Dodgerland: Review

I bought 'Dodgerland : Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers' immediately when it came out in 2016. It took me until 2019 before I took it up and read it. Something about the title made me want to wait for a good moment to read it. It sounded complicated, not 'just' a book about a baseball team in a certain era, but that's what it was exactly.

Not that that's a bad thing. I love those meticulously written histories about my Dodgers. But with a title like 'Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers' you expect more. Yes, sometimes it works. Dodgers in a slump and the US economy of 1977 in a slump. Sure, that kinda bridges I get. The part about ‘post-orbital remorse’ is on point! Mayor Brady's struggle to get the Olympics to LA is interesting but was that a sign of the times? And how does that tie in with the Dodgers (other than the idea of having the swimming numbers in Dodger Stadium)?
Another thing I don’t get is the introduction of one Tom Fallon. It starts very early in the book. Fallon moves to Cali. Probably this guy is the writers grandfather but why is he in a book about the 1977-1978 Dodgers seasons? Never every do the Dodgers and this guy cross paths.

Other than that weird insertion of a family member and other unrelated stuff that happens in that period, like the Manson murders and Tom Wolfe's struggle to write 'The Right Stuff', the book is well written and besides the description of Lasorda’s first seasons at the helm as manager we get loads of details about the players. Also a lot of background on how free agency changed baseball in the seventies and how baseball clubs and the fans coped with this new phenomenon.
Reading this book made me aware I don’t like Sparky Anderson at all! One of the best quotes in the book is by Anderson during 1978 season spring training: “This year will be the test and the Dodgers are going to have to beat us two years running, which no one has done in my eight years here.” Little did he know! Also, the Yankees were never my favorite but the organization under Steinbrenner... I loath after reading this book. But about our boys in blue... the author writes lovingly.

If someone writes a book as good as this one on the 2017 and 2018 Dodgers, I’ll take any randomly inserted family member for granted.