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After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball
For New Yorkers—especially Brooklynites—1957 will always be the year that lives in infamy. It was when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants delivered a one-two punch to the city by both abandoning their hometown for California. Millions of bereft and angry baseball fans wondered how such a thing could be allowed to happen: Who was to blame? After poring relentlessly through archives, original news stories, and government documents, Robert Murphy gives the most fully-researched answer to that question yet offered. Packed with history, rich in baseball lore and legend, this is a book that any New York history buff and all lovers of America’s national pastime will relish.
AFTER MANY A SUMMER reveals:
How baseball commissioner Ford Frick helped facilitate the teams’ move to California
Which plan for a new stadium would have appeased Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley—and saved Brooklyn baseball
How Robert Moses, who has received much blame, actually tried to solve the problem
How O’Malley and Giants owner Horace Stoneham worked in tandem to make sure their popular rivalry would continue in LA
How the two owners managed to carry out secret talks with California officials even while insisting they had no plans to leave New York
AFTER MANY A SUMMER reveals:
How baseball commissioner Ford Frick helped facilitate the teams’ move to California
Which plan for a new stadium would have appeased Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley—and saved Brooklyn baseball
How Robert Moses, who has received much blame, actually tried to solve the problem
How O’Malley and Giants owner Horace Stoneham worked in tandem to make sure their popular rivalry would continue in LA
How the two owners managed to carry out secret talks with California officials even while insisting they had no plans to leave New York
432 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2009
10 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 31, 2013
It could've been better... It didn't seem like there was a story, just the author telling you facts and putting them into a book.
August 4, 2017
Solid, informative treatment of the events leading up to the departure of the Dodgers and Giants to California. 75% Dodgers; 25% Giants partly due to the protagonists themselves and partly due to the author's bias. Although there is a nice section with the history of the clubs, it is useful to know something about the story before reading this book. Whether he meant to or not, there are many places where the author assumes you know about a particular issue or controversy. Nevertheless an enjoyable read for baseball fans.
July 1, 2018
Great book. All the issues that sent these teams to the west coast are presented in the book. Very informative and helped you to feel the dread of New York National Eague fans. Enjoyed the book thoroughly.
A lot of historical and political points were demonstrated within the book. Politics, inflexibility on both sides appeared to cost New York two National league teams
A lot of historical and political points were demonstrated within the book. Politics, inflexibility on both sides appeared to cost New York two National league teams
January 16, 2023
Excellent Sadness
How did the Dodgers and Giants leave New York and settle in California? This excellent book tells all the ins and outs of the public and private deals and dealings. I highly recommend!
How did the Dodgers and Giants leave New York and settle in California? This excellent book tells all the ins and outs of the public and private deals and dealings. I highly recommend!
March 24, 2009
The departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the end of the 1957 season has become one of the most infamous moments in baseball history, largely overshadowing the near-simultaneous departure of the New York Giants for San Francisco. Murphy looks back at both situations, looking to break past the myths that have accumulated over the last half-century. (In other words, Walter O'Malley isn't evil incarnate, and neither is Robert Moses. Then again, neither of them come out of this smelling much like a rose, either.)
It's an entertaining, straightforward history--Murphy lays on the "ah, the 1950s were a different era" a little thick sometimes, but for the most part he's an engaging narrator with a balanced perspective on what was once (and for men of Murphy's generation, probably still is) a bitterly controversial period in New York City's history.
It's an entertaining, straightforward history--Murphy lays on the "ah, the 1950s were a different era" a little thick sometimes, but for the most part he's an engaging narrator with a balanced perspective on what was once (and for men of Murphy's generation, probably still is) a bitterly controversial period in New York City's history.
February 2, 2011
The book was extremely informative about the departure of both the Giants and the Dodgers from NYC in the autumn of 1957. There was a good balance between the treatment of Horace Stoneham, the Giant's owner, and Walter O'Malley, the Dodger's owner. Robert Moses also received a fair hearing, better than what he received in the book "Forever Blue," which was only about the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles. But as a baseball fan, there was just not enough baseball in this book - for me, it was too focused on the business machinations involved with moving these two franchises. I did, however, really like the background the author provided on the previous franchise relocations, including the Boston Braves, Philadelphia A's, and St. Louis Browns. Here again, the information was completely new to me, and I enjoyed learning about this.
March 21, 2011
Marvelous...A passionate account of the transfer of the Giants and Dodgers to California.
Simply a great book for anyone interested in matters such as these.
Walter O'Malley was a visionary....but 2011 is not 1958...the demographic he thought would drive white fans away in Brooklyn...working class or poor Hispanics and Blacks living in the Borough...seems to have become the Dodgers fan core in Los Angeles...at least where it comes to Hispanics. The World works in strange ways. Seems Giants owner Horace Stoneham was drunk most of the time and let events dictate to him rather than doing a damned thing for his franchise in the decade before it departed Manhattan.
You feel the author's bewilderment and genuine pain on every page of this book.
Simply a great book for anyone interested in matters such as these.
Walter O'Malley was a visionary....but 2011 is not 1958...the demographic he thought would drive white fans away in Brooklyn...working class or poor Hispanics and Blacks living in the Borough...seems to have become the Dodgers fan core in Los Angeles...at least where it comes to Hispanics. The World works in strange ways. Seems Giants owner Horace Stoneham was drunk most of the time and let events dictate to him rather than doing a damned thing for his franchise in the decade before it departed Manhattan.
You feel the author's bewilderment and genuine pain on every page of this book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews