Today on the blog I
thought it’d be fun (yet still painful for many here in the NYC area) to
create a 1978 “Turn Back the Clock” card celebrating the debut of West
Coast baseball in the Major Leagues, with
the sudden departure of both the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers
from the New York metropolitan area over the off-season:
As we
all know by know, after failed negotiations with the city and state for
new and improved “modern” ballparks, the owners of both much-loved New
York City National League teams agreed to take
the organizations West, the Giants to San Francisco and the Dodgers to
Los Angeles, leaving a HUGE hole in the hearts of many.
Both
teams did flourish in their new digs, becoming powerhouses with stars
like Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax, Willie McCovey et. Al,
lending the aura of the West Coast an even larger
presence in American culture through the early-70’s.
On April 15th,
1958, the Dodgers squared off against the Giants, with San Francisco
winning the game 8-0 on a Ruben Gomez shutout, in the very first game
played on the West Coast in
Major League history, played at Seal’s Stadium in San Francisco.
I can’t
even imagine what this must have been like for Dodger and Giant fans
here on the East Coast, crushed by the reality of their teams now
located over 3000 miles away.