Overview

If ever there was a figure who changed the game of baseball, it was Walter O?Malley. Criticized in New York and beloved in Los Angeles, O?Malley is one of the most controversial owners in the history of American sports. He remade the major leagues and altered the course of history in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles when he moved the Dodgers to California. But while many New York critics attacked him, O?Malley looked to the future, declining to argue his case. As a result, fans across the nation have been unable to stop arguing about him?until now.
Using never-before-seen documents and candid interviews with O?Malley's players, associates, and relatives, Pulitzer Prize?winning writer Michael D?Antonio finally reveals this complex sportsman and industry pioneer. Born into Tammany Hall connections, O?Malley used political contacts to grow wealthy during the Great Depression, and then maneuvered to take control of the formerly downtrodden Dodgers. After his defeat in a war of wills with the famed power broker, Robert Moses, O?Malley uprooted the borough's team and transplanted them to Los Angeles. Once in Los Angeles, O?Malley overcame opponents of his stadium and helped define the city. Other owners came to regard him as their guide?almost an unofficial commissioner?and he worked behind the scenes to usher in the age of the players? union and free agency.
Filled with new revelations about O?Malley's battle with Moses, his pioneering business strategies, and his relationship with Jackie Robinson, Forever Blue is a uniquely intimate portrait of a man who changed America's pastime forever. His fascinating story is fundamental to the history of sports, business, and the American West.

Full Product Details

9781594488566

Table of Contents

Reviews

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. <br> 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<br> a Kirkus <br> 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<br> 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 <br> 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<br>a Wayne Coffey, author of The New York Times bestseller, The Boys of Winter

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available