Brooklyn Dodgers | Baseball History Comes Alive

Let’s Remember Gil Hodges on the One Hundredth Anniversary of His Birth!

Let's take a moment to remember this fine ball player on the one-hundredth anniversary of his birth this week, April 4, 1924, with a few words about his outstanding career...

Posted on: April 3, 2024
By: Gary Livacari
With: 10 Comments

Dodgertown Opens March 23, 1951!

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Posted on: March 24, 2024
By: Gary Livacari
With: 2 Comments

The Shot BEFORE the Shot Heard ‘Round the World!

Today we welcome back Matt Kastel with an interesting account of a tragic incident that occurred at the Polo grounds on July Fourth, 1950. This is something I had never heard of before. Many years later, it's still painful to read about what happened to a fan casually sitting in the stands and enjoying a ball game...

Posted on: February 14, 2024
By: Gary Livacari
With: 5 Comments

“42” MOVIE REVIEW

Today we welcome back Bill Schaefer with an interesting "review of a review." Bill analyzes Boston Globe sportswriter Bob Ryan's "take" of the movie "42," written in 2013. Bill then adds his own comments as he goes along. Read Bill's essay, and see if you agree with Bob Ryan and/or Bill Schaefer!...

Posted on: February 7, 2024
By: Gary Livacari
With: 11 Comments

Don Newcombe Retires, January 19, 1961

This past Friday, January 19, 2024 was the sixty-first anniversary of Don Newcombe’s release from the Indians, bringing to a close his remarkable twelve-year major league career...

Posted on: January 21, 2024
By: Gary Livacari
With: 6 Comments

Another First for Jackie Robinson!

“The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.” -Jackie Robinson...

Posted on: November 18, 2023
By: Gary Livacari
With: 6 Comments

Let’s Revisit the 1941 World Series…and the Mickey Owen Passed Ball!

“That was a tough break for Mickey to get. I bet he feels like a nickel’s worth of dog meat!” –Yankee Tommy Henrich, the beneficiary of Mickey Owen’s passed ball...

Posted on: October 5, 2023
By: Gary Livacari
With: 7 Comments

Joe “Ducky” Medwick Beaned and Nearly Killed, June 18, 1940

"When he dies, half the National League will go to his wake just to make sure that S-O-B is dead." –Unknown former teammate, speaking of Joe Medwick...

Posted on: June 17, 2023
By: Gary Livacari
With: 7 Comments

On Being Obsessed with the Brooklyn Dodgers!

I've got a real treat for everyone today. Michael Tymn returns and shares with us reminisces from his early years as a Dodger fan in the late 1940s, seventy-five years ago....

Posted on: February 17, 2023
By: Gary Livacari
With: 17 Comments

THE SHOT HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD (THAT ALMOST WASN’T)

Today we welcome back Bill Schaefer with an interesting account of the 1951 game between the Dodgers and Phillies that necessitated the three-game playoff series between the Dodgers and Giants...

Posted on: February 4, 2023
By: Gary Livacari
With: 16 Comments

Michael Keedy’s Top Ten Greatest World Series Catches, Number One: Sandy Amoros and the 1955 World Series!

We've finally reached the culmination of Michael Keedy's Top Ten Greatest World Series Catches...

Posted on: December 23, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 19 Comments

Do You Have A Funny Caption For This Photo?

I thought it might be fun to start a new ongoing series that I'm calling: "Do You Have A Caption For This Photo?" I'll be asking you guys for help. If you stumble on to a baseball photo that we could have some fun with coming up with a humorous caption, please send the photo to me at: Livac2@aol.com...

Posted on: November 17, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 14 Comments

Let’s Recall the Classic 1955 World Series!

"The Yankee Stadium clock reads 3:45 on Tuesday, October 4, 1955, freezing for all time the greatest single moment in Brooklyn Dodger history."...

Posted on: November 4, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 11 Comments

Giants’ Manager Bill Terry Learns A Lesson – the Hard Way!

You’ve heard the old saying: “Hell hath no fury like a scorned woman”? Well, it applies in spades to scorned baseball fans!...

Posted on: September 10, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 6 Comments

Let’s Remember Two Baseball Immortals: Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson!

"Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game." -Branch Rickey...

Posted on: August 27, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 8 Comments

Tribute to Vin Scully, RIP August 2, 2022

Today, the entire baseball world is saddened to learn that legendary Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully passed away yesterday at age 94 at his home in Hidden Hills, Califormia...

Posted on: August 3, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 15 Comments

“Out! By a Country Mile!” Campy Sends Billy Martin Airborne!

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Posted on: March 27, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 10 Comments

Another Edition of Baseball’s Forgotten Stars: “Pistol” Pete Reiser

He was known as Pistol Pete to friends and family after the cowboy movie hero, “Two-Gun Pete.”...

Posted on: March 23, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 16 Comments

Talk About Obscure! Casey Sengel’s 1939 Boston Bees!

Not as well known is that Casey Stengel's earlier career as a manager wasn’t always so successful. As a matter of fact, it was downright dismal...

Posted on: March 12, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 9 Comments

We’re Contacted by Acquaintance of Brooklyn Dodger Great, Preacher Roe, Part Two

"Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you!” –Preacher Roe, commenting after once being taken out of a game in the second inning...

Posted on: January 30, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 5 Comments

We’re Contacted By An Acquaintance of Brooklyn Dodger Great, Preacher Roe! (Part One)

“The Preach was a master of his craft. He was a smart control pitcher with a phenomenal sense of timing.” -Teammate Carl Erskine...

Posted on: January 25, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 10 Comments

Tommy Lasorda’s “Wild” First Major League Inning (And I Do Mean Wild!)

“I bleed Dodger Blue…and when I die I’m going to the Big Dodger in the sky!” –Tommy Lasorda...

Posted on: January 16, 2022
By: Gary Livacari
With: 15 Comments

It Happened! Thank you for your support! Gil’s In!

I'm sure by now you are all aware that, yes, indeed, Gil Hodges will now have a well-deserved spot Cooperstown!...

Posted on: December 5, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 11 Comments

New Blog Topic: Update For All Of You Who Signed the Gil Hodges Petition!

If you're one of the nearly 800 readers who have signed the petition thus far in support of Gil Hodges' enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, you'll be interested in hearing this bit of news...

Posted on: November 9, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 5 Comments

Last Chance To Sign Petition In Support of Gil Hodges for the Hall of Fame!

"Gil Hodges was a great player but an even greater man." - Duke Snider...

Posted on: October 29, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 4 Comments

EDDIE STANKY: “THE BRAT”!

Today we welcome back Bill Schaefer with an interesting essay detailing the career of The Brat, Eddie Stanky

Posted on: September 10, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 3 Comments

Baseball “Babes,” Part Six: Ballplayer-Turned-Umpire, Babe Pinelli!

“Kill the SOB, Carl! Kill ’em!”- Umpire Babe Pinelli to Carl Furillo, who had Dodger manager Leo Durocher in a chokehold during an on-field melee in 1953...

Posted on: July 17, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 10 Comments

We’re Contacted By “Acquaintance” of 1930s-40s Star Dolph Camilli!

“Dolph Camilli was a quiet, gentle man but he was as strong as an ox. Nobody knew how well Dolph could fight because, quite frankly, nobody had ever wanted to find out”...

Posted on: July 15, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 10 Comments

Baseball “Babes,” Part Five! A Trade of the “Babes”: Babe Dahlgren for Babe Phelps!

In recent days, I’ve written about Babe Ruth, Babe Dahlgren, Babe Herman, and Babe Adams. I thought I’d go for a “clean sweep” with a few words about another “Babe,” Babe Phelps...

Posted on: July 11, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 3 Comments

Another Baseball “Babe”: Babe Herman!

Dubbed “The Headless Horseman of Ebbets Field” by Dazzy Vance for his various base running misadventures, Herman was one of the great power hitters of the 1930s..

Posted on: July 6, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 11 Comments

Baseball’s Version of “The Thrill of Victory…and The Agony of Defeat!” Part Two

Here’s the "flipside" to one of the most memorable days in baseball history: Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard Round the World” at the Polo Grounds in 1951...

Posted on: June 18, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 3 Comments

Ballplayers and Their Children, Part I

Today, I’m reintroducing a series I started a few years ago, which at the time I called Ballplayers and their Children.

Posted on: February 6, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 2 Comments

Tommy Lasorda, RIP

“I bleed Dodger Blue…and when I die I’m going to the Big Dodger in the sky!” –Tommy Lasorda...

Posted on: January 8, 2021
By: Gary Livacari
With: 4 Comments

Another in the Series: Baseball’s Characters and Eccentrics – The Brooklyn “Sym-Phony” Band!

“Sometimes the band sounds like a herd of elephants with whooping cough,” -Murray Schumach. New York Times, 1947...

Posted on: December 16, 2020
By: Gary Livacari
With: 14 Comments

SNAP SHOTS FROM A GIANTS FAN, THROUGH A SURREAL SEASON

Time To Put Your Thinking Caps On! Here's a picture of Babe Ruth as a Boston Brave with a bunch of players in Red Sox uniforms. It’s from the Boston Public Library Leslie Jones collection...

Posted on: May 5, 2020
By: Gary Livacari
With: 6 Comments

Dodgertown Opens March 31, 1948!

“It was like walking on hallowed ground." -Reid Wilkinson, a senior at Norfolk Collegiate School in Virginia, who played ball in Dodgertown...

Posted on: April 5, 2020
By: Gary Livacari
With: 2 Comments

Baseball’s Forgotten Stars! Jim “Junior” Gilliam

While not a Hall-of-Famer, Gilliam was a clutch performer who had a fine career. It included membership, as either a player or coach, on ten Dodger pennant winners and four World Series championships...

Posted on: March 14, 2020
By: Gary Livacari
With: 7 Comments

Norman Rockwell and Baseball, Part Two: The Three Umpires

The best known of Norman Rockwell’s baseball-themed paintings is probably his 1948, The Three Umpires, which appeared on the April 23, 1949 cover of The Saturday Evening Post...

Posted on: February 8, 2020
By: Gary Livacari
With: 4 Comments

Let’s Recall Don Larsen’s “Perfect Game” Opponent, Sal “The Barber” Maglie

(Written at the time of the passing of Don Larsen in January 2020) With the passing of Don Larsen this week, the focus of the baseball world has understandably been on the Perfect Game gem he tossed for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series...

Posted on: January 3, 2020
By: Gary Livacari
With: 1 Comment

HOFer Max Carey: One Of The Greatest Base Stealers Ever!

“Stealing bases is the art of picking up little things – things like a spitball pitcher who never threw to first if he was going to throw a spitter to the plate.” – Max Carey

Posted on: December 14, 2019
By: Gary Livacari
With: 0 Comments