All of the 11 surviving members of that historic baseball team contributed their poignant and personal recollections of that season that warmed the baseball world and sent millions of memorable moments across America, memories that last to this day in millions of homes across the country. Two game winner Johnny Podres, the handsome bachelor, recalls how he drove to the game from his auntÂ’s home in nearby Staten Island a few days after his 23rd birthday and promised his aging teammates a World Series victory. He delivered with a 2-0 triumph. Historic baseball figure Jackie Robinson and supportive teammate Pee Wee Reese, knowing their time for titles was short, reached their ultimate goal. Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Clem Labine, Don Newcombe and all the rest of Dem Bums eased the pain of BrooklynÂ’s millions with that emotional victory. Allen has talked to all of the Brooklyn 1955 survivors and to the women who carry the torch today for the fallen Dodgers, such as Rachel Robinson and Joan Hodges, for memories of that moment and the impact on their lives half a century later. Other significant figures, such as broadcaster Tom Brokaw, opera legend Robert Merrill, opponents Willie Mays, Whitey Ford and Stan (The Man) Musial recall their days as Brooklyn fans, opposing players or just Ebbets Field fanatics.
This is the stirring, funny, romantic, touching, historic story of one team in one town in one time that has lasted across the decades. The Brooklyn Dodgers of 1955 were an epic collection of talented athletes and heroic men.
