Listen to the full interview via the podcast
In May 1957, baseball national league owners voted to allow the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Fifty-seven years on the legacy of that decision lives on and to find how both moves occurred and their long-lasting impact, we spoke to 'Forever Blue' author Michael D'Antonio.
"Baseball as an entity had an interest in getting west of the Mississippi. The game had been confined by the limit of train transport and scheduling and I think with the end of the Second World War and the advent of convenient and long-range aircraft, the league wanted to make the game truly national," said D'Antonio.
At that time, the Giants and Dodgers were operating from "crumbling ball parks" in Manhattan and Brooklyn according to D'Angelo which made them ripe for a change of scene from the point of view of the owners.
"You had local owners who were eager to increase their profits and find a solution to the stadium issues," said D'Antonio.
However the Dodgers stay in Brooklyn had incredibly strong ties with the local community.
"Back then I don't think there were leaders at the community level who knew how to campaign on behalf of keeping the Dodgers in the city," said D'Antonio, who also explained how mobilizing protest movements was difficult at the time, especially at a time when the borough of Brooklyn appeared to be in decline.
The view of the owner Walter O'Malley, who led the decision to move from Brooklyn, is "mixed" according to D'Antonio.
"He doesn't really get a pass," said D'Antonio, who added that "people did want to blame personally" and that many were very "hostile" towards him.
"There's a famous joke. If O'Malley and Hitler were in a boat and you had one bullet in your gun, who would you shoot? A lot people said O'Malley!"
However with time that "sentiment has declined" according to D'Antonio.
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