That Time The Brooklyn Dodgers Won The World Series

Tomorrow night, the Mets will take the field to battle the Kansas City Royals for the team’s first championship title since 1986. But 60 years ago, there was a different set of New York underdogs taking the field. In 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers made history by beating the New York Yankees in seven games to bring home the first and only World Series victory to Brooklyn.

Sports journalist David Krell says the team set low expectations from early on.

“There was an instance in the ’20s when three men were on one base, I don’t think that’s ever happened before,” Krell told MetroFocus Host Rafael Pi Roman. “So people would cry out, ‘aw dem bums, they don’t know what they’re doing’ in that whole Brooklyn-ese accent. But they were our bums.”

Krell, author of “Our Bums: The Brooklyn Dodgers in History, Memory and Popular Culture,” says the team turned around in the late 1940s when it was the first to break the color barrier.

“Jackie Robinson, of course, became a worldwide phenomenon. He stepped on to the field April 15, 1947 — baseball was never the same,” he said. “And they kept winning. They kept losing to the Yankees except for ’55, but they kept winning and they became a national brand because of that.”

But two years later in a widely controversial move, the Dodgers were relocated to Los Angeles, where they remain today.

“Our Bums” author Krell walks us through the legacy of the Dodgers and the mark they left on Brooklyn.