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The Dodgers: 120 Years of Dodgers Baseball |  | Authors: Richard A. Johnson, Glenn Stout
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
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Seller: vana11
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 943364
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 10.6 x 9.1 x 1.2
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357640979494
ASIN: B001CB466A
Publication Date: September 17, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Dodgers. The word conjures different things to different people, but its distinction — and notoriety — is universal. In the annals of baseball, the history of few other teams can compare to the rich legacy of the Dodgers. Their constituency includes fans from Bensonhurst to Burbank. Their colorful past — "dem bums," Jackie Robinson and the boys of summer, Walter O'Malley, Sandy Koufax, Tommy Lasorda, "bleeding Dodger blue" — has enlivened baseball in innumerable, immeasurable ways. And their legacy, casting a 120-year shadow, remains essential to the very nature of the game.
In a compelling, insightfully written narrative and more than two hundred unforgettable photographs, many never before seen, The Dodgers: 120 Years of Dodgers Baseball tells the team's story in its entirety, from its birth in Brooklyn in 1884 and its early glories, to the heart-wrenching move to Los Angeles in 1958, to the present day. The Dodgers' evolution, and particularly their willingness to embrace change even when it was a wildly unpopular choice, is also, writes Glenn Stout in his introduction, "an inherently American story that follows a familiar path, a story of immigration, assimilation, migration, and change."
In one of the only books to look at the team as a unified whole, we see how the Dodgers helped create modern baseball in Brooklyn, how they ushered the game into its contemporary form with the signing of Jackie Robinson in 1945, and how they have borne witness to the metamorphosis of baseball from an amateur game played by gentlemen into a multibillion-dollar business. It's all here, a century and more of history-making baseball. In these pages, readers will experience some of the game's finest moments, greatest plays, and most unforgettable players, including
• the birth of the "Trolley Dodgers" in an unlikely borough
• a legendary series of stirring pennant races in the late 1940s and 1950s
• Jackie Robinson and the integration of baseball
• the notorious move from East Coast to West at the hands of the much-maligned Walter O'Malley
• the reemergence of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry in California
• the game's most dynamic pitching duo, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale
• Kirk Gibson's dramatic home run in the 1988 World Series
* and lively essays by such heralded Dodger chroniclers as Dave Anderson, Jane Leavy, Bill Plaschke, Dick Young, and others
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| Customer Reviews:
 Shameful Allegations of Bigotry February 2, 2009
Anonymous (Los Angeles, CA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Shameful Allegations of Bigotry
Glenn Stout's book is chock-full of unsubstantiated allegations of bigotry against key Dodger personnel. While dealing justly with the prohibition of blacks from the majors and the regrettable Campanis episode, he goes too far in accusing others of racism and anti-Semitism in the following instances:
1. Mr. O'Malley supposedly bought the Dodgers, in part, to prevent a Jew from owning a major league team. This is stated without any supporting evidence. It is particularly outlandish, because Mr. O'Malley later moved the team and his entire family across the country, built a stadium from scratch and ran the team for decades. It is not likely he would have done all this just so he could (in part) prevent a Jew from owning the team.
2. Alston supposedly wouldn't pitch Koufax early in his career because Koufax was Jewish. Again, this is stated with no evidence to back it up. The only evidence available actually contradicts this supposition, as a few years later, Alston practically worked Koufax to death over the course of several seasons.
3. While attacking white racism again blacks (sometimes justly) he repeatedly uses the phrase "lily-white" to describe certain teams. Would he ever describe a basketball team, for example, as being "jet black?" Why couldn't he write that these teams were "all-white?" No insults there. Just a factual description.
4. He accused the commissioner of being racist for declaring that Maury Wills (who was black) should have an asterisk after his record for most stolen bases in a season, because he had more games in which to get those steals, than did the old record holder Ty Cobb (who was white). Again, there is no supporting evidence. And in fact, a year or two earlier, the commissioner made the exact same ruling about the homerun record regarding Maris and Ruth, who were both white.
5. Stout also claims, again without any evidence, that the Dodgers kept switching Pedro Guerrero's field position, because they didn't know how to play an Hispanic player.
Stout also made a factual error about the famous comment by Guerrero that he hoped the other team wouldn't hit the ball to him or Steve Sax, because of their poor fielding. One of the great Dodger stories, yet Guerrero made that comment to Lasorda during a team meeting, not to a sportswriter, like Stout writes.
He also often portrays Mr. O'Malley, Alston and Lasorda as being doofuses. This is strange considering all these men accomplished. For starters, take all of the pennants and world championships they won.
But there is much good here, too. All of the above amounts to about five pages out of about 400. The rest of the book is superbly written. All eras of team history are covered, as are all of the key personnel, from the front office all the way down to us fans. Stout's writing style is entertaining: very engaging with many clever turns of phrase. If you are a true Dodger, and if you can stomach the stuff mentioned above, you will love this book. I wish I could give it 5 stars, but I will go with three.
 Dodger History Primer May 13, 2005
Kiwibelge (New York USA)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Clearly 120 years of baseball seasons gives you a lot to write about. Like most LA Dodgers fans my understanding of Dodger history comes almost entirely from listening to Vin Scully announcing games. This book helps fill in the gaps.
The book is an easy read and covers all of the main events and people in Dodger history. This book is for people who want to know the Dodger history basics (and there are a lot of basics to read about). The author really hasn't uncovered anything new to write about, but he does tell a good story.
The aspects that I most enjoyed in this book are the sections covering the early Dodgers (their uniform was originally green?, Babe Ruth was a Dodgers coach for a year?), the 50s, and the Koufax/Drysdale era. The pictures chosen are good, and the essay inserts from writers who covered the Dodgers are interesting.
On the other hand, I felt some years were completely skipped over. Not much may have happened in those years, but only a couple paragraphs? The tables of stats are interesting but would have preferred them in their own section. A bibliography would have been nice. Also, there is a section at the back listing what I guess is the author's All-Time Dodgers Teams, but there are several on the list that I didn't recognize from reading the text (Tom Daly, Al Lopez?)
Overall, if you are looking for that Dodger history primer, this fits the bill. It easily could have been longer, but would not have been as good of a read.
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