The Dodgers Encyclopedia

by William F. McNeil

The Dodgers Encyclopedia: Second Edition is the definitive book on Los Angeles and Brooklyn Dodgers baseball. It traces the history of one of Major League Baseball's most successful organizations, from the misty beginnings of its predecessors in rural Brooklyn more than 140 years ago, through their formative years in the major leagues, as a member of the American Association from 1884 through 1889, to a full-fledged representative of the National League since 1890. It covers the exciting and often zany years in Brooklyn through 1957, as well as a long and successful sojourn in Southern California during the last half of the 20th century and the first part of the new millennium (2002).

Genres: Sports

472 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[Nic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given that I love the Dodgers with a passion, this sort of book is right in my wheelhouse. However, some editorial errors did impede my enjoyment. I’m always surprised how such glaring mistakes can make it past editors.

I realize that this book was published over 7 years ago, so I’m looking at some of the author’s statements with the benefit of knowledge he didn’t yet have. Even so, his understating of Frank McCourt’s disastrous ownership sort of shows a lack of knowledge of the painful years we Dodgers fans spent in total misery. Miserly Frank McCourt was one of the very worst things ever to happen to the Dodgers, he and Selig approached the definition of team ownership from seemingly opposite directions yet both aided in the dismantling of what was once an entire team (to this day, that greasy weasel McCourt’s clutches are still there as he still owns bits of the team that he purposely fractured. i.e. the land below the parking lots). There is much to say about this disastrous experiment, but it certainly isn’t touched on much in this book. Also, hailing Mattingly as a genius manager is... well, naive (he was an average manager who followed in tired old Torre’s footsteps just a little too closely.) There are several portions that are stat driven rather than fact driven (at least to this Dodgers fan’s mind) and would probably only be noticed by fans who’ve trudged along side the Dodgers game in and game out and seen the players/managers beyond the stats.

All that being said, I’ll always love reading about the Dodgers. I just wish this was a little better written, but I suppose you can’t have everything.