Customer Reviews

Bums No More!: The Championship Season of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In 2004, the Boston Red Sox finally broke their long standing curse and won the World Series. In 1955, a similar event occurred. The Brooklyn Dodgers, who had won many more pennants than the Red Sox, finally defeated their longtime nemesis, the New York Yankees, in the World Series. It was a time of enormous rejoicing in Brooklyn, but in many ways it was the last hurrah. Changing demographic patterns had led to a consistent decline in attendance at Ebbets field, and in a few years, they were the Los Angeles Dodgers. Furthermore, Ebbets field had been leveled, so both aspects of the team in Brooklyn were nothing but memories.
This book is an account of that wonderful season, where all of the memories of previous defeats were erased. It starts with a recapitulation of the failures, the greatest of which was the collapse in 1951, where the Dodgers led the Giants by 13 ½ games in the early part of August. They ended the season in a tie and in the third playoff game, Bobby Thompson hit a home run to send the Dodgers home for the winter.
It is also an account of how the Brooklyn people felt about the Dodgers. When I watched the fine Ken Burns video on baseball, some of the interviews were with people who grew up in Brooklyn and worshipped the Dodgers. This book captures the passion that those people felt for their team, and how in many ways, it was also America's team. When Jackie Robinson became the first black to play in the major leagues, it was for the Dodgers. For years after the color barrier was broken, the Dodgers continued to lead in having black players, so blacks all over the country considered the Dodgers to be their team.
There are some events in baseball that will stand forever, and the Red Sox victory in 2004 will be one of them. However, given the number of times they had played in the World Series and lost, the Dodger victory in 1955 probably surpasses the Red Sox in terms of breaking the pattern of failure. This is especially true when you factor in the fact that it was truly a climax, as shortly after, the Brooklyn Dodgers and their stadium were no more. But, it was truly a joy ride while it lasted, and this book is a wonderful description of an extraordinary season. It is a classic in the history of baseball.

i read this book cover to cover and it just arrived yesterday.
i could not put it down. being to young to actualy have any rememberance of the acual event, this book takes you and puts you there, giving you a great feeling of what it must have been like, for the fans & the players. i have read bums, boys of summer, the last good season & this book here. they are all great and i would have to give this book 5 stars..it is a little on the expensive side now that it is out of print and in such high demand but it is definitley worth every penny.
i have added this to my collection and it is a perfect complement to my magazine "who's a bum" the 40th anniversary of the 1955 brooklyn dodgers"..you get that magazine and this book and you got it all!! BUY IT IF YOU CAN!!!!

Too short and nothing new. Anyone interested enough in the Dodgers to purchase this book probably already knows everything the book has to say. You get a short history of the Dodgers, a synopsis of the '55 season and a play by play of the Series. A good third of the book, at least the Kindle edition, is taken up by an appendix giving a game by game rehash of the 1955 season in table form. This after devoting several chapters to the same topic. Of all the statistics, box scores and Jamesian analysis of baseball I've ever seen, this table is among the most useless.

Excellent look at the "Flock" in their only World Championship year in Flatbush! Lots of photos accompany a very good look at both the 1955 season as well as that year's Fall Classic (and indeed it was!). Tons of books have been written about this fabled team, but this is one of the best! (Oh, yes: Translation of the title review is, "That Furillo! What an arm!")

Great book. It's a shame that it's out of print, but it's good that a few are still available.

This is a deeply moving and powerful account of the greatest baseball story in history.

The interviews with the fans including people like Larry King are just fascinating. The research and detail in the accounts of the World Series games puts in you in the stands but you can't order a "dawg and a beeya."

The author conveys the importance of the team and its victory not just in baseball terms but in the greater social significance of the community and the nation.

If you love baseball legend and lore, this is required reading and you can't beat the Kindle price.

I'M WELL PLEASED WITH MY BUMS NO MORE. AS A YOUTH I WAS A BROOKLYN DODGER FAN. EVERYTHING WENT WELL. GOOD JOB.
THANK YOU!BUMS NO MORE - The Championship Season of 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers

Yuck!

It took less then ten minutes and paging through 16% of this book to realize I had gotten a real loser! Dry... boring...disappointing!

And this was a book I PAID for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank goodness it was only $2.99 but was overpriced at that!

THIS BOOK IS A SLICE OF NOSTALGIA. THIS WAS THE ONLY WORLD SERIES THE BROOKLYN DODGERS WOULD WIN. THEY HAD MANY GREAT TEAMS BUT THE PIN STRIPERS PREVAILED ALL BUT ONCE. THIS BOOK HAS MANY GREAT PHOTOS AND CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF THAT GREAT 1955 SEASON FOR THE DODGERS. AUTHOR STEWART WOLPIN DOES A GREAT JOB. I HAVE READ SEVERAL BOOKS ABOUT THE 55 DODGERS AND THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT BASEBALL IN NEW YORK DURING THE 1950'S OR ARE A BUMS FAN THEN THIS BOOK IS THE ANSWER.