A balanced and wonderful history of the Bums and the end...

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	• The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers and Their Final Pennant Race Together Michael Shapiro Broadway, 2004 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A balanced and wonderful history of the Bums and the end...

The Dodgers of Brooklyn are now mythic. After one reads a wonderful book like Boys of Summer and hears stories about the Bums, you can't help but believe it. However, the Last Good Season brings some balance to the stories and memories. He honors the men who played a boys game in a decaying old stadium. He does not villify O'Malley, but does Robert Moses who was not a great force for good. The book is not a pure baseball book, but as a self-styled historian (using the term very loosely), I enjoyed the views of the Brooklyn and the large social change. Shapiro does not make the Dodgers more than they are. If anything, he is understated in his discussions of the power of baseball. It works beautifully. The book is engrossing and by the end, you can't help but the love Dodgers more. Once you have read this (and you must read Boys of Summer first) go read The Sandy Koufax book, A Lefty's Legacy which really is a nice a bookend to the Dodgers glory years of the 1950s and 1960s (to say nothing of the '70s and '80s).

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Great companion to The Boys of Summer

This is a gripping and well-written account of the last days of the Brooklyn Dodgers, their final pennant race in 1956 and the battle to keep the team in Brooklyn.

If you've read The Boys of Summer, this is a good companion because that book focuses on the early 1950s teams and then the players in later life. This fills in some of the gaps in that narrative.

Shapiro is an outstanding writer and historian. If he has a weakness, it's that he's not a baseball writer per se, and his descriptions of some of the game action can be a bit disjointed. But he more than makes up with it in his accounts of the social fabric of Brooklyn and the political wranglings that eventually led Walter O'Malley to move his team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. His profiles of the key players, both on and off the field, are also exceptional.

This is a book that will make you yearn both for the start of a new baseball season and a simpler day when the fans felt a sense of kinship with the players.

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Oh, dem Bums!

And here you thought Walter O'Malley was just a greedy bum (small "b")out to get rich, and that's why he moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn to LA. The real bum, though, was Robert Moses, who since the 1950s had been eyeing Flusing Meadows as the place to put a ballpark, which he kept pretty much a secret until the Dodgers had left town. (Think Shea Stadium.) O'Malley really wanted to stay in Brooklyn, but he needed a new ballpark to replace the decrepit Ebbets Field; Moses, who controlled all development in NYC, refused to accomodate him. Thus, when LA came calling with all kinds of incentives, O'Malley felt he no longer had a choice. Shapiro is a good journalist and writer, and delves into the inner dealings of all concerned thoroughly and with gusto. Like THE BOYS OF SUMMER, he also writes about the players, but not nearly as distinctively as Kahn did. He also spends too much time on the changing face of urban New York versus the booming suburbs of the 1950s, an important element to the story of what was happening to Brooklyn, but Shapiro hammers away at it too hard and long. Although slow in spots, the book tells a major story well: the writing is better than you will find in most sports-oriented books.

Note: O'Malley had an architect from Princeton design a domed stadium that he just might have built in Brooklyn if given the chance. Now wouldn't that have been something!

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A Great History Lesson

This book goes beyond just a detailed view of the Dodgers' last great year in Brooklyn, it also provides a nice historical snapshot of the legendary borough and the changes that were taking place. This is a well researched book with a lot of great information on Dodger greats such as Reese, Snider, Newcombe, Robinson, etc. I definitely enjoyed it.

Highly Engagng and Informative

Author Michael Shapiro captures the flavor of baseball circa 1956 with this informative look at the Brooklyn Dodger's last pennant. The author aptly describes both the play on the field and the team's ownership moves that occurred behind the scenes.

I liked reading of the down-to-the-wire pennant race, where the defending world champions overcame age, injuries, and challenges by the upstart Milwaukee Braves and Cincinnati Reds. We get an inside look at many players; aging leaders Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, garrulous Roy Campanella, sulking slugger Duke Snider, volatile hurler Don Newcombe, etc. Readers feel almost inside the clubhouse as the talented players fight for another pennant.

Interwoven into the pages is an informed look at the seamy business moves of owner Walter O'Malley. Declining attendance had O'Malley looking for a new stadium while also secretly negotiating with the city of Los Angeles. The author indicts city planning czar Robert Moses for blocking a new Dodger stadium in downtown Brooklyn - but the greedy O'Malley was hardly blameless. In the end, of course, O'Malley callously deserted to California, leaving thousands of broken hearts in Brooklyn.

This book is informative, engaging and well-researched (if too easy on O'Malley). Fans that like this book - and most will - should also see "Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn.

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6

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