IF THE DODGERS HAD STAYED IN BROOKLYN

by D Fowler

Volume I

Brooklyn Dodgers Part I: "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?"

Those were the words of the song, as the Dodgers’ sym-phony band played in the streets of Brooklyn. "Third Times’ the Charm," read banners. They had lost 2 other Series, in 1916 and 1920, but the allusion was to two heartbreaking losses, one in 5, one in 7, to the New York Yankees. "Next Year is Finally Here," read the headlines.

And what a Series it had been. Two close but comfortable Yanke wins in the Bronx, & everyone figured it was the same old story. But then, the year’s MVP, Jackie Robinson, hammered a few big hits, and in the bottom of the ninth, with t he score tied in game 3, Pee Wee Reese, that plucky little shosrtstop, had clobbered one into the fifteenth row. Brooklyn had won game 3. But, that wasn’t the best part.

The next game would go down in history. It was redemption for Mickey Owens’ missed third strike in ‘41 that would have knotted the Series at 2, but which led to a four run Yankee uprising instead. The lead changed hands several times, and it was tied at 7 going into the 10th. They played longer than any two teams except Boston and - you guessed it - Brooklyn had in the World Series. 13 innings. And, at the end...

"Score tied, one out, runners ont he corners. The pitch to Furillo....He hits it high, and deep, and...it is! Home run! Dodgers win! Dodgers win! We’re tied at two in the Series!"

So many little things made such a difference. Every little pitching decision, every pitch, meant something in the game of baseball. But, there was one man, acquired for the stretch run, who would go 0-for-9 the next two pivotal games, both Dodgers wins. And, the spotlight began to show on that man, Johnny Mize. He was looking old. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea for the Yankees to acquire him for the stretch run. Well, they would see how things went in 1950.

So, the Dodgers had won four straight, and they were the champions of the world.

Of course, they rested on their laurels a little. They couldn’t get by the Phillies in 1950, and the Giants in ‘51...well, that was just too amazing for words.

But, it was younger players, Yogi Berra and the still rather young Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto who had the biggest years for the Yankees in 1950. And, while they won the World Series then, they took six games to do it, as they really didn’t trust Allie Reynolds to start the opener. He’d come in to relieve in game 4 in the 8th and surrendered the lead, then done poorly in game 6. And, they took seven to win in 1951. One could see the tide turning a little against the Yankees, after their performance in 1952's spring training.

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Brooklyn Dodgers, Part 2: Dynasty!

Burt Shotton had been rehired, aging as he was. After the Dodgers’ late season skid - really the Giants’ great 37-7 run, though you’d never hear a Brooklynite giving them their due - and a poor start, Brooklyn fans were crying out for the job of Chuck Driessen and for the rehiring of the only man who’d ever led Brooklyn to a world title. And so, it was back to Shotton, though a new manager would be needed soon, as Shotton was pushing 70.

The Dodgers overtook the Phillies and Giants for good in early September. Meanwhile, there was rumbling in the Bronx.

The Yankees were about to finish second. Of course, three straight years of firsts had made some complacent, and it wasn’t that far out of first. Only five games. But, Yankee fans expected greatness.

Brooklyn defeated the Indians in 6 good, hard fought games. Despite Gil Hodges’ slump, the Dodgers were champs again. And, Walter O’Malley started complaining that the ballpark wasn’t big enough. He began to make noise about a new ballpark. When the Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, some took notice, but too few.

Many more would, though, when the Dodgers won their second straight world title in 1953. Ths time, Shotton’s club faced the Yankees once more. And, it took them only five games to win. Brooklyn had earned the title of dynasty, and suddenly, everyone was parading the need for a new ballpark, in a better area.

O’Malley was starting to look elsewhere. But, after The Trade, even some Yankee fans would want to shell out money to keep the Dodgers there. "At least someone can do something right," they’d say.

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Brooklyn Dodgers Part 3: Drinking Men

Whitey Ford, Billy Martin, and Mickey Mantle were notorious carousers. The Mick wasn’t always that way, but Martin and Ford were having that effect on him; Martin before Ford came back from military service, both afterward. The Yankees were worried that their young slugger would waste his potential.

In OTL, there would be talk about a Mantle for Colavito deal, though it was never actually worked on. Here, however, the Yankees are more trigger happy, not having won five straight world titles. But, also because of something else.

Mantle was disgusted with himself for not winning that world title. Especially because they’d not even made it back to Yankee Stadium for a game 6 and 7. So, he went out drinking with Martin and Ford.

He drove home later, and wrapped his car around a telephone pole. Thankfully, he was not injured. The only casualty was a near coronary by some people in the Yankees’ front office.

The Yankees were trigger happy. They had won 6 titles in 8 years from 1936-1943, then just 1947, 1950, and 1951 since. All hope seeme3d to be riding ont he shoulders of the next great Yankee, the man who finally replaced DiMaggio.

They were not about to let a future star get himself killed without any compensation them. They were the Yankees. So, they began putting uot feelers.

The Cincinnati Reds had a very good young centerfielder named Jim Greengrass. What a great baseball name, they said. Now, Mantle was a switch hitter, so they needed someone else, too - but int he end, a deal was worked out. Mantle and fourth outfielder Gene Woodling to Cincinnati with a couple pitching prospects for Greengrass, Wally Post, and Joe Nuxhall.

After already pulling a gigantic deal with the new Baltimore club, formerly the St. Louis Browns, to revamp their team, the Yankees decided something should be done. And, they pulled the trigger on the deal.

The Cincinnati faithful almost had heart attacks when they heard that Post and Greengrass, and one of their prize young pitchers, Joe Nuxhall, were all being sent to New York for the Mick and some old guys and who knew what else. "Can this Mantle guy cover center and right at the same time?" they asked. Some even demanded refunds on their season tickets. It was an outrageous trade! Greengrass was a very young, very promising player, he was a future superstar, everyone said. And Post could hit 40 home runs one day! And Nuxhall, why you never give up good lefty pitching when you’ve got it, all said. They were ready to run ownership out on a rail.

By 1956, it was Wally Post and the Yankee brass they were ready to run out on a rail.

The Tribe hadn’t felt so desperate in 1954 to win after the ‘52 pennant, so they didn’t push as hard as OTL, and only won 101 games, while Yankees won 105. Greengrass had 105 RBIs and played great centerfield, Wally Post was starting to look really good in right, and this was looking like another Yankees steal.

But, then Greengrass contracted phlebitis, and was out of baseball for good after 1956, having a poor 1955. Post was only putting up Hank Bauer numbers, not Joe DiMaggio ones. And Mantle was clobbering baseballs all over the place, including 61 in 1956. Breaking the Babe’s mark, for goodness sake, and winning a Triple Crown in much cozier Crosley Field! On top of that, the Dodgers beat the White Sox in ‘55, and the Indians beat the Reds in ‘56 in the Series.

New York politicians had heard the voice of the people. Give the new ballpark to someone with a brain. And, that man was Walter O’Malley, who had constructed a Dodger dynasty.

After all, seeing the former Yankee, Mickey Mantle, clobber 61 home runs in cozy Crosley Field and break Ruth’s single season record in Cincinnati would have made the most diehard Dodger opponent want to stick it to the Yankees for "the worst trade ever."

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Brooklyn Dodgers Part 4 - 56 and 61

It was ironic that the main push to give O’Malley his ballpark came only partly during a Dodger pennant year. In fact, while the city’s council was okaying the deal, the Redlegs were storming ahead of the N.L., thanks to an awesome outfield of Gus Bell, Mantle, and young Frank Robinson. Crosley Field was much better for hitters, as were a few other N.L. parks. By the time the dust had cleared, the Cincinnati ballclub stood four games ahead of Brooklyn, six ahead of Milwaukee, and they were the N.L. pennant winners. And, Mantle had his 61 homers.

Brooklyn was an older team, but that didn’t stop the fans from coming. However, since the Yankees contended, and the Dodgers were going to get all they wanted, the Giants were left hanging; and searching.

They’d been looking at New Jersey all year. The Dodgers had played a few games this year in that state, and the Giants wanted to move all their home games there. New Jersey looked promising. Much more so than their own dismal attendance, which - considering they had the greatest player ever in Wilie Mays - should have been better.

Finally, they had had enough. They petitioned the league late in 1956 to let them play all home games starting in 1957 in New Jersey. The league agreed. Roosevelt Stadium was expanded to 45,000 seats, and the Giants vacated the old Polo Grounds, which would still be used for football for a while.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, wound up with the promise of city funds to help construct a 55,000 seat stadium, which of course would bear O’Malley’s name, in Brooklyn. And, a bunch of politicians got the huge shots in the arm they wanted before their re-election bids.

The Yankees, meanwhile, had now basically traded Johnny Kucks and Mickey Mantle for Joe Nuxhall and Wally Post. And, while Kucks wouldn’t be all that great, this year he was very good for the Reds, his only really good year, in fact. Mantle hit 100 points higher than Post. So, Yankee management was on the hot seat, after a third place finish - through only three out - to the Indians. Therefore, they did the only responsible thing - they fired Casey Stengel.

The Indians, in a going away present of sorts for Bob Feller, got him a second Series win over the Reds in a fun-filled Ohio Showdown. In fact, he won one game, though he blew a save in doing so. He would thus not only get his win in a Series, he would win a Series game after being 0-4 during the season. The eyes of baseball had turned away from New York for a while, and would soon go much further west, as the lack of a Dodger/Giant move westward began to have larger ramifications.

For their part, before discussion turns to the Pacific Cost League, the Reds got their own new ballpark, when Crosley Field became too small for the growing crowds flocking to see Mantle. Especially after the pennant and after a towering shot that went over the five-story scoreboard!

So, just in time for the 1961 season, which would bring a world championship, Cincinnati got its own new ballpark, a baseball-only one in the Memorial Stadium (Baltimore) model, complete with huge scoreboard and seating 52,000. It boasted a spacious center for Mantle to roam, a somewhat short left field for the righthanded Frank Robinson to also go crazy in, and numerous other nice amenities; the walls were somewhat angular, though not terribly so. It was Ohio Park, but could well have been called "The House that Mantle Built."

Of course, this was yet another stake in the hearts of Yankee fans, though they had at least won three pennants - ‘57, ‘58, and ‘60 - and the ‘58 World Series since the trade. It was obvious, though, that their days were numbered as a dominant team. Especially with Mantle and Maris in ‘59 and beyond replaced by Post and Colavito in this timeline. Rocky had a great year in 1961, sure, and the extra time given to Johnny Blanchard those early ‘60s years meant that ‘60, ‘61, and ‘63 would all bring Yankee pennants. But, not a one would bring a Series title. And after that, things would go downhill.

While on the West Coast, things became very interesting.

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Brooklyn Dodgers Part 5 - Go West, Young Leagues

Now that the Giants were moving to New Jersey starting in 1957, and the Dodgers’ aging led them to a third and a seventh place finish to round out their history in Ebbets Field, the Yankees regrabbed New York baseball headlines for a couple years. They had a Series loss, then a win versus the Braves. Wally Post, after nearly being chased out of town in 1956, was finally becoming accepted as, if not Mickey Mantle, at least another Hank Bauer. A good, solid, dependable player who would make a few All-Star teams and give you some really good seasons.

However, the West Coast grabbed the real baseball headlines. Without the Dodgers and Giants moving, discussion heated up again about becoming a third major league. All they needed was acceptance by the public. Therefore, before the start of 1957, talks heated up to make the Pacific Coast League schedule normalized with the majors’ 154-game one, and also to draw many more players.

The first bidding war began over Gil Hodges. A number of Dodgers were targeted, because Branch Rickey was notoriously stingy at times, and so was O‘Malley till he got his new park. White Sox players such as Early Wynn, who’d recently been traded there, were also targeted, as the ChiSox were also rumored to be thinking of moving. PCL executives had had enough of trying to lure whole teams, though.

Commissioner Ford Frick weighed in on what was happening with his March, 1957 pronouncement: "Even if, and this is a very doubtful if, the PCL were to become another major league, any player who signs a contract with a Pacific Coast League team before such time as they are considered by all to be one will have an asterisk permanently placed beside his name and whatever records he achieves."

This put players in an uproar. Suddenly, even more stars spoke of going, because of the seeming attack on them by the Commissioner’s office, and also because the money offered kept getting higher and higher.

Many of the most aged veterans stuck with their clubs, though - Ted Williams in particular, whom the Padres offered the unheard of price of a quarter of a million to play with his home-town team. However, plenty of others were openly speaking of going out west, to the point where it was feared the majors would be diluted terribly. And, up and coming stars stuck with the PCL, such as Rocky Colavito with San Diego. The Pirates, in secret, wound up engineering a "gentleman’s agreement" to send the contracts of several minor leaguers to another PCL team just so they could get Bill Mazeroski. Emil Sick spent a fortune, in his declining years, to ensure that Settle got some key talent and could be seen as "at least competitive with the better of the major league clubs by 1958."

Finally, somebody stepped forward and suggested a challenge of the reserve clause itself, so any player could come out and become a PCL player. In other words, start a bidding war like the one with the NL and AL in 1901. This sharp young lawyer merely awaited a test case, and he suggested that over eighty years of tradition could be thrown out.

Owners went into panic mode. How could they avoid such a thing? While they automatically renewed the contracts of all those who hadn’t signed, in private they feared that not only would salaries skyrocket, but there wouldn’t be enough good players for half of them to survive. The Senators, the Athletics, the Giants and White Sox even, were gravely concerned.

Frick finished the annual owners’ meeting in 1957 with a request for ideas. Walter O’Malley suggested expansion. "Look," he pointed out, "I’m going to have nearly 60,000 seats in my new ball park in ‘59. Field level seats. All sorts of great stuff. And it’ll be a pitchers’ park. I think if some of my colleagues will also agree to start moving their fences back, we won’t have to worry too much about the pitching being diluted; I know the new Cincinnati ballpark won’t be quite so much a bandbox. But, I’d much rather have the pitching of 20 teams than of 26 or 28, which we could have, if we dare to accept the PCL as a rival."

"You can’t expand two leagues in a span of several months," cried a fellow owner.

"What choice do we have? You see how our players are so up in arms about this. They practically want to destroy baseball. I’d rather snuff this thing out through expansion - and I don’t think we can afford to wait."

"What if we do?" asked another owner.

"If we wait, then this whole next year, 1958, we could see at least 15, 20 established stars, some real All-Stars, playing in the PCL. It’ll be like the Federal League of 1914, but it has a much better chance now than they did because of its location, and also because of it being an established league. And, we all know with television that’s important." He sighed. He had almost started to think about moving there. Who knew what would have happened if New York hadn’t given him the ballpark he was going to get.

"I can’t see expanding now," Frick commented. "I think instead, we should wait a year. See what happens. We’ll leak a story that says we’ll consider expanding for 1959. But, it’ll have to be in return for their promise to stop this bidding war. I agree with Walter, though; it’s our only hope." He then wondered, "Who gets the teams?"

"And who gets Los Angeles?"

"I think both leagues could put a team there; then we’ll sort out the other stuff later. San Francisco is a prime site, for one." And with that, they adjourned.

One problem existed, though. They couldn’t get the PCL to stop the bidding wars.