NOT THE TROP: Stu Sternberg telling the press in June that “baseball will not work long-term in downtown St. Petersburg.”
By Peter Golenbock (author of The Bronx Zoo and George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire)
The Brooklyn Dodgers won their one and only World Championship in 1955. The joy of the Brooklyn faithful was indescribable, but muted by the constant drumbeat from Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley that he was going to move his team from Brooklyn.
O’Malley, who had made his millions as a bank lawyer throwing bankrupt homeowners out of their homes during the Depression, was wealthy and powerful. He began complaining to reporters during the 1955 season that attendance wasn’t what it should be, that the fault lay with Ebbets Field, a lovable bandbox built in 1912.
Despite a 22-2 start in ’55, attendance stagnated, as many Brooklyn fans, angry at O’Malley’s threats to move, sat at home glued to their newfangled TV sets. In mid-season O’Malley announced that in 1956 seven home games would be played in Jersey City.
Poet Joel Oppenheimer put his best face on the announcement.
“Why not play a few games there? I assumed it would make O’Malley happy. It never occurred to me the Dodgers would go away. Brooklyn leave? That was crazy.”
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2010.