Brooklyn Remembered: The 1955 Days of the Dodgers

In “Brooklyn The 1955 Days of the Dodgers, Allen has captured the emotion, the drama and the sweet reverie of what many baseball people and fans consider the greatest sports triumph ever, the 1955 Brooklyn Series win over the Yankees. It was the one and only Brooklyn championship for the team filled with Hall of Famers like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax and even fringe lefty Tommy Lasorda. Two years after the title the team moved from Brooklyn’s cozy Ebbets Field to laconic Los Angeles. All of the 11 surviving members of that historic baseball team contributed their poignant and personal recollections of that season that warmed the baseball world and sent millions of memorable moments across America, memories that last to this day in millions of homes across the country. Two game winner Johnny Podres, the handsome bachelor, recalls how he drove to the game from his aunt’s home in nearby Staten Island a few days after his 23rd birthday and promised his aging teammates a World Series victory. He delivered with a 2-0 triumph. Historic baseball figure Jackie Robinson and supportive teammate pee Wee Reese, knowing their time for titles was short, reached their ultimate goal. Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Clem Labine, Don Newcombe and all the rest of Dem Bums eased the pain of Brooklyn’s millions with that emotional victory. Allen has talked to all of the Brooklyn 1955 survivors and to the women who carry the torch today for the fallen Dodgers, such as Rachel Robinson and Joan Hodges, for memories of that moment and the impact on their lives half a century later. Other significant figures, such as broadcaster Tom Brokaw, opera legend RobertMerrill, opponents Willie Mays, Whitey Ford and Stan (The Man) Musial recall their days as Brooklyn fans, opposing players or just Ebbets Field fanatics. This is the stirring, funny, romantic, touching, historic story of one team in one town in one time that has lasted across the decades. The Brooklyn Dodgers of 1955 were an epic collection of talented athletes and heroic men.