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An explanation of why Walter O’Malley was right in his decision to move the Dodgers to the West Coast.

“No sporting event so decisively enthralls the national consciousness as baseball’s annual October pageant.… There is something heroic about the pitched combat of two teams that are at once survivors and winners, meeting to decide the world championship.” – Donald Honig1 Even though the nature of postseason baseball has changed dramatically over the past 50 […]

Happy Felton, an all-around entertainer of a long-gone era, aggressively and successfully marketed his skills as a dance-band leader, musician, master of ceremonies, actor, comedian, and radio-stage-vaudeville performer for two decades beginning in the late 1920s. Then he won fame in television’s infancy as the creator and host of Happy Felton’s Knothole (or, Knot-Hole) Gang—a […]

A poem about the Dodgers’ relocation.

Bent for Blood at Ebbets Field Do you remember when a gun for hire almost shot Jackie Robinson at Ebbets Field from behind the dugout on the first-base line? Of course, you do. How could you forget a moment like that? Everybody was there: Dixie Walker, Ralph Branca, Clyde Sukeforth, Eddie Stanky, Pee Wee Reese, […]

On Saturday, August 26, 1939, the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds played a doubleheader at Ebbets Field. The opening game is noted for being the first televised major-league game and for the celebrations afterward in honor of Alexander Cartwright Jr., who had been admitted into the Hall of Fame that year, which Major League Baseball […]

With the favored New York Yankees leading the Brooklyn Dodgers two games to one, the clubs met for Game Four of the 1947 World Series at Ebbets Field. The thriller provided a storybook finish with tragic overtones.With the Yankees leading the 1947 World Series two games to one over the Dodgers, the two clubs met […]

This article was originally published in “Baseball in Chicago,” the 1986 SABR convention journal.   The 1986 season marks the 70th anniversary of the Cubs’ occupancy of Wrigley Field. Originally known as Weeghman Park, it was opened in 1914 for the Chicago Whales of the short-lived Federal League. The Cubs became residents in 1916, and […]

The year 1947 was a banner one for the Brooklyn Dodgers. At the same time as the newly desegregated Dodgers seized the National League pennant, the team expanded its appeal to a demographic not traditionally served by organized baseball. It was also a banner year for the advertising industry. With the abatement of wartime shortages, […]

1928 was a phenomenal year for the New York Yankees. Babe Ruth led both leagues in slugging percentage, home runs, walks, and runs scored as the Yankees marched toward sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series and winning their second consecutive title. He also graced the silver screen in Speedy, one of two […]