Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A friend of mine gave me this book, thinking that any baseball fan would like it. Well, I have read enough baseball books that I didn't enjoy...you know how that goes. This book not only provides an in-depth understanding of this historic rivalry, but shows how rivalries develop and how important they are to our passion for this great game. Golblatt weaves history in contemporary terms showing how the game developed with our country, how baseball became so ingrained in our culture, and why we feel so passionate about "our" teams. Baseball fans and fanciers of American history will enjoy the stories that alone seem inocuous, but when strung together, show us both the forest and the trees. And for Giants and Dodgers fans, this is a compelling read that gives perspective on this historic rivalry. Thank you, Mr. Goldblatt, for allowing me to regain those strong feelings about a game that seems to be nothing more than a game so often lately.

Whether or not Giants-Dodgers is baseball's "best" rivalry, it's certainly the most rich historically, as this delightful book shows. As a veteran of Fort Candlestick in the 1970s--when Friday night games against the Dodgers meant automatic slugfests (in the stands, and sometimes in the parking lot) I can testify to the ferocity of the rivalry for Bay Area fans. Among the interesting points in this book is that it was fans on the "losing" side (for a long while in Brooklyn, later in SF) who really kept the rivalry going. But best of all are the well-written accounts of all the many seasons when the Giants and Dodgers battled for supremacy. This is a terrific book for fans who want to relive those battles and for those who want to know what the rivalry is really all about. Lots of good stories and memorable quotes. It would make a great gift for baseball-history fans.

This is a well-written, well-researched book about the best rivalry in baseball. It is the first to put the move to the West Coast into perspective, and to tell that (I almost wrote "our") side of the story. It contains a provocative analysis of the 1951 sign-stealing scandal -- the first analysis of the numbers that I've read anywhere. Rather than ignoring the world outside the ballpark, Mr Goldblatt includes the larger social context, telling the story with grace and humor. If you are interested in baseball history, the Giants, the Dodgers, or any combination of the three, you'll enjoy this book.

A fantastic look at the long and storied history of the NY/SF and Brooklyn/LA rivalry. As a true baseball fan, I loved this book. The details of incidents and games over the years is surprisingly good. It is a long read but not boring at all. It kept my interest throughout. Another chapter could be added after this year's fantastic finish in LA with Finley winning the division for the Dodgers with a grand slam. Just another great moment in the history of this tremendous rivalry.

The Giants And The Dodgers: Four Cities, Two Teams, One Rivalry by baseball enthusiast Andrew Goldblatt (Administrative Specialist in the Office of Risk Management, University of California - Berkeley) is the informed and definitive account of these two great baseball teams and their legendary players from the teams' origins in the 1840s down to the present day. A thoroughly enjoyable and enlivening read for Giants and Dodgers fans alike, The Giants And The Dodgers is an unique and exciting, era-by-era analysis which filled from cover to cover with anecdotes.

I doubt if very many Dodgers or Giants fans know the full history of the rivalry. Although I have followed the Dodgers since 1956 when they won the World Series, over a third of this book was new to me. I felt I added to my enjoyment of the Dodgers by seeing them in the perspective of the Giants.

To me, baseball has always been about beating the Yankees so although the Giants have always been tough on the Dodgers (except for rare periods), I didn't really notice the rivalry . . . except on October 3rd when for so many years the Giants had the ultimate hex on the Dodgers. Reading this book made me want to read a book that just focused on the Yankees and the Dodgers. One of the highlights of my career as a baseball fan was watching the Dodgers win to clinch the World Series in Yankee Stadium in 1981.

I found the book to be a little too encyclopedic to be totally satisfying to me. I really didn't want to know all of those little facts about the early days. More time could have been spent on the personalities of the key owners, players, coaches and umpires, and the book would have been improved.

Also, I didn't really want to know as much about the Giants as I wanted to know about the Dodgers . . . so I think this book will be more attractive to Giants fans than to Dodgers fans. My impression is that the Giants have been written about much less than the Dodgers have.

But if you just want to have one book about the Giants and the Dodgers, this is surely the one to own. I don't know of any book that comes near it on this subject.

As I finished the book, I realized that we are fortunate to have talented rivals and dedicated fans. Both play a role in helping bring out the best in us. Both Dodgers and Giants fans have been blessed in this way.

Many fans don't know the full story of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry. This book tells it all, from the NY/Brooklyn years through 2002. A very entertaining book for anyone interested in baseball history, with lots of good stories and memorable quotes from players, managers, writers, and others. The retelling of the 1951 and 1962 pennant-playoff seasons, as well as the infamous Marichal-Roseboro incident, are gems.

This may be the greatest rivalry in sports. The Yankee-Red Sox rivalry is as one-sided as the British and the IRA. The Dodgers and Giants, however, are like the North vs. the South in the Civil War.

STEVEN TRAVERS
Author of "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman"

As you can see from my title scentance, I'm obviously from Los Angeles. I hate the Giants with all my heart. first game I ever saw was a LA/SF game, which was won by the Dodgers. Last game I saw last season was won by the blue crew. and anyone from SF that says that that the Giants are better, look at the total # of wins by the Dodgers over the Giants and you'll see who is better. This has to be the best rivalry in Baseball. You can say the whole NY/Boston thing is the biggest but that series is always so damn lopsided. Even after the 2004 World Series, it's still lopsided in rfavor of the Yanks. This rivalry is being won by the Dodgers, but it's not as lopsided as the NY/Sox rivalry. From their days in New York to their days in Cali, the best rivalry in Baseball is the Dodger/Giants rivalry. This book should tell you all about how these teams hate each other. If you're barely becoming a baseball fan, read the book and then find out which team you wanna root for. I think you'll make the right decision.(Los Angeles Dodgers will win the World Series soon)

that's been overly chronicled at this point. American sport's historically second greatest rivalry (and not by much) to Army-Navy football, was the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. In it's day, it was akin to a gang rumble. When the two clubs abandoned New York for greener pastures (emphasis on "green") after the 1957 season, New York was never the same, and neither was baseball. Much of the history, tradition, fire and poetry was gone forever.
The West coast version was more suburban, at-a-distance taunting
between Northern and Southern Californians: totally different and completely foreign to the spirit of the original rivalry.
There's nothing really new here that hasn't been covered in
numerous other histories. To paraphrase the widow of John McGraw
when asked what the legendary manager would have thought about his beloved team moving to California: "He would have turned over in his grave."