Dodgers Move Westward

Jeorge Vega

Composition 2000

Ms. Heidalbach

March 11, 2008

Dodgers Move West

Baseball in Brooklyn has been in existence since the 1800s. Brooklyn baseball teams have had names ranging from the Bridegrooms to the Superbas. The name that most people remember when they talk about Brooklyn is the Dodgers. Most people remember the Dodgers for their great play and also for a man by the name of Walter O’Malley on moving the Dodgers to Los Angeles. This has had a deep impact on not only the baseball world but on the sports world also.

Brooklyn teams played high–caliber baseball: they failed to be admitted into the league, in all likelihood because they were not suitably proper for the league (Sullivan, 5). In 1890 the National League invited the Brooklyn Dodgers, from the American Association. By 1898 the team was taken over by Charles Ebbets, who took over as president and had part-ownership of the team. Ebbets had completely changed this team who was in need of a complete turn around. Ebbets also began the development of players who would be stars in a few a years, and he started the construction of the stadium that would bear his name, Ebbets Field (Sullivan, 7). The Red Sox met the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Dodgers first World Series appearance. The Red Sox would come out on top winning four games to one.

A major change happened in 1920 when changes were made in how the game was played and also organizational changes arose. The way baseball was run, was changed from a three-member National Commission to one man governing the sport. This man was Judge Kennesaw Landis. The 1920s and 30s were difficult years on the field and off. In the 1925, Charles Ebbets died, leaving half of the ownership scattered among his surviving family (Sullivan, 10). The Dodgers fell through tough times in the 1930s. The team played horribly on the field and financially the team was nearly bankrupt. By 1937, the Dodgers hired Larry Stanford McPhail. McPhail completely turned...