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When Brooklyn Lost the Dodgers
Why did the beloved New York baseball team head West in 1958?
Brooklyn, New York was home to one of the most beloved teams in the game of American baseball — the Brooklyn Dodgers. But in 1958, the unthinkable happened when the long-standing Brooklyn Dodgers moved to the West Coast to become the Los Angeles Dodgers. The story of why that happened is a baseball legend that pitted two strong personalities against each other.
The start of baseball in Brooklyn
Brooklyn was its own city until it became a borough of New York City in 1898. Professional baseball first came to Brooklyn as early as 1883, when a team nicknamed the “Grays” because of the color of their uniforms played in the American Association, the forerunner of the American League. The team won the league championship in 1889 and then moved to the National League, where they won the league championship the next year. The Brooklyn team became the only team to win consecutive championships in both leagues.
While the team was officially called the Brooklyn Base Ball Club, it was known to fans and sports writers by several different nicknames, including the “Bridegrooms” because of some recently married team members. The nickname that finally caught on by 1895 was the “Trolley Dodgers.” Apparently…
