Dodgers lose battle, Brooklyn loses war

JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY - The Brooklyn Dodgers lost in extra innings to the Philadelphia Phillies on this date in baseball history (1957), but Brooklyn stood to lose more than just a game. Don Drysdale pitched all 12 innings for the Dodgers, but lost to three Phillie pitchers 3-2.

The contest was played in Jersey City, New Jersey, the last of fourteen games Dodger owner Walter O'Malley scheduled at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City the last two years. Despite a crowd of only 10,190 on this day the Dodgers averaged more than 21,000 across the Hudson River. They averaged only 15,000 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. This gave Dodger owner Walter O'Malley encouragement that he could draw crowds west of Brooklyn. After the 1957 season he announced the Dodgers were moving, but a lot farther west - Los Angeles.

Walter O'Malley is a villain to many for moving the beloved Dodgers out of Brooklyn, but there is also the view that O'Malley tried for years to buy land in Brooklyn to build a park to replace Ebbets Field but ran into political roadblocks.

Contributing sources:
September 3, 1957 box score & play-by-play

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