Review of
Praying
For Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family’s Love of the
Brooklyn Dodgers, by
Thomas Oliphant, ISBN 0312317611
Five out
of five stars
Baseball
and so much more
This book contains many different threads; all
tied together by a love of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the void that remained when they
moved to California. It is largely an autobiography of Oliphant in his early
years growing up in a small apartment, attending school, engaged in youth and
school activities and being devoted to the Brooklyn Dodgers. His father was
stationed in the South Pacific in World War II and operated on land. Like so
many that slogged through the humid jungle, he came down with serious cases of
tropical diseases.
Increasingly finding it difficult to carry out
his work as a freelance writer, his father reached the point where he could no
longer earn a living. This put a severe strain on the family finances, yet as
Oliphant emphatically states, he never felt deprived.
Intertwined with the story of his life is the
history of the Brooklyn Dodgers, with a focus on their ability to win pennants
and lose in the World Series to the New York Yankees. Often in incredible ways.
No history of the Dodgers would be complete without some detailed coverage of
Branch Rickey and his move to sign Jackie Robinson and integrate baseball.
No sports book is complete without some form
of “big game at the end,” and that happens here as well. That event is the 1955
World Series, when the Dodgers were finally able to defeat the Yankees, touching
of celebrations throughout Brooklyn. Oliphant does a superb job in intertwining
his life, the characteristics of the Brooklyn populace and explaining the
background of the Dodger team in the first half of the decade of the fifties. He
covers the reasons for the departure of the Dodgers, pointing out that
attendance at Ebbets Field had declined and it was a dilapidated structure by
the time the Dodgers left. Oliphant even does a bit to come to the defense of
Walter O’Malley.
Although this is largely an autobiography of Oliphant,
a non-athlete, it is also a first rate sports book. The writing is superb and
some significant name-dropping is done. For example, Oliphant describes his
interactions with Arthur MacArthur, son of General Douglas MacArthur. He also
gives his impressions of the General’s personality. This is one of the best non-fiction
sports books of all time.
