Review of "The Giants and the Dodgers: The Fabulous Story of Baseball’s Fiercest Feud," by Lee Allen

Review of

The Giants and the Dodgers: The Fabulous Story of Baseball’s Fiercest Feud, by Lee Allen


Five out of five stars

 Depending on how their status as political entities are defined, Brooklyn the previous home of the Dodgers baseball team and Upper Manhattan, the location of the home field of the New York Giants, the two teams were either cross-town rivals or neighboring town rivals. In whatever way you define them, the key point is that they were rivals. So intense was the hostility, a season where one team won the majority of the games between them was always considered a success independent of their position in the final standings.

 This book takes the reader back to the beginning, 1889 to be precise, when the Giants of the National League faced off against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms of the American Association in what was a precursor to the playoff we now know as the World Series. Eventually the Brooklyn team became known as the Dodgers and both of them were in the National League. Therefore, every year they played each other many times and were fighting for the same prize, the National League pennant.

 A great deal of the undercurrents of the teams is described, from the ownership issues to those of managers, coaches, the stars and the less known and even otherwise insignificant players. There is little in the way of exciting renditions of the most significant games, the book is essentially a factual recapitulation of the events. It is a history of the teams and their interactions, a look deep into the events that made the rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers the foremost one in sports for so many years.