The Giants and the Dodgers: Four Cities, Two Teams, One Rivalry

by Andrew Goldblatt

Overview

The Giant-Dodger rivalry was considered the best in baseball by 1890 and remains the game's oldest and most storied rivalry today. It's remarkable how often both teams have been good, how rarely they've both been bad, and how tenaciously the underdog has battled in between. Through 12 decades (and in two sets of cities 3,000 miles apart) Giant and Dodger partisans have rooted so passionately against each other that, just as during the Civil War, conflicting loyalties have divided neighbors and even families.

This is the definitive account of the rivalry, from its roots in amateur contests between New York and Brooklyn teams in the 1840s to its present incarnation in California's world class cities. All the greats are here: Ward, Ebbets, McGraw, Mathewson, Terry, Durocher, Reese, Robinson, Mays, Koufax, Drysdale, Marichal, Lasorda, Bonds. The book also examines the cities that have hosted the rivalry and devotes a special section to the move to California. The author argues compellingly that, contrary to popular wisdom, the rivalry's best years came after the move.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786416400
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	06/17/2003
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.61(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Andrew Goldblatt is an administrative specialist in the Office of Risk Management at the University of California–Berkeley and lives in Berkeley, California.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment     
Introduction: The New York Game     

Part I. 1883–1901: “Even Members of the Gentler Sex Have the Fever”    
1889: “I Do Mind Being Robbed”     
The 1890s: “The Hottest Baseball Locality on Earth”     

Part II. 1902–1931: Little Napoleon and Uncle Robbie     
1911–1913: “Repositories of Twin Heartbeats”     
1916: “He Pissed on My Pennant”     
1924: “Better Than a Free Trip to Mars”     

Part III. 1932–1945: Jints and Bums     
1934: “Are They Still in the League?”     
1939: “All Tangled Up in the Spirit of the Thing”     

Part IV. 1946–1957: Reality Strangles Invention     
1951: “The Inexpressibly Fantastic”     
1952: “There Will Be a Hundred Thousand Suicides in Brooklyn”     
1954: “The Giants Is Dead”     

Interlude: The Move     

Part V. 1958–1971: Might Versus Mites     
1958: “We Had People Picking Up Money with Shovels”     
1959: “It Gripped the Players as Well as the Stands”     
1960–1962: Harney’s Horror and the Taj O’Malley     
1962: “Like Two Drunks Having a Fight in a Saloon”     
1965: “I’m Going to Get Him on the Head”      
1966: “The Moon Plus the Rest of the Solar System”      
1971: “It’s Almost Like the Giants and the Dodgers Have a League of Their Own”   

Part VI. 1972–1992: Bleeding Dodger Blue     
1976: “Bobby Thomson Still Lives!”      
1978: “Let Them All In, Lock the Gates, and Go Play Somewhere Else”     
1982: “Double Murder”      
1992: “Tampa’d With”      

Part VII. 1993–2002: Do You Believe in Dustiny?     
1993: “A Ralph Branca Walk”      
1997: “They Blew Sincere Kisses to Their Sport”      
2002: “The Sort of Stuff Around Which the Game Has Been Built”     

Select Bibliography     
Index     

What People are Saying About This

Jules Tygiel

There is no sports rivalry quite like the Dodger-Giant rivalry that spans a century and a continent. Andrew Goldblatt has captured these confrontations with humor, verve, and affection. Dodger and Giant fans-be they from Brooklyn, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or points in between will love this book. So will anyone who likes a good book about baseball.
—author of Past Time and Baseball's Great Experiment

Editorial Reviews

wonderful...Goldblatt writes in sharp, engaging sentences...a good read”—Choice; “finely focused book...very good piece of baseball history, a nice effort of which both author and publisher should be proud...intelligent, sprightly writing...this book is far from ordinary...insightful”—Nine; “informed...definitive...thoroughly enjoyable...unique and exciting...filled from cover to cover with anecdotes”—Midwest Book Review; “good...a nice detailed history of baseball’s best rivalry”—ESPN.go.com; “ranks among the ‘division winners’”—The Diamond Angle; “There is no sports rivalry quite like the Dodger-Giant rivalry that spans a century and a continent. Andrew Goldblatt has captured these confrontations with humor, verve, and affection. Dodger and Giant fans—be they from Brooklyn, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or points in between will love this book. So will anyone who likes a good book about baseball.”—Jules Tygiel (author of Past Time and Baseball’s Great Experiment).

From the Publisher

informed...definitive...thoroughly enjoyable...unique and exciting...filled from cover to cover with anecdotes

Midwest Book Review

finely focused book...very good piece of baseball history, a nice effort of which both author and publisher should be proud...intelligent, sprightly writing...this book is far from ordinary...insightful

Nine

wonderful...Goldblatt writes in sharp, engaging sentences...a good read

Choice