May 19 2006 11:43 PM
Michael Shapiro, a Columbia journo prof., profiles the '56 Brooklyn Dodgers -- not just the team and their pennant race, but the role politics and the social climate of Brooklyn played in the ultimate move to LA.
This is a great book! It's somewhat sympathetic to O'Malley, arguing that although he was out of touch with the common fan, very much wanted to find a solution in Brooklyn. The villian is Moses, who saw O'Malley's bid to build a new park at Atlantic & Flatbush (where the Nets will wind up) get tied up in beaurocracy and doomed to fail, while his policies of building highrise housing projects and highways was changing the borough such that it called for a new stadium.
Baseball wise, great portraits of Sal Maglie, Pee Wee Reese, Newcombe, Robinson, Snider, etc., and a good telling of a 3-team race. It ends with a salute to the Cyclones.
Highly recommended.