About this item
Highlights
- The Giant-Dodger rivalry was considered the best in baseball by 1890 and remains the game's oldest and most storied rivalry today.
- About the Author: Andrew Goldblatt is an administrative specialist in the Office of Risk Management at the University of California-Berkeley and lives in Berkeley, California.
- 304 Pages
- Sports + Recreation, Baseball
Description
Book Synopsis
The Giant-Dodger rivalry was considered the best in baseball by 1890 and remains the game's oldest and most storied rivalry today. It's remarkable how often both teams have been good, how rarely they've both been bad, and how tenaciously the underdog has battled in between. Through 12 decades (and in two sets of cities 3,000 miles apart) Giant and Dodger partisans have rooted so passionately against each other that, just as during the Civil War, conflicting loyalties have divided neighbors and even families.
This is the definitive account of the rivalry, from its roots in amateur contests between New York and Brooklyn teams in the 1840s to its present incarnation in California's world class cities. All the greats are here: Ward, Ebbets, McGraw, Mathewson, Terry, Durocher, Reese, Robinson, Mays, Koufax, Drysdale, Marichal, Lasorda, Bonds. The book also examines the cities that have hosted the rivalry and devotes a special section to the move to California. The author argues compellingly that, contrary to popular wisdom, the rivalry's best years came after the move.
Review Quotes
"wonderful...Goldblatt writes in sharp, engaging sentences...a good read"-Choice; "finely focused book...very good piece of baseball history, a nice effort of which both author and publisher should be proud...intelligent, sprightly writing...this book is far from ordinary...insightful"-Nine; "informed...definitive...thoroughly enjoyable...unique and exciting...filled from cover to cover with anecdotes"-Midwest Book Review; "good...a nice detailed history of baseball's best rivalry"-ESPN.go.com; "ranks among the 'division winners'"-The Diamond Angle; "There is no sports rivalry quite like the Dodger-Giant rivalry that spans a century and a continent. Andrew Goldblatt has captured these confrontations with humor, verve, and affection. Dodger and Giant fans-be they from Brooklyn, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or points in between will love this book. So will anyone who likes a good book about baseball."-Jules Tygiel (author of Past Time and Baseball's Great Experiment).
About the Author
Andrew Goldblatt is an administrative specialist in the Office of Risk Management at the University of California-Berkeley and lives in Berkeley, California.