After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball [Hardcover]

Robert E. Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2009

For New Yorkers—especially Brooklynites—1957 will always be the year that lives in infamy. It was when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants delivered a one-two punch to the city by both abandoning their hometown for California. Millions of bereft and angry baseball fans wondered how such a thing could be allowed to happen: Who was to blame? After poring relentlessly through archives, original news stories, and government documents, Robert Murphy gives the most fully-researched answer to that question yet offered. Packed with history, rich in baseball lore and legend, this is a book that any New York history buff and all lovers of America’s national pastime will relish.

 

AFTER MANY A SUMMER reveals:

 

How baseball commissioner Ford Frick helped facilitate the teams’ move to California

 

Which plan for a new stadium would have appeased Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley—and saved Brooklyn baseball

 

How Robert Moses, who has received much blame, actually tried to solve the problem

 

How O’Malley and Giants owner Horace Stoneham worked in tandem to make sure their popular rivalry would continue in LA

 

How the two owners managed to carry out secret talks with California officials even while insisting they had no plans to leave New York

 

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

I have never quite been reconciled to the Dodgers' being taken from me, admits freelance writer Murphy, who grew up within walking distance of Ebbets Field and still lives in Brooklyn. He is able to put his feelings aside, however, in this objective reappraisal of the sequence of events that led Walter O'Malley (who [left] Brooklyn a rich man and a despised man) to take his team to Los Angeles—while, at the other end of New York City, Giants owner Horace Stoneham was making his own plans to leave town. Murphy is particularly eager to restore the reputation of Robert Moses, who has been accused of squeezing the Dodgers out. The city planner did offer solutions that could have kept the team in Brooklyn, Murphy reports, but the sites where O'Malley wanted to build his own stadium weren't zoned for that purpose. The Giants' story, though it runs concurrently, is much less dramatic; Murphy's most significant accomplishment lies in breaking down the nostalgic myths and sorting through the historical archives to get the real story behind the transformation of New York's baseball landscape. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Union Square Press; 1 edition (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140276068X
• ISBN-13: 978-1402760686
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #987,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Setting the Record Straight, May 15, 2009

By 

Henry D. Fetter (Los Angeles,CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball (Hardcover)

This book provides a welcome corrective to the fashionable - but wildly misconceived- notion that if anyone is to blame for the still lamented move of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles it is planning czar Robert Moses and not team owner Walter O'Malley. It also has the merit of restoring the Giants - often the lost chapter in the history of New York baseball - to their rightful place at the heart of some of the most dramatic moments in the last decade of the three team city (the 1951 pennant playoff victory, the 1954 World Series sweep) as well as the chain of events that led to that era's abrupt demise with the departure of both of the city's National League teams to the West Coast.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After Many a Summer, May 14, 2009

By 

Louis John "Louis" (Irvington, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball (Hardcover)

After Many a Summer is a carefully researched and detailed account of the events leading up to the Dodgers and Giants departure from New York. Murphy leaves no stone unturned as he presents a balanced and intelligent explanation of why none of the many plans to keep the National League in NY failed. Murphy reaches certain conclusions on key issues, such as O'Malley's veracity and Robert Moses's motivations, and this reader found them very convincing, as they are based on scores of reliable sources, interviews, and the public record. The author is clearly a lover of the game, and this very well written book isn't only about business and politics. In order to put the story into context, Murphy describes the history of New York baseball, the relocation of the Braves, Browns, and Athletics, and the key games and players of the 1950s.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After many a summer and a long memory, May 17, 2009

By 

John Baker (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball (Hardcover)

After many a Summer is a meticulously, well researched book. Considering Robert Moses has no public relations department working on his image and believe me his image needs it. Mr. Murphy made some very significant points. What instantly gave me the impression that Mr. Murphy was speaking in fact and not conjecture was that every fact in the book the public was privy to at the time, Mr. Murphy reported correctly. From someone who lived through those times and absorbed just about everything printed back then on the Brooklyn Dodgers and the "terrible" decision to move. Mr. Murphy brought it all back and I could find not one inconsistency from his writing to my memory of events. This leads me to believe every other related "behind the scenes" event is also true. I read forever Blue and I'm not going to fault the author on his misconceptions, he was allowed to look at "all documents" supposedly, then again, he was given these materials by "interested parties", so he wouldn't know if things (documents/facts) pertinent to the story were simply destroyed decades or minutes before starting. Mr. Murphy had to dig into the facts covered by 50 + years of half truths and he had to do it with no "inside" help.
Remember Forever blue is the "official" O'malley version of events endorsed by the family. Mr. Murphy was simply writing a book about what happened. He did his best in uncovering the "real honest truth". From reading the book I found Mr. Murphy's place of residence placed no preconceived notion in his mind and none found it's way into the book.He didn't mislead anyone about where he lived either, again, he chose to go with the truth. I found After many a Summer a great factual read and "smacks" of the truth.