The Coming of the Dodgers and the Giants to the West Coast in the Mid-Fifties

In the mid-twentieth century, the history of baseball in the United States in numerous ways mirrors the history of the United States. Precisely, when the Brooklyn Dodgers together with the New York Giants left New York for California in 1957, this merited different controversial issues in New York. While this might have been considered an ill move by a majority of the Americans, one of the primary reasons why these two teams made this bold move was due to the fact that the New Yorks Urban demographic could no longer support the three already existing baseball teams. However, California, on the other hand, offered an excellent option for the Dodger and Giant owners. For instance, the city of California provided to these two teams, the big cities that were hungry for major league baseball and that were very willing to meet the high requirements that were set by the Giants and Dodger owners Horace Stoneham and Walter O Malley. This being the case, this paper seeks to discuss the real impacts that this decision had on the east coast as well as the impact that the city of California had on baseball.

The actual happening of the two teams, Brooklynn Dodgers and New York Giants, was in May 28, 1957. During this time, the National League owners voted, in a unanimous way, so as to grant both the New York Giants and the Brooklynn Dodgers, the permission to move from San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively. Although this was to be determined by the National League owners, there were those conditions that were attached to the decision made by the owners of the teams. Initially, the condition was, either the two teams were to move or even neither could. This, in its deepest essence, signified that, in a case where one team reconsidered this decision, the other team had no option but to also change its decision, as well. The other crucial condition that was set by the two teams, was that the two teams had to announce their final plans as of October 1, 1957. Therefore eventually, and with both the conditions met, the two teams, led by their owners, Walter OMalley and Horace Stoneham, moved from their initial home, New York, into the west coast.

While history has vilified the two teams owners, Walter OMalley and Horace Stoneham, the two men, especially OMalley, the Brooklyn Dodgers owner, realized the domineering trend in New York City, whereby the people moved from the urban areas into the suburbs Besides, this was accompanied by the decay in New Yorks stadiums and above all else, the massive influence, in which, television, as a form of media, had on baseball. With the realization of whatever was happening, these two team owners began to feel that if situations in New York were not going to change, they would be compelled to look for a new location which would perfectly fit the needs of their teams. This being the case, the two teams planned on the exodus from New York to California. This movement, in essence, was received with much joy by the West Coast baseball fans but at the same time, broke the hearts of the people of New York City.

While this particular exodus by Brooklynns Dodgers and the New York Giants had many impacts especially on the west coast people, the most significant impact of their movement was the fact that this expedited the process of urban decay. Therefore, this meant that the very same reason why the team owners drew their teams out of New York City, was but just aggravated due to the absence of these teams in the New York City. Particularly, urban decay was especially adverse for Brooklyn, since as a city, Brooklyn was far more attached to the Dodgers baseball team, unlike how Manhattan was attached to the New York Giants. Similarly, based on historical evidence, up until the modern day today, the legitimacy behind the reasons given by the two teams for their movement, still merits a great debate. Although the eventual results of the teams exodus to the west coast were fiscal improvement, people, especially a majority of the baseball fans still question whether this move was justified.

Like any other profit earning business would be, it was evident that both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants were motivated by money. This was primarily evidenced by their constant reference to financial struggles, whenever they answered the question as to what prompted them to leave New York. In a similar regard, as passionate as the rivalry between both the New York Giants and the Dodgers, the two times rarely fought for a title, for the better part of their history. Besides, when the actual agreement that was accepted by the Dodgers and the New York Giants, it is doubtless that when moving to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, the main reason why the two teams left New York, was for financial reasons that were cited by both their owners. For instance, after doing great consultation with San Francisco officials, Horace Stoneham, gave a substantial guarantee to his board members, that the organization would make a profit that was estimated to fall between $200, 000 and $300, 000 in that particular year. Additionally, the City of Francisco, in turn, passed a $5 million bond issue which was used to help in paying for the bills and expenses of the team. All these figures considered, this was overly important for the Dodger team, owing to the fact that the number of people living in urban areas was diminishing. In this regard, people in the city could not just walk a couple of blocks to catch the baseball game, when they lived in the suburbs. A majority of them needed to drive to the ball game and needed ample space to park their cars. Unlike in New York, San Francisco provided the new Dodger fans with ample space. Also, the city also promised to equip the stadium with every material that the team needed.

As expected, with two baseball teams leaving the east coast, where they had been rooted for over sixty years each, for a more western location, the great impact was felt by the people in the east coast. For instance, with reference to historic databases, the Dodgers had been in Brooklyn since 1890. The Giants, on the other hand, had spent a longer time in Manhattan, only to get to the city in 1883. This being the case, among the many impacts that this particular move had, the most overt effect that the move by each teams move had was severe animosity of the fans towards the teams owners. This is essentially evidenced by the fact that, by the end of the 1957 period, a majority of the New York Giants fans were overly unhappy, with the manner in which, Horace Stoneham, was leading the team. In the same vein, the Dodger fans unleashed cruelty and animosity towards the teams owner. As a matter of fact, the Brooklyn Dodger fans hated Walter OMalley even more, as compared to his fellow team owner, Stoneham. According to Carl E. Prince, the Dodger fans denounced OMalley as a cold schemer who had the capabilities of casting aside any forms of loyalties by the fans so as to make the team and himself, an extra dollar. Besides, other bitter people in New York claimed that OMalley was lured by the glint of gold in California and for this reason, he was accused of becoming oblivious of the loyal and now broken hearted Dodger fans who had been left behind, in New York City.

Despite the great negativity that was received from a majority of the teams fans in New York, there was still a group of fans who had a mix of emotions, obviously emotions of both anger and sadness. In the end, and as the national league approved the move for the two teams, it was evident that the fans felt betrayed by their two baseball teams. Additionally, while everyone knew that the possibility of a move was imminent, the owners of the teams, and especially OMalley remained silent about the entire issue. However, in the end, shortly after the August 1957 move, it became evident that one substantial result of the east to west coast exodus by the Dodgers and the Giants was the demonization of both the owners, with OMalley, as the most affected. As expected, the New York based fans, were overly disappointed in the teams decision to leave the city, in search for what, their owners, deemed as greener pastures.

In addition to the emotional influence on the New York-based fans, the move by the two teams to the west coast substantially impacted a majority of the employees in the east coast. For instance, during this period, a significant number of the New York Giants employees had a deep attachment to their homes at the Polo Grounds since they had worked there for so many years. For this reason, many of them were emotionally saddened for having to witness the teams move from their initial home in New York to a whole new city, California. For the employees in New York, it is no doubt that they were losing more than their jobs.

Similarly, another of the most significant effects of the movement by the Giants and the Dodgers was more than local to New York City. The reason why this is so is that the 1957 baseball season was overly characterized by numerous inquiries at the federal level of professional baseballs exemption from what was referred to as the anti-trust legislation. In this regard, throughout the history of modern professional sports, especially baseball, the exemption from the anti-trust legislation was a topic that merited great debates and controversies. Therefore, the implications of the westward baseball expansion did not seem to connect at first, since the decision to move the team out of the city, whenever the owner pleased, and citing financial problems, sounded more of a business venture. This, was in essence, was considered rather selfish, of the team owner.

Besides, the cross-continent leap of the New York Giants and the Dodgers significantly affected the east coast transportation industry. According to Bracker Milton (1957), the Transit Authority foresaw an approximate of $300, 000 a year in revenues. This, in turn, would adversely affect New Yorks general economy, owing to the fact that people obviously had to get to the game venues in one way or the other. Particularly, this was significant among those urban dwellers who lived far from the stadiums where the games were held. Thus, with reference to the urban deterioration as a result of the movement by the two teams, New York Citys deterioration, was specifically adverse. As many scholars have increasingly contended, the transportation system was initially given a significant boost by the presence of these two baseball teams. This, in essence, was however taken away, contributing to what was deemed as urban deterioration of the New York City.

Being their initial home city, the continent leap by the two teams had substantial implications on New York Citys rivalries. This is explained based on the fact that, New York City, which had for a long time been the host to these two teams, suddenly lost the two top National League teams. This being the case, the sudden disappearance of the two teams killed the most beneficial thing about these two teams, their rivalry. This was not only a loss for New York as a city but also for the two teams since, one of the primary reasons why either of these teams drew much attendance was owing to the existing rivalry between them. For instance, one of the reasons why the Giants game attendances were at the overly respected levels was due to the fact that the team had great rivalry games against the Dodgers. This factor essentially drew large crowds to the end. On the other hand, although not overly dependent on their rivalry between the Giants and themselves, it was evident that the Dodgers, took a colossal boost in attendance, from the games that essentially pitted th...