Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers

Tom Oliphant has written a heartwarming book about Brooklyn circa 1940-1955. I am 72 years old and have lived in California for 48 years. I came here with the Dodgers. I grew up in the Williamsburg section of Bklyn in a poor working class family. I must admit the book while not a comprehensive history brought tears to my eyes as I read it. I especially enjoyed the era 1940-1950 which Mr Oliphant uses as historical background for the 1955 World Series. The names of those lesser known ballplayers had my mind going back in time. This is a book to be savoured. Len Mishkin-Sherman Oaks Calif

if you listened to my father and assorted uncles and aunts and neighborhood adults, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Walter O'Malley. This ironic jest (at least I think it was intended to be funny) is usually attributed, as it is in this book, to New York journalists Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield. That may be, but the expression must have enjoyed wide currency throughout Brooklyn in the years after the Dodgers fled Brooklyn for California. I grew up a devoted Met fan but never could quite understand the fierce devotion these adults had for a long gone team. Thomas Oliphant's "Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers" goes a long way toward explaining why the universe, in Brooklyn at least, revolved around the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers. "Praying for Gil Hodges" is something of an etude in three parts. The foundation of the book is a detailed inning-by-inning account of the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, the one time Brooklyn managed to beat the Yankees. The Yankees had won every World Series from 1949 through 1953, beating strong Dodger teams in 1949, 1952, and 1953. Oliphant wraps two related stories around the seventh game: the story of the role the Dodgers played in his own family; and the story of the intimate relationship between the Dodgers and their fans in Brooklyn. Oliphant's account of the seventh game (and critical games in the 1955 and earlier World Series defeats) is at once vibrant and concise. It is clear Oliphant has had a long term love affair with baseball and it shows in the details. Although anyone reading the book probably knows the outcome of the game, there is no shortage of excitement in the retelling. Oliphant's story of how the Dodger's played a central role in his family's life and the impact the Dodgers had on the people of Brooklyn are also fascinating. Some earlier reviews imply that there is an element of political correctness in this book, perhaps because Oliphant is unstinting in his evaluation of the impact on baseball and America by the arrival of Jackie Robinson. Oliphant also pointed out that the Dodgers did not sign Robinson as a token. They sought out the best ball players they could no matter what color. As a result, Robinson was joined by Campanella, Amoros, Gilliam, and Newcombe and formed what must be considered the first truly integrated team in American sports. Oliphant is correct in asserting that the Dodgers were at least a decade ahead of their time in this respect. More importantly these players helped create the team that finally beat the pinstriped Yankees. This is not a matter of political correctness as much as it is a matter of the actual historical record. Oliphant does try to restore a bit of O'Malley's reputation by noting that New York's great power broker Robert Moses quashed every plan O'Malley had for building a new stadium in Brooklyn. Moses was a person for whom my family heaped almost as much scorn

Mr. Oliphant's pinpoint memory recalls the joy of baseball long before the steroid scandal of today's game. Priceless are his interviews with the players still living, such as pitcher Johnny Podres. The author blends poignant interaction with family members into the history of the '55 World Series, and we learn of his family's struggle during those times. Also fascinating are the famous persons Oliphant met as a boy, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and actor Yul Brynner. Good, clear writing makes this book a breeze to read.

Having just read Oliphant's book, I was amused by these last two reviews. An editing error or two, the many reminders of the writer's romance with Brooklyn -- so what! These and the other occurances cited are dwarfed by the writer's lyrical account of a changing Brooklyn in the 1950s. For a Bronx (not Brooklyn) boy who lived for everything NY Yankees, and who shares no particular love for the beloved Democratic Party of the author's parents, Oliphant managed to make this book a must read for me and for all those lucky enough to understand that New York was then, and continues to be, the greatest symbol of urban America in the 20th Century. Olpihant may not be the first to tell this story, but he's certainly among the very best.

Never really read much about baseball, but this book is accessible to the layman as it is satisfying to the expert. I have read this columnists writing before, but I was amazed and touched at this heartwarming look at a closeknit NY family going through a truly American experience...the victory of the team they loved and rooted for. I would reccomend it to American History fans, baseball fans, New york city fans, and of course the die hard fans of the Epic Brooklyn Dodgers. Tom Oliphant really does provide human access to this amazing period in the 1950s history of America (Via New York) and a really gripping look at the 7th game of the World Series that had me me glued to the book even though I knew the outcome...and what portraits of the heros on the team!!