review of this book… in order to (as always)… benefit the people who want to read a review… to see if they want to purchase this book or not… is not… the usual straight forward operation. The author creates a conundrum… for a dedicated reader and reviewer like me… as I not only know… in intricate… first hand… chapter and verse detail… Jim “Junior” Gilliam’s… career… but had direct involvement with a member of his family… for a short time… and even went to his house… and his Mother’s house. So I feel I have two obligations… one is to verify the importance… the impact… and dedication to baseball… and our beloved **BROOKLYN AND LOS ANGELES DODGERS… I.E. *** OUR-BELOVED-BUMS ***… that Gilliam had! Historically… let me immediately make clear… that “JUNIOR” … he will always be in my heart as “JUNIOR” (his early career nickname) as well as Jim… was undeniably… **THE MOST TEAM ORIENTED… MY STATS DON’T MATTER… ONLY THE TEAM WINNING MATTERED… SACRIFICING… WITH OR WITHOUT… BEING ASKED… WHETHER FOR A SEASON… OR A GAME… OR… AN AT BAT… OR A SPECIFIC PITCH… that ever existed… not just in Dodger history… but by any player… for any team… in the seventy-years… that I have had a love affair with baseball. (Though the current shameful demise of the game that used to truly be the National Pastime… has left me past the point of despair… that any psychiatrist… or marriage counselor… or even… any world famous negotiator… could fix!)
Junior entered Major League baseball… in the years that followed Jackie Robinson breaking the color line. Though the doors for black players were open… there was definitely an “unspoken” quantity limit on teams. As I was raised the right way… as to our family way of being totally color-blind when it came to our treatment of our fellow human beings… and the fact that Jackie Robinson was my parents idol… my idol… my son’s idol… and now my Granddaughter’s idol… so much so… that every softball and soccer uniform they have worn is the HOLY-GRAIL-NUMBER-FORTY-TWO! The only reason… I feel it’s necessary to state that… is so someone can’t contort… what I’m about to describe… as a major literary shortcoming of the author in this book. I would say almost seventy-per-cent of this book… is nothing but repetitive … that every single step of Gilliam’s career… year… month… day… game… second… was limited… or denied… because of racism. I have literally read… almost every meaningful book about Jackie Robinson the last sixty-years… and not one of them… consistently… like a broken record… repeated the same mantra… regardless of the situation. Some of the books on Jackie… might have 35-40 per-cent about the racial battles he had to fight… but the remaining 60-65 per-cent of the book… was breathtaking… athletic action and achievements! The reader would be caught up in the game by game… competitive action… and the microscopic investigation into players on both sides… on the field and off. Unfortunately… what the author repetitively… hammers away on… comes... at the extreme cost of very shallow… actual baseball action…
Here’s a perfect example: Our Beloved-Bums… pulled off one of the greatest upsets in World Series history in 1963. The Dodgers were gigantic underdogs to the hated and mighty New Y0rk Yankees. The Dodgers not only beat the Yankees… but they swept them four straight! I know from actual life experience… having not only lived through it… but I was pitching in a Winter League Babe Ruth League championship game in Los Angeles on the day of the fourth game… my team manager… was going crazy because he had bet on the Dodgers to sweep at 250-1 odds. When the Dodgers won… and we won… he took us and all the parents to celebrate at DON DRYSDALE’S DUGOUT IN VAN NUYS! Now in addition to the sweep… in game one… Sandy Koufax not only pitched and won… he broke the then all-time record of most strikeouts by a pitcher in a World Series game… by striking out FIFTEEN! The author’s entire coverage of this monumental historic series… in this book… is two and one-eighth pages… and it doesn’t even mention Koufax’s strikeout record. And that is a pretty accurate synopsis of actual baseball action coverage throughout the book. Yet the beginning of the book… lists every single house from birth that Gilliam lived in… including the actual street address… and who lived in the house… and comes across that this was copied out of census reports. And any baseball game discussions… sound like it was just snippets from a box score.
When Gilliam passed away at forty-nine years-old… right before the 1978 World Series… the Eulogy was given by Reverend Jesse Jackson… and he… like the author in this book… emphasized the racial road blocks in greater volume… than Gilliam’s accomplishments… and the complaints regarding that eulogy… by perhaps… the friendliest… loving… Brooklyn… fan favorite and teammate… Carl “OISK” Erskine… and another… by Dodger great… Steve Garvey… in my opinion… echo… my comments about this book.
“AS POWERFUL AS JACKSON’S EULOGY WAS, ERSKINE WHO PLAYED WITH GILLIAM FROM 1953-59, REMEMBERED THE EULOGY’S FOCUS WAS NOT ON GILLIAM’S CHARACTERISTICS AS A PERSON, BUT RATHER ON THE SYSTEMIC RACISM GILLIAM FACED IN HIS LIFE. “I REMEMBER THE FUNERAL VIVIDLY AND JESSE JACKSON, I THOUGHT HE DIDN’T GIVE JIM ENOUGH CREDIT IN HIS EULOGY.”
“STEVE GARVEY, A DODGER STAR FIRST BASEMAN IN THE 1970,s, ALSO BELIEVED JACKSON’ S EULOGY DID NOT EMBODY THE PERSON GILLIAM WAS. (JACKSON) SAID THAT JIM GILLIAM, THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE, HAD ALWAYS BEEN CHALLENGED. BECAUSE OF HIS RACE, HE HAD TROUBLE ACHIEVING HIS GOALS, THAT IT WAS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE,” GARVEY WROTE IN 1986. “I COULD HAVE MISINTERPRETED THIS, BUT I DON’T THINK I DID. AND I DON’T THINK GILLIAM FELT THAT WAY… THAT IMAGE OF WALKING AGAINST THE WIND, THAT MIGHT BE APT FOR SOME… PROBABLY IT WAS FOR JACKIE ROBINSON… BUT I DON’T THINK IT FIT JIM.”
The observations of “OISK”… and Garvey… mirror my feelings on this entire book. Gilliam deserves to never be forgotten… as he was the absolute eternal definition of a team player… and along with SANDY KOUFAX… AND JOHNNY PODRES (WHO PITCHED AND WON THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME IN BROOKLYN DODGERS HISTORY… A COMPLETE GAME 2-0 SHUTOUT 5 DAYS AFTER HIS TWENTY-THIRD BIRTHDAY… TO BEAT THE HATED YANKEES IN GAME SEVEN OF THE 1955 WORLD SERIES)… ARE THE ONLY PLAYERS TO BE ON FOUR BROOKLYN/LOS ANGELES DODGER WORLD CHAMPIONS!
Junior will never be forgotten!
Note: There are numerous typos throughout the book.
July 1, 2025
Baseball fans and fans of baseball history will enjoy this book. I found it especially interesting since Jim Gilliam was born in Nashville, which is just down the road from where I grew up. There is lots of history of the Negro Leagues in this book, and it deals with the racial issues the first Black ballplayers faced after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947. I heartily recommend this book.
September 4, 2025
The Forgotten Dodger is the perfect title for this biography of Jim Gilliam, an under-appreciated player from the 1950s and 60s. The author's extensive research shines through. It's nice that Gilliam's impressive career is getting the recognition it deserves. Highly recommended for Dodgers fans or any baseball history buff.
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