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13 July 2007

HBO: The Ghosts of Flatbush

If you haven't yet destroyed your TV or cancelled your subscription in reaction to the Sopranos finale, check out the new HBO documentary, Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush. Like many other entries in the HBO Sports documentary library, The Ghosts of Flatbush provides a nice balance of facts and anecdotes intercut with great footage and stills, tied together with narration by the consummate pro Liev Schreiber (who I saw play Henry V in Shakespeare in the Park a few years ago).

The first hour covers the pre-Jackie Robinson era and Robinson's monumental rookie season. Comparisons are made between the Dem Bums and the hated Giants and patrician Yankees.

The second hour reflects upon the Brooklyn Dodgers' first and only World Series championship in 1955. Only two years later would owner Walter O'Malley, frustrated with his failed efforts to build a replacement for Ebbets Field, pull up stakes and run away with the Giants to California.

O'Malley saw the phenomenal gate success of the Milwaukee (née Boston) Braves and sensed opportunity. Yet he repeatedly lobbied to build a stadium in Brooklyn at his preferred site. His efforts did little to convince legendary NY über-planner Robert Moses, who is considered one of the first chief architects of the white flight phenomenon. Moses felt that instead of Brooklyn, a stadium would be better situated in Queens, where it would be geographically centered in relation to the rest of the five boroughs and the suburbs.

O'Malley felt that Brooklyn was the only home (at least locally) for the team, so it didn't matter if the stadium were 30 miles or 3000 miles away - the team would cease to be the Brooklyn Dodgers. He wanted a site at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic, which was near several subway lines and the terminal for the Long Island Railroad. And unlike Ebbets Field, which only had 700 parking spaces nearby, there would be potential for thousands of spaces for fans in the suburbs who would rather take a pleasant drive in from Long Island on one of Moses' new parkways.

News of the move gradually changed from rumor to certainty, and sensing the inevitable, fans withdrew their support in disgust. While O'Malley is held up as the eternal villain, Moses is portrayed as almost equally culpable because of his disinterest in an eminent domain move (O'Malley and Dodger shareholders would have paid for the new ballpark's construction). Moses eventually got his stadium in Queens after the Giants and Dodgers left. Modern Shea Stadium would be home to the expansion New York Mets, whose colors would include Dodger blue and the Giants' orange.

Ironically, the site previously sought by O'Malley is near the home of the Atlantic Yards project, the multi-billion dollar mixed development that will contain a new arena for the Nets basketball franchise. Developer Forest City Ratner is trying to acquire the land via an expensive, highly controversial eminent domain effort. The Nets would be the first major sports team to call Brooklyn home since the Dodgers left 50 years ago. The Dodgers took up residence on a hillside near downtown LA called Chavez Ravine, which was cleared through - that's right - eminent domain.

It's not difficult to draw parallels between the current A's and the mid-century Dodgers. Both were run by maverick general managers, both had a blue collar ethos. Both typically fell short in the postseason. But perhaps it is one quote that best - and most eerily - depicts the team's fans, via author Michael Shapiro:
That fanbase was not all living together. There were spread out. They were not in one place where they could gather and share their despair.
Fans these days have the internet. Problem is, message boards and blogs don't usually end up on the evening news.
Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush will air several times over the next week or so and is also available via HBO On Demand.

A couple of housekeeping notes: Blogger recently added a poll feature, so I'm testing it out on the sidebar. For now the poll will replace the Scorecard, which will return when there's a real proposal and media reaction.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

CORRECTION: The Atlantic Center Mall, built and owned by Bruce Ratner, already sits on the site previously coveted by Watner O'Malley for a Dodger's ballpark.

Just because Mayor Bloomberg keeps telling people that it's the same site as the Atlantic Yards project doesn't make it so.

This lie goes back to the early days of when the project was proposed, only Bloomberg hasn't kept up with the prevailing myth. Even Ratner has stopped using this one.

Anonymous said...

You wrote:

"Ironically, the site previously sought by O'Malley is now the home of the Atlantic Yards project, the multi-billion dollar mixed development that will contain a new arena for the Nets basketball franchise. The site was acquired through an expensive, highly controversial eminent domain effort. The Nets would be the first major sports team to call Brooklyn home since the Dodgers left 50 years ago. The Dodgers took up residence on a hillside near downtown LA called Chavez Ravine, which was cleared through - that's right - eminent domain."

This needs correcting.
1. The site O'Malley wanted to build a new Ebbets Field at is not the site for the proposed Atlantic Yards arena. It is near it, but not the same site. See:
"Rhetoric check: AY "same site" as proposed Dodgers stadium? Nah"
http://www.atlanticyardsreport.com/2007/04/omalley-stadium.html

2. The site of the proposed Nets arena has not been acquired by eminent domain. That is what NY State and the developer, Forest City Ratner, want to do, but they are tied up in court with a legal challenge to that taking.

see:
http://www.dddb.net/php/reading/legal/eminentdomain/


Also, while true that the new Dodgers stadium was build by condemning Chavez Ravine, it's unfortunate that the film makes no mention of that at all. (I only saw the last hour, and I assume it was not discussed in the first 1/2 hour.)

Marine Layer said...

Thanks. I'll make the corrections.

Anonymous said...

thanks for making the corrections.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the documentary is based on a book I read a while back. It was a great book, but its been a few years since I read it and I can't remember the name. In the end, the author placed the blame for the move on Moses. O'Malley and Moses hated each other, and Moses was faulted for using his position to thwart O'Malley for spite. In the end NY lost both it's NL franchises. I always wondered if Moses was still despised in Brooklyn, or if O'Malley is the one who bears the brunt of moving the team.

What is certain is that the NY Yankee's reaped the benefits.

Anonymous said...

On another note, it's incredible to think that Vin Scully actually broadcast Dodger games at Ebbets field! Talk about living history. Ironically, I saw a game a few days ago where Ernie Harwell from the Tigers was in the booth. He talked about interviewing Connie Mack years ago! The living history of baseball is just incredible. Was Connie really born before the civil war?

I guess this is why this stuff matters so much to fans.

Anonymous said...

Well it helped the yankees, but not for long. In fact, the Mets drew very well for nearly all of their bad seasons prior to 1969. It is common knowledge that the Pennant winnning, 1964 Yankees were outdrawn by the hapless Mets who had just moved into Shea Staduim.

Anonymous said...

The Poll dimensions need to be resized... lots of problems with it, it appears.

Marine Layer said...

IE appears to have the most problems with the poll's text sizing. I'll keep the choices shorter and probably with smaller text next time.

Anonymous said...

I must say, I LOVED the Sopranos' ending. I can't think of any alternate ending that wouldn't have been more disappointing.

Anonymous said...

Do people ever make movies about the NY Giants moving out west somewhere or is it always just a footnote in the Dodger story?


Best line from the movie: "If Stalin, Hitler and O'Malley were in the same room and you had two bullets what would you do?" ... "Shoot O'Malley twice"

Marine Layer said...

I don't think I'm being too harsh in saying that Horace Stoneham was portrayed as a desperate hanger-on. He would prove that less than 20 years later when he nearly let the Giants move to Toronto.

If Stoneham were more proactive, it might have been his team in LA, not the Dodgers. LA officials were sending feelers out to many teams.