So why did the Dodgers and Giants leave New York after 1957, when in fact they were making money hand over fist?
The reason was that, like so many sports owners of the times—like so many American of all stripes—they believed that big, old Eastern cities were doomed.
Stoneham, O’Malley, and their surrogates had muttered quietly for years about how the neighborhoods around the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field were “deteriorating.” They had, to be sure, seen better days. But city crime levels were only about what they are now, far from the levels they would reach in the 1970s and ’80s.
What they were really talking about—and not always so quietly—was race. They didn’t like how much more Black and Hispanic their neighborhoods and their fans were becoming.
This was the mentality that led to all sorts of teams making crazy moves in the 1950s-'70s. The Braves went from seedy, dilapidated Boston to Milwaukee (and then Atlanta); the Athletics from Philadelphia to Kansas City, then Oakland. The St. Louis Browns to Baltimore, the Senators from Washington to the Twin Cities.
The Giants did this even as an entire phalanx of outstanding Black and Hispanic players was coming up—Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Bill White, the Alou brothers (see above)—but they didn’t much care. They wanted well-off white fans, driving their cars to suburban parking lots.
“If we don’t get out of New York, we’re going to lose money and all the good cities will be gone,” Horace Stoneham told his executive board.
He also promised that the Giants “will double our present radio and television income” in San Francisco—showing that he stilllll didn’t get how that whole broadcasting-ad-revenue-thing worked.
So they left. Robert Moses sneered publicly at their departure. And sure enough, he had his all-purpose ballpark up and running in Flushing by 1964, with a baseball and a football team to fill it.
But Stoneham and O’Malley had walked off with something much more valuable than their ball clubs. They had stolen a big chunk of New York’s self-confidence, and the city had internalized their lack of faith. Could it be true? Could New York really be doomed??
Posts
8 comments:
It would get worse before it got better. Much as I sometimes want to leave New York, I will never trash it and I will be in New York forever. If it keeps going this way, I will have lived my whole life here, but I’m not about to commit to that yet. What am I saying? I’m saying fuck everybody else, New York is forever. One of the great headlines of all time was in the news when they said “forward to New York City, drop dead.”
And if you have to choose another motto for the city besides whatever it is now, it could well be “fuck off.“ I remember during the first half of 2020, when all the pundits, most of them under the age of 30, were saying that “New York is done.“ New York is never done. They were the first ones to come back from living with their parents during Covid and they are the reason that rents have skyrocketed. They are morons. They were wrong. It’s those of us who stuck it out in the 70s and 80s, was talking those of us who watched the towers go down, those of us who stuck around during the five days of darkness downtown after hurricane Sandy while everybody else fled uptown. No offense to you uptown. New Yorkers are tough. I remember after the first day or two when the twin towers went down. I was freaked out at first and then I had to epiphany: we’re too big to destroy. They might get part of us, but they can’t destroy us. I have never worried about New York or it’s ability to reinvent itself. am I sick of the current hyper gentrification? Yes, But I’m too tired to go into it now.
Please excuse the typos. I am dictating this into my bullshit machine. I love New York. You can burn us down, but we will come right back. Just ask the British.
I really have to proof my posts, but when I’m walking around, I’m tired and busy. Maybe I’ll go copy it and correct it and paste it again. Maybe I will not hit this thread again
13 - Well said sir.
Hoss - As always.
Mr. bit,
As a hillbilly yankee fan, and also a lover of the greatest city in the world, I believe you have eloquently related the inner spirit of NYC. I'm reminded of some interwebs comments after 9-11 -- "you think you're crazy m******f*****r?, you've obviously never been here. Watch us!"
Hoss, I only went to the Flushing park once -- to steal the press gate sign, we used it to clean stems and seeds in a degenerate fraternity (I mean that in a somewhat good way) in St. Botolph's town. We were sent to NYC to collect souvenirs -- I still have the yellow 42nd St. sign, it's in my garage. The Flushing toilet holds a special place in my memories for that and one other reason.
You go, Bitty! I feel much the same—mad as I get at the city these days. ("Really? We're going to drive all the small shops out of business?")
And speaking of the British, London and New York were the greatest world cities 125 years ago. Today, even with all their problems and all they've been through...they are again.
The whole Big East came back, in fact: Washington, Philly, Boston, and New York are, once again, dynamic, world-class cities. The Senators, Athletics, Braves, Dodgers, and Giants can suck it.
lovely thread
Michael King has an ERA of 2.55 or thereabouts in his last 15 starts. That one is going to haunt us, even if we keep Soto, which I doubt.
New York is basically it, imo. I could live in a lot of places, and will likely have to leave at some point just because I won't be able to afford NYC anymore. But this will always be home.
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
Post a Comment