Customer Reviews

Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

if you listened to my father and assorted uncles and aunts and neighborhood adults, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Walter O'Malley. This ironic jest (at least I think it was intended to be funny) is usually attributed, as it is in this book, to New York journalists Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield. That may be, but the expression must have enjoyed wide currency throughout Brooklyn in the years after the Dodgers fled Brooklyn for California. I grew up a devoted Met fan but never could quite understand the fierce devotion these adults had for a long gone team. Thomas Oliphant's "Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers" goes a long way toward explaining why the universe, in Brooklyn at least, revolved around the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers.

"Praying for Gil Hodges" is something of an etude in three parts. The foundation of the book is a detailed inning-by-inning account of the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, the one time Brooklyn managed to beat the Yankees. The Yankees had won every World Series from 1949 through 1953, beating strong Dodger teams in 1949, 1952, and 1953. Oliphant wraps two related stories around the seventh game: the story of the role the Dodgers played in his own family; and the story of the intimate relationship between the Dodgers and their fans in Brooklyn.
Oliphant's account of the seventh game (and critical games in the 1955 and earlier World Series defeats) is at once vibrant and concise. It is clear Oliphant has had a long term love affair with baseball and it shows in the details. Although anyone reading the book probably knows the outcome of the game, there is no shortage of excitement in the retelling.

Oliphant's story of how the Dodger's played a central role in his family's life and the impact the Dodgers had on the people of Brooklyn are also fascinating. Some earlier reviews imply that there is an element of political correctness in this book, perhaps because Oliphant is unstinting in his evaluation of the impact on baseball and America by the arrival of Jackie Robinson. Oliphant also pointed out that the Dodgers did not sign Robinson as a token. They sought out the best ball players they could no matter what color. As a result, Robinson was joined by Campanella, Amoros, Gilliam, and Newcombe and formed what must be considered the first truly integrated team in American sports. Oliphant is correct in asserting that the Dodgers were at least a decade ahead of their time in this respect. More importantly these players helped create the team that finally beat the pinstriped Yankees. This is not a matter of political correctness as much as it is a matter of the actual historical record.

Oliphant does try to restore a bit of O'Malley's reputation by noting that New York's great power broker Robert Moses quashed every plan O'Malley had for building a new stadium in Brooklyn. Moses was a person for whom my family heaped almost as much scorn on as O'Malley so ultimately it is six of one, half dozen of the other. Either way, the team is gone.

I found only one real fault with "Praying for Gil Hodges". As mentioned, the book has three parallel plot lines. However, I noted that a number of stories and anecdotes found in one plot line were repeated, sometimes more than once, in other plot lines. Some judicious editing would have been useful. Ultimately, the occasional duplicate story does not get in the way of a very enjoyable read.

Don Drysdale, once said of the old Dodgers that "[i]n Brooklyn, it was as though you were in your own little bubble. You were all part of one big, but very close family, and the Dodgers were the main topic of everybody's conversations and you could sense the affection people had for you. I don't know that such a thing exists anymore."

Tom Oliphant's "Praying for Gil Hodges" is a very enjoyable read that pretty much sums up why Drysdale, Oliphant, and my father and uncles all felt the same way. I heartily recommend this book and only add that it be read in conjunction with Doris Kearns Goodwin's equally exquisite "Wait Till Next Year".

Tom Oliphant has written a heartwarming book about Brooklyn circa 1940-1955. I am 72 years old and have lived in California for 48 years. I came here with the Dodgers. I grew up in the Williamsburg section of Bklyn in a poor working class family. I must admit the book while not a comprehensive history brought tears to my eyes as I read it. I especially enjoyed the era 1940-1950 which Mr Oliphant uses as historical background for the 1955 World Series. The names of those lesser known ballplayers had my mind going back in time.
This is a book to be savoured.

Len Mishkin-Sherman Oaks Calif

Having just read Oliphant's book, I was amused by these last two reviews. An editing error or two, the many reminders of the writer's romance with Brooklyn -- so what! These and the other occurances cited are dwarfed by the writer's lyrical account of a changing Brooklyn in the 1950s. For a Bronx (not Brooklyn) boy who lived for everything NY Yankees, and who shares no particular love for the beloved Democratic Party of the author's parents, Oliphant managed to make this book a must read for me and for all those lucky enough to understand that New York was then, and continues to be, the greatest symbol of urban America in the 20th Century. Olpihant may not be the first to tell this story, but he's certainly among the very best.

There's something classically mythic about baseball, and probably no team has been mythologized as much as the Brooklyn Dodgers, a team that reached its pinnacle with its only World Series win in 1955 and its ebb when the franchise moved to Los Angeles two years later. Longtime Boston Globe reporter Thomas Oliphant has written a nostalgic memoir along the lines of one of David Halberstam's baseball remembrances, "Summer of `49" about the Yankees. He focuses on the defining seventh game of the 1955 World Series with meticulous conviction and of course, his favorite player, Gil Hodges, for good reason. Originally signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as a third baseman, Hodges held the National League record for grand slams for several years (14), and he is a member of the exclusive club of players that have hit four home runs in a single game. With 1,001, he also had more RBIs during the 1950's than any other player, and he was an eight-time All-Star. Statistics like these are trivial to many but pure gold to any true fan.

Consequently there is no more fitting legend than Hodges for Oliphant to praise with such worshipful awe. At the same time, the author touches upon the issue of race, as baseball was still in the throes of Jackie Robinson's breakthrough, and describes how much the Dodgers meant to their African-American fans. The book is a great read for anyone who wants to understand the degree of passion behind the "Boys of Summer" at Ebbets Field, as Oliphant traces his childhood within the context of the team's winning season. He goes into vivid detail about the borough and its inhabitants and why the team became so important to them even when owner Walter O'Malley left Kings County for the greener pastures of LA. Oliphant makes the book resonate by personalizing the role of baseball in the American fabric without getting didactic with obscure statistics. This is ideal summer reading even for those with a passing interest in the game.

I'll start off by saying this is an amazing book. The story intertwines the hardships and good times of a family living in Manhatten with the hardships and good times of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It really gives you some insight into life in New York during the 40's and 50's when the Dodger/Yankee rivalry ruled baseball. Being a met fan who grew up in New York, and having a father who was a die hard Brooklyn Dodger fan, I can totally relate to the story.

Even if you have no interest in baseball, this book is a must read. It is a wonderful story about a family, loyalty, love and the most beloved baseball team of all time...The Brooklyn Dodgers.

The author does an excellent job weaving in his own childhood and connecting it to the fate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. As someone who watched those Dodgers two or three times in my youth, I found the descriptions evocative and well-drawn. Actually, the book is more about pitcher Johnny Podres than Gil Hodges, and the author has some wonderful interviews with surviving team members. There are scores of little-known facts reported which bring new dimension to the familiar story of that seventh game of the 1955 World Series.

I must report, as the author of two dozen books myself and being quite familiar with commercial publishing, that this is unquestionably the worst editing I've ever seen from a major publisher and major writer. The errors in spelling, syntax, punctuation, and general grammar are so common that they are distracting.

If you're a baseball fan in general and/or a Dodger fan in particular, this is a compelling subject and history. If you love the English language, the narrative will also drive you crazy at times.

Mr. Oliphant's pinpoint memory recalls the joy of baseball long before the steroid scandal of today's game. Priceless are his interviews with the players still living, such as pitcher Johnny Podres.
The author blends poignant interaction with family members into the history of the '55 World Series, and we learn of his family's struggle during those times. Also fascinating are the famous persons Oliphant met as a boy, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and actor Yul Brynner.
Good, clear writing makes this book a breeze to read.

Tom Oliphant writes a delightful memoir of what it meant to be a Brooklyn Doger fan for him and his mother and father. Most Brookyn Dodger oral histories are told by natives of Brooklyn. I found it a new spin by giving a Manhattan perspective being given.

As someone who lives in Gil Hogdes native state-Indiana and being a native of Brooklyn, I can certainly relate to the descriptions of Indiana and Brooklyn. I will have to visit the gil Hodges Bridge in indiana next summer. The book is full of insiteful aspects of a midwestern couple living in Manhattan in the late 1940-s to 1950's .

The memoir aspect of the book shows how two politically liberal people identified with the Brooklyn Dodgers . I think this aspect is really true from talking to Dodger and Yankee fans of that time period butis little noted how liberals/democrats rooted for the Dodgers and the Yankees tended to get conservative types.

The baseball part explains the futility of the Dodgers losing to the yankees year after year while the story fot the 7 th game of the World Series is being explained. A Boston Red Sox fan will see their misery against the Yankees being relived by Oliphant and his family.

The book is a nice merger of memoir and baseball story with unique referecnes. I didn't know that yogi berra , phil rizzutto and stengel congratulated the Dodgers after their victory.

The book may 'suffer ' from not having a Brooklyn flavor to it but then again Oliphant is able to show what the Dodgers meant to Brooklyn and this country (such as Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier).

I predict this book will one day be deemed a classic of sports memoir writing.

I purchased this book after hearing about it on a TV interview show. My husband is a huge Baseball fan and most of the books I buy for him are Baseball related. He told me it was 'great' and he read it from cover to cover in a few days. I think it captured an era that he recalled living through as a kid in New York City. He said that reading about the specific ball games in the book took him right back to those days. I think he enjoyed those parts of the book the most. There was quite a bit that told about the family life of the author which weren't quite as gripping but overall, judging from his reaction, I would say Baseball fans would love this book.

This is a good review of the Brooklyn Dodgers and their classic World Series victory over the Yankees in 1955. As a 12 year old at the time I can empathize with Oliphant's recollection of the times and what life in Brooklyn was all about. But I was less interested in Oliphant's personal biography because he didn't live in Brooklyn and his whole childhood seemed to be framed by friends of his family who provided opportunities for him that the rest of us never had. He kind of comes off as a twerp which is solidifed by his picture in the Brooklyn Dodger uniform. But kudos for good research and an understanding of baseball.