In 1959, the Dodgers and Giants played only their second year in their new hometowns. The Dodgers finished their first year in LA in 7th place (71-83), the Giants 3rd.
The 1959 season would be very different and the Dodgers would forever dump the bums nickname they lovingly adopted years before. But this team would prove to be a diesel train.
The Giants were off to a good start. In first for a few days, never lower than 4th. In first again on July 4th, and except for 1 day staying there until september 19th. The Giants were riding the Pennant train comfortably.
The Dodgers were trailing, sometimes from 5 games back. Then they found their groove and after the first game of a double header on Sptember 19th at San Fransisco they were tied for first and finished the season up 2 on the Braves and 4 on the Giants.
Oh, the Dodgers went on to win their second World Series, the first in LA.
Eddie Germano’s The Bums' Rush Eddie Germano, the sports cartoonist, found the Bums rise interesting enough to devote a cartoon to it. On it, you see the pennant bound train (pennant special) carrying the Giants. On the balcony, a man* is relaxing, awaiting the train’s arrival at the next stop: the World Series. But he’s a bit surprised. A bum with an LA label on his old hat is quickly gaining on his handcar.
The drawing is a Germano original. I love this addition to my humble collection of Dodgers memorabilia.
*this probably is Horace Stoneham, the Giants owner at that time.
In 1988 ‘the Duke of Flatbush’ was published. A biography of Duke Snider, Dodgers retired #4. The Duke, born in Los Angeles, played center field for both the Brooklyn and the LA Dodgers. Winning the World Series in 1955 and 1959.
Since I started to branch out my interest from the LA team to the Boys of Summer, Duke was one of my instant favorites, right up there with Campanella.
Loved that guy’s smile. And his signature. It’s straightforward and curly and very recognizable.
So, when I saw an auction for a Snider auto, I decided to go for it. It was one of a lot that came from Mile High Card Company auctions. Fastforward... I got it way too cheap, which made me doubt if the document might be just a xeroxed copy. A few weeks later it arrived.
The document is a typed out first page of ‘the Duke of Flatbush’, signed with the famous Snider autograph. It was not a copy and when I felt the back of the piece of paper there was relief from the pressure of the pen.
I compared the auto to others by Snider. It looks legit! I might send it to PSA to get it authenticated, but for now, it’s going in a frame.
A long time, the period of my Dodgers in Brooklyn was a time of yore. Black and white images of people I did not really know. This totally changed when I read Kahn’s The Boys of Summer and Kearn Goodwin’s Wait Till Next Year. Many biographies and moving images like in the Lords of Flatbush and the Hollywood movie 42 later, I can say I love the Brooklyn times as much as I do their years in Los Angeles.
Reese, Snider, Robinson, Campanella, Hodges all played at Ebbets Field and under the management of Walter O’Malley won their first world series.
In the 20’s and 30’s, though, the team was known as the daffiness boys and them bums. Things weren’t good in Brooklyn. After their World Series appearances in 1916 and 1920 it took the boys in blue eleven years to reach another one.
Then, in ‘43 a new guy arrived in Brooklyn and he had a plan. He had won four World Series with the Cardinals, and stood at the birth of the modern minor league farm system. He introduced the batting helmet and batting cages. But he wasn’t done. Branch Rickey was aware what a treasure trove of talent the negro leagues were. In 1947 he added Jackie Robinson to the roster and history was made. That same year the Dodgers reached the World Series losing to the mighty Yankees. Rickey was the founder of the Boys of Summer who would blossom in the 1950’s.
For some time now, I wanted to own something related to Rickey. Because of his mark on baseball history in general and the Dodgers organization in particular. Also, we share our birthday. 89 years apart, but hey... it’s something.
Earlier this year I came across an auction of a letter signed by Rickey. It’s short and to the point. One Leslie Stockton sent some snapshots to Rickey and a request for an autograph, which he sent her back. I fell in love with it because I wanted his autograph and this letter could just well have been sent my way. I bid again and again and it finally was mine. It's a fantastic piece of Dodgers history
The letter is dated September 12th 1949. A day after finishing a four game series against the Giants, winning 3, only five weeks after he was on the cover of Newsweek magazine, some weeks before and a year before Walter O’Malley bought him out for 1,05 million dollars.
I love to look at details and I wonder what the little scratch of ink is just below his signature. Was it placed there before Rickey signed it or after? It makes the letter a little more special in my opinion.
Some numbers
In 2017, the Dodgers reached the World Series for the first time in 29 years and lost. 101 years earlier, they reached the World Series for the first time and lost as well. In 2017 it was against a cheating team from Houston. In 1916 against the Boston Red Sox. Champions in 1915 who would repeat and two years later would win their last title for 89 years. It was against that same Boston team the Dodgers lost their last World Series in 2018.
1916, It was a different time. No television, no radio, a war going on. The Dodgers were the Robins, they played in Brooklyn and Ebbets Field was only three years old. The New York Yankees were seven years away from their first World Series title of the 27 to come.
The Brooklyn baseball team, the Robins, named after their manager Wilbert Robinson, reached the World Series with a 94-60 record in the National League.
Dive into the past
All the information about the series is available on Wikipedia, but I got my hands on some newspapers from 1916 and seeing the report in a document from that period is kinda cool.
The York Dispatch, celebrating its 40 year anniversary in 1916, is still in publication to this day. It serves York County, Pennsylvania but found the Brooklyn vs. Boston match up interesting enough to dedicate a quarter of the front page on the World Series.
The Robins lost 4 games to one. Only being able to win game 3. Game 2 was the longest World Series game in innings until game 3 of the 2018 World Series. Yes, the one between the Red Sox and the Dodgers! Game 2 saw 14 innings of pitching by Babe Ruth. Another interesting name... Casey Stengel, outfielder for Brooklyn.
Below are the five headlines in The York Dispatch.
Life, April 5th, 1948
This issue of Life magazine is readily available on Ebay. I’d seen it many times and always loved the cover. So, last month I thought ‘what the heck!’ and finally bought a copy.
I forgot how large Life magazine is and the cover really is a thing of beauty at that size. It begs to be framed.
It’s great to see all those big league hopefulls. They probably watched the 1947 World Series where the Dodgers almost got their hands on their first title. 550 players were brought up by Branch Rickey to Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida. Rickey, a visionary, had clear goals for his Dodgers: win at least five pennants in the next ten years. I wonder what readers would have thought about that statement at the time. As we all know now he did just that AND won a World Series title to boot.
The Dodger's Way
Or, more precisely: Rickey's way! The rookies all got their chance to prove their fitness, their speed, ability to hit and field. Every possible trick was used to asses a players abilities.
Every trick in the book, but also some new ones. Rickey was a master in conjouring up new ways to test the players. He used batting cages and pitching machines. Protecting them was important as well, he introduced the batting helmet.
Looking at that cover again, I wonder how many of these guys made it to the majors and maybe even played in the 1955 World Series when the Bums finally were Bums no more.
This issue of Life is a great addition to any Dodgers collection and not too costly. If you get your hands on a copy, the article can be found on pages 117 through 120.
The container was just like the picture. It felt heavy in my hand. The moment of truth... I lifted the lid and there it was. Looking all right. No damage what so ever.
5" of 8mm which would be something like 15 minutes of material. Not just some images from years long gone. No, color footage of either game 3, 4 or 5 of the 1955 World Series at Ebbet's Field. I closed the container and decided to wait till the next day to find out more.
That night I dreamt about the film. About the content being 1 minute of World Series footage and the rest being family trip images. I woke up early and prepped my projector. I wasn't off the mark, I'm afraid...
Not what I was hoping for
Let's get the negative out of the way first. I hate to dwell on that. Of the 15 minutes of shots, 6 minutes are from Ebbets Field. Which is a shame for an item advertised as '8mm film of the 1955 World Series'. The footage clearly is from Yankee fans who were hoping to clinch in Brooklyn, took their camera along with them. Why I think they are Yankee fans? Because the only film Yankee players. With that being said, let's move on and see what those 6 minutes brings us.
1955 World Series, game...?
The film starts with shots of Yankee players warming up at good old Ebbets Field. It felt weird, seeing Ebbets in color. Sure, I'd seen it before on youtube, but never from a World Series day, as far as I know. The 1955 World Series was the first World Series televised in color. Of the official broadcast only sections of game 5 exist. So color images of that Series are mostly those of fans bringing in their camera’s. Loads of them would have used black and white film, come to think of it.
So, there is smooching with some Yankees and a good view of Ebbets Field. I never knew the ushers wore red coats and a red cap. So there is that! The score board with the Schaefer sign and game start. Dodger players running onto the field from the dugout and then the big question. Which World Series game is this? Game 3, 4 or 5?
Welcome to game...
The starting pitchers for game 3 was Johnny Podres, for game 4 Carl Erskine and for game 5 Roger Craig. There is no time or date stamp on these kinds of 8mm films, and recognizing players in this particular film is not possible. Sure, when I see a catcher, I know it's Campanella, but who is on the mound? So, this first piece of film is followed by another (after an interlude of 'funny' takes with some cops). So, I thought the makers of the film had gone to two games, either game 3 and 4 or 4 and 5. The pitcher has a very high kick so my first guess was Erskine in game 4. Since Podres was a lefty it has to be Erskine.
More Yankee smooching
The second part brings us more smooching. We see some Yankees players up close. Not shabby ones at that. You'll see, among others, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Irv Noren and Mickey Mantle. There is some more batting practice and another view of Ebbets Field.
So, there you go, roughly 6 minutes of color images of the 1955 World Series. I had hoped for more but it's still a cool artifact to have.
I've been scrounging for stuff on ebay for over twenty years. Mostly Dodgers related items. Sometimes recent baseball card or pins but once in a while I go looking for vintage stuff from the Brooklyn or early LA era. Through the years I found some fun items that really tie the franchises history together. A signed book, a written letter by a world series game winning pitcher, press pins to name a few.
Recently I stumbled on something I had not encountered on ebay before. It was titled ‘vintage 1955 world series Brooklyn Dodgers vs New York Yankees color 16mm film’. Well, my interest was piqued!
The 1955 world series were the first broadcast in color, but on youtube, I have never seen actual color footage from that series. 16mm could suggest a private party having filmed it. I tried contacting the seller but all my questions stayed unanswered because they did not own a projector so could not say anything about the filmstrip. If it were damaged or what precisely was on it.
My only lead were the photographs in the ebay listing. The first was a picture of the film case on which was written ‘world series 1955’ and the ruler measuring 5 inch of film. I googled it and 5 inch of 16mm film would suggest a running time of about 15 minutes.
Then there was a picture of a few frames of the filmstrip. While grainy I clearly recognized Ebbets Field. The film would have to be from either game 3, 4 or 5 from that year’s World Series. Now, looking at those frames I realized that it was actually an 8mm film. Which made it even more certain it would be a movie shot by a fan, not a commercial party. Maybe a Brooklinite, feeling that ‘this is the year’.
I had to make a decision. Leave it or buy this piece of history, with the chance it won’t play because of old age, damage, or who knows what. But maybe... it’s fine and I get a personal view of Ebbets Field... during the World Series... in color.
