Why the Dodgers Moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles

if you go to the corner of sullivan avenue and flatbush avenue in brooklyn right now there isn't much there some apartment complexes a moderately busy street most people know nothing of where they are and there are little reminders but that plot of land was once home to the entire borough of brooklyn from 1913 to 1957 it was ebbets field here a franchise captured the hearts of millions fans were closer than any ballpark cheers and jeers could be heard all around in this cathedral baseball legends were born world series were decided and childhoods were shaped on this field america fundamentally changed and in this park a borough's hopes and dreams were continually crushed year after torturous year until they weren't but just two years later outside this field in fancy offices far away from the grub and grime of the ballpark the park's fate was sealed through power struggles between local and commercial and owner and a bureaucrat and the east and the west three thousand miles away lives a ballpark with la's majestic hills in the background dodger stadium seems perfectly naturally situated for a baseball stadium like nothing needed to be changed and it was god's gift to the world but the battle around chavez ravine was just as ugly as the one in brooklyn this is a story of when baseball and america changed forever this is the story of why the dodgers moved on may 24th 1883 fireworks rang out across new york city today was a day over 15 years in the making but brooklyn bridge was complete it was the biggest suspension bridge in the world at the time for over a decade residents on both sides of the east river had watched construction take place and waited now they could traverse the river without a ferry the bridge was a joint project undertaken by the twin cities of brooklyn and new york which at the time were separate but the bridge would spell the end of independent brooklyn connecting it with new york through commerce and transportation and in 1898 brooklyn residents voted to become part of new york city the only thing independent from new york city brooklyn had left was their baseball team the team was named the trolley dodgers after the trolleys which brooklyn pedestrians had to avoid when crossing busy streets then it was shortened to dodgers and every year residents of the diverse blue collar borough were enthralled by every game built in 1913 on a plot of land once called pigtown because it used to be a series of garbage dumps ebbettsfield was a unique stadium to see a ball game and had shorter fences than most and packed 30 000 fans into small seeds and bleachers and made the games an intimate experience where fans felt a part of the action it was here where the jews italians irish and african americans in brooklyn would come together as community to watch a ball game around the same time in the southern california mountains another community rose mexican immigrants settled in a piece of mountain still untouched by the growing los angeles metropolis through three neighborhoods la loma bishop and palo verde mexican families found a home in what was called chavez ravine kids in the neighborhood would run up and down the unpaved hilly dirt roads and for many immigrants it was the first home they ever owned and they cherished it on april 15 1947 the brooklyn dodgers played the boston braves on opening day and won 5-3 but the game itself was less important than who was in the lineup that day jack roosevelt robinson the grandson of a slave and son of a black shark cropper had become the first black man to play in modern professional baseball robinson's signing was the doing a branch ricky a devout fatherly general manager who was disgusted by prejudice and thought signing a black star would be good for ticket sales it was but more than that through robinson playing the national pastime americans began to see equality take place on a public stage quote jackie robinson made my success possible without him i would never have been able to do what i did martin luther king jr through grit and speed jackie infused the dodgers with the scrappiness that led them all the way to the 1947 world series where they would lose to the new york yankees in seven games it seemed as if every year the dodgers were close to winning it all but found a way to lose in 1949 jackie robinson won the mvp and the dodgers made it back to the world series this time they lost to the yankees in five games in 1951 the dodgers were up 4-2 in the ninth inning of the tiebreaker game against the rival new york giants this game would decide who goes to the world series with two on and one out bobby thompson stepped to the plate [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jackie robinson could only watch in disgust as bobby thompson joyously rounded the bases they had endured another horrible loss year after year fans would tell themselves wait till next year then the dodgers would win the world series the next year 1952 the dodgers made it back to the fall classic and lost to the new york yankees this time in seven games the following season 1953 the dodgers played the yankees again in the world series this time they lost in six games that season 1953 baseball did something it hadn't done in over 50 years for five decades there had been 16 teams eight in the american league and nate in the national league all playing in the same place no team had moved but in 1953 the boston braves went to milwaukee becoming the milwaukee braves the fans in milwaukee loved them 1.8 million fans attended their games that year making them first in attendance in the national league that year and the next five years branch rickey had been ousted from the dodgers in an ownership struggle in 1950 and now walter o'malley a shrewd bankruptcy lawyer who made his fortune during the great depression was at the helm of the brooklyn dodgers in 1954 the saint louis browns of the american league moved to baltimore and became the orioles that also resulted in above average attendance o'malley sat and wondered what he was going to do about ebbets field the dodgers were making money but o'malley thought they could make more with a new stadium and if he wanted to get the project done he knew just the man he had to talk to back in los angeles local politicians were on the move to supply public housing to their growing city it was decided that chavez ravine would be the best place for a new city-sponsored apartment complex over the early 50s chavez-ravine residents were evicted from their homes and told that when the public housing complex goes up they would be given first dibs on a new place within it for the time they were forced to sell their homes for whatever price the government told them the community was shocked and hurt some fought at city hall others took the money and left and the community of chavez ravine began to crack on october 4th 1955 brooklyn residents watched and listened with eggs waiting for the other shooter drop they were winning two nothing in the sixth inning of a world series game seven against the new york yankees but with the franchise record of 017 in past world series fans were tense with just a two run lead at the bottom of the sixth future hall of famer yogi berra was up with two on and nobody out he laced the ball down the left field line which would tie the game if it fell out of nowhere dodgers left fielder sandy ambrose came in and caught the ball they doubled up the runner from first and get out of the sixth unscathed with each out the tension built and at the bottom of the ninth with two out brooklyn pitcher johnny padres got elston howard to ground to short after years of agony the brooklyn dodgers were world series champions next year was finally here mayhem broke out on the streets of brooklyn generations had waited for this day free hot dogs were given out on street corners honking cars drove up and down the road for once the borough was better than the dreaded yankees the blue collar had beaten the white collar and all was right with the world but the dodgers days in brooklyn were now numbered walter o'malley wanted a new stadium despite their success the dodgers attendance was flat at about a million fans a season a far cry from the nearly two million the milwaukee braves were doing new york city's demographics were shifting more people were moving to the suburbs and o'malley thought the dodgers should move to a place more accessible by public transit and car he found a spot right by atlantic terminal with plenty of subway stops and a direct line to the long island railroad it was the perfect spot for the new stadium one man could approve the project with his backing the funding would be a cinch and that man's name was robert moses robert moses was never formally elected to any position in new york but for 40 years he had more power than any governor or mayor at this point in 1955 he was officially the new york state council of parks chairman the new york city department of parks commissioner and the chairman of the tribal bridge and tunnel authority which got millions of dollars a year in toll funds which went directly into the moses war chest whenever he wanted to build a bridge or tunnel he had funds and authority to start on his own moses was shrewd manipulative and all-powerful o'malley went to moses with his plan and it went like this moses's tribal authority could claim the land by the terminal for themselves and then they would sell it to the brooklyn dodgers at a discounted rate o'malley would then build a privately funded stadium upon that land moses said it wasn't possible he had done similar maneuvers before but for o'malley moses would not budge he just didn't like the guy robert moses offered an alternative a municipal stadium built by the city in queens near flushing menos corona park a park which moses had spent 30 years convincing city officials to be built o'malley cited the obvious difficulty moving a team called the brooklyn dodgers to somewhere outside of brooklyn they were at a standstill and walter o'malley began to look at alternatives new york giants owner horace stoneham accepted a deal in 1956 to move the new york giants from the polo grounds in upper manhattan to san francisco it showed o'malley that had a move west rather than haggling with city officials could be possible in l.a the plans for public housing in chavez ravine fell through when opponents claimed city officials overseeing the project were former members of the communist party it was the 50s these things happened with the mayoral administration change the project was scrapped and the land which was once home to thousands of mexican immigrants was empty la officials had an idea on how to use it halter o'malley made an official visit to los angeles in 1957 when he went up in a helicopter and saw the empty hills he could see it all the grandstand the pavilion parking spots the sailing of los angeles then made him an offer he couldn't refuse they'd sell him the ravine for cheap if he promised to build a privately funded stadium for the dodgers on it o'malley agreed and with that the fate of the entire brooklyn dodger fan base was sealed brooklyn fans were crushed their beloved bums were moving three thousand miles away in february 1960 abbott's field was leveled with a wrecking ball shaped like a baseball some fans came to watch as the stadium they lived and died by was destroyed piece by piece to build a public housing project [Music] in los angeles the dodgers set attendance records developed brand new stars and won three world series championships in their first eight years there for four years new york national league baseball fans had no one to cheer for it would have been sacrilegious to root for the crosstown yankees recognizing a gap in the market in 1962 major league baseball approved two new teams to join the national league one was the houston colt 45s the other team would play new york and have a color scheme that combined dodger blue and giant orange they would be called the new york mets the new mets ballpark called shea stadium was built by robert moses exactly where he wanted o'malley to move near flushing corona park in 2014 professional sports returned to brooklyn for the first time since when the dodgers left in 1957. the new jersey nets of the nba moved to brooklyn and played their games at the barclay center right across from atlantic terminal almost exactly where o'malley wanted to put his new stadium some residents of chavez ravine never got over the way they were treated by the city and refused to ever attend dodger games jackie robinson never went to los angeles with the dodgers he retired at the end of the 1955 season walter o'malley died in 1979 and was elected to the baseball hall of fame in 2008. in 2009 the mets new stadium city field opened with a rotunda mimicking at its field if you squint it's like they never left the ghosts of the brooklyn dodgers remain alive today [Music] you

Channel: Baseball Heirlooms

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Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 07 2022