Baseball Goes West: The Dodgers, the Giants, and the Shaping of the Major Leagues

Following the 1957 season, two of baseball’s most famous teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants,left the city they had called home since the 19th century and headed west. The Dodgers went to Los Angeles and the Giants to San Francisco. Those events have entered baseball lore, and indeed the larger culture, as acts of betrayal committed by greedy owners Walter O’Malley of the Dodgers and Horace Stoneham of the Giants. The departure of these two teams, but especially the Dodgers,...