Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and The Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles - Softcover

D'Antonio, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594484414 ISBN 13: 9781594484414

Publisher: Riverhead Books, 2010

Synopsis

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About this title

Review

aTo comprehend baseball's grip on America, you've got to understand the dramatic tale of Walter O'Malley and the Dodgers. With meticulous reporting and elegant prose, D'Antonio brushes away the dust and brings O'Malley's story to life like never before. This is the definitive book on one of baseball's most fascinating and controversial figures.a
aJonathan Eig, author of "Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season" and "Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig"
aMeticulously researched and artfully written, "Forever Blue" isn't merely a biography of Walter O'Malley, but a thoughtful and riveting piece of social history, told through the prism of perhaps the most controversial owner in the annals of American sport.a
a Wayne Coffey, author of "The New York Times" bestseller, "The Boys of Winter"

aIn this revisionist version of the Dodgers' exodus from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, viewed by many as a journey from Eden to Sodom, the Prime Mover emerges as less like Satan and more like Mosesavisionary, flawed and ultimately justified.
D'Antonio, who has written on aspects of cultural history from chocolate bars (Hershey, 2006) to spirituality (Heaven on Earth, 1992), enjoyed unlimited access to the huge archive of Walter O'Malley's papers and has extracted numerous goodies. None, however, is more revealing that what must now be considered unquestionable fact. O'Malley (1903a79) labored assiduously to keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn, but was stymied at every juncture by Robert Moses, New York's de facto czar of construction. D'Antonio interviewed myriad surviving participants in the story, players included, to uncover other uncomfortable facts. Even during the Dodgers' late-'40s/early-'50s glory years, attendance at Ebbets Field was declining for many reasons: lack of parking, white flight to the suburbs, the rise of television. Meanwhile, large cities across the country craved major- league baseball franchises. Los Angeles and San Francisco were respectively courting the Dodgers and Giants, though Milwaukee scooped them both by acquiring the Braves from Boston. When O'Malley saw L.A.'s offer, and realized that there was slim hope for help in Brooklyn, he decamped and transferred the franchise to the West Coast. There, as the author notes, it has flourished spectacularly in one of baseball's greatest stadiums. D'Antonio spices his forays into baseball business with plenty of baseball folklore. There are several pages on Bobby Thompson's mythic home run, many on the advent and reignof Jackie Robinson. He sometimes has difficulty with balance, offering only a few swift sentences on Roy Campanella's career-ending accident, for example. Readers may also wish for more about O'Malley's private life. We see the franchise owner as a consummate politician, a true mover-and-shaker, but we get few glimpses of his Dodger-blue soul.a
a"Kirkus"
First-rate cultural history from a writer who touches almost all bases. aTo comprehend baseball's grip on America, you've got to understand the dramatic tale of Walter O'Malley and the Dodgers. With meticulous reporting and elegant prose, D'Antonio brushes away the dust and brings O'Malley's story to life like never before. This is the definitive book on one of baseball's most fascinating and controversial figures.a
a Jonathan Eig, author of "Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season and Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig"
aMeticulously researched and artfully written, "Forever Blue" isn't merely a biography of Walter O'Malley, but a thoughtful and riveting piece of social history, told through the prism of perhaps the most controversial owner in the annals of American sport.a
a Wayne Coffey, author of "The New York Times" bestseller, "The Boys of Winter"

About the Author

Michael D'Antonio is the author of many acclaimed books, including Atomic Harvest, Tin Cup Dreams, Mosquito, The State Boys Rebellion, Hershey, and Forever Blue. His work has appeared in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Discover, and other publications. Among his many awards is the Pulitzer Prize, which he shared with a team of reporters for Newsday.

About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1594484414
• ISBN 13: 9781594484414
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 385