It's a Great Day for Brooklyn!

[Spirit of '55]

Friends:

I found this in the New York Times archives and wondered if anyone knows if the Left Coast Imposters appealed? :homeplate:


Historic Day at Bar: Dodger Stays in Brooklyn; Judge Says, Among Other Things, That Los Angeles Club Has No Good Name to Lose .

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: April 9, 1993

Nothing can heal the wound left when the Brooklyn Dodgers packed up their bats and balls and headed to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. But yesterday, Brooklyn got a small measure of revenge.

A Federal judge in Manhattan ruled that the Brooklyn Dodger Sports Bar and Restaurant could keep its name in the face of a legal effort by the Los Angeles Dodger organization to take even that shred of identity away from Brooklyn.

"It's a great day for Brooklyn," said Richard Picardi, an owner of the bar at 7509 Third Avenue in Bay Ridge. "Sometimes the little guy does win after all."
At the Brooklyn Dodger -- a medium-size bar decorated with Dodger memorabilia, including one of Jackie Robinson's bats -- emotions yesterday evening ranged from exhilaration to smugness. But just beneath the surface, the pain of "dem bums' " departure still seemed to sting. 'To the Third Generation'

"We were all hurt when they moved," said Frank Baratta, 55, a chauffeur who donated $50 to fight the case. "The name of this bar is very special."

"There's no reason why they should have the name," said George Mullaney, a bartender. "They left here."

The judge, Constance Baker Motley, agreed.

"Defendants testified that many of the patrons who frequent the Brooklyn Dodger are well aware of Los Angeles's now-infamous abandonment of the borough of Brooklyn and -- to the third generation since then -- remain bitter about it," she said in her ruling.

Judge Motley found that the Los Angeles Dodgers had made no effort for a quarter-century to protect the Brooklyn name, and added that the Brooklyn bar owners had promptly told the Califonia club they were using the name.

Loss of What Good Name?

She noted that the club, in conjunction with Major League Baseball Properties Inc., the big leagues' umbrella business group, waited 18 months after the notification before suing.

Any suggestion that they might have been trying to profit from the good name of the Los Angeles club was ludicrous, she concluded.

"Trading upon Los Angeles's 'good will' in Brooklyn would have been fatal to defendants because many Brooklynites despise the Los Angeles Dodgers," she wrote.

Robert Kheel, a lawyer for the Dodgers and the baseball leagues, said the Dodgers "obviously disapprove and disagree" with the decision, but said no decision had been made whether to appeal.

The case reflected an effort by the Dodgers and organized baseball to secure the tightest possible grip on sales of merchandise carrying team logos. That business grew from about $200 million in sales in 1986 to $2 billion in 1991, according to testimony at the trial.

The Brooklyn bar sells none of this merchandise, and even stopped giving away T-shirts with its own name after a previous judge in the case suggested such action might be prudent. It operates under the name only at the Bay Ridge site, although the owners ran bars under the Brooklyn Dodger name in Canarsie and Kensington that eventually closed.

The Dodgers' lawyer did not dispute Judge Motley's long description of the events leading to the suit. The bar first wanted to call itself the Ebbets Field Cafe, but a search of titles found that an establishment in Hicksville, L.I., already used this name. To avoid legal problems, the Brooklyn Dodger name was chosen -- a name that dates to the 1880's, when residents of Brooklyn had to dodge trolleys while crossing streets.

Trademark Idle for Decades

A search of trademarks in Washington indicated the name was not being used by anybody. Ronald Russo, the bar's lawyer, said this cost the Brooklyn Dodger about $500. He said his client then immediately wrote to Peter O'Malley, president of the Dodgers, to tell him he was honoring his team and to invite him by whenever he was in town to see the Mets.

The Dodgers then waited some 18 months to sue, a delay Mr. Russo said was crucial in his side's victory. Another factor was that the Dodgers had let the trademark go totally unused for nearly a quarter-century. The judge said the club's actions to license it several times in the mid-1980's were only "a relatively short time prior to the opening" of the bar.

Buy Bar Twice Over

Mr. Russo last night seemed proud, but amazed. He grew up and still lives in in Brooklyn, though he now travels to Manhattan, where he charges corporate clients $300 an hour. He estimates he could have bought the bar twice over had he received fees for his legal work on the case.

When the case started nearly three years ago, Mr. Russo said the Dodgers and the professional baseball had nine lawyers on hand. "I don't think they ever thought we would hang on," he said.

The lawyer's immediate plans were to visit a little bar in Brooklyn, perhaps sip a drink, and "remember when baseball still was a game."

[dodger dynamo]

I remember reading this and it did my heart good. thanks spirit of 55. battlin bake, the dodger dynamo

[Spirit of '55]

Friends:

The LA Times (that ersatz duplicate of the New York Times) ran this article on The Dybbuk's election to the Hall of Shame, er, Fame. Of course, LaGorda is back down on his knees :bowdown: before the House of O' still thanking Walter for giving him a job handling other men's, um, baseballs.

I notice that Junior O'Malley says that, "It took ten years to decide to move out of Brooklyn." Interesting. That means The Dybbuk was planning to take our Dodgers away as far back as 1947.

Hmmm. Anybody know what Branch Rickey died of, by the way?

Wow. Do they REALLY believe that The Dybbuk worked harder than anyone to keep the team in Brooklyn? Oh, good God! Can anyone here sing, "Oh Susannah" while I get out my shovel?

If New York City wasn't exactly falling all over itself to give us a new stadium, why didn't he do some grassroots organizing of the fans (that's us, folks) to put pressure on Mayor Wagner and Bob Moses? It would have worked. After all, Walter O' was smart enough to find Los Angeles on a map. The article says he paid for Traitors Stadium out of his own pin money. Hell, he could have bought enough land in Brooklyn to build us a new home. It all comes down to this:

HE DIDN'T WANT TO. :mad:



[http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-sp-omalley4dec04,1,1316816.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-sp-omalley4dec04,1,1316816.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true)

[musial6]

Friends:

The LA Times (that ersatz duplicate of the New York Times) ran this article on The Dybbuk's election to the Hall of Shame, er, Fame. Of course, LaGorda is back down on his knees :bowdown: before the House of O' still thanking Walter for giving him a job handling other men's, um, baseballs.

I notice that Junior O'Malley says that, "It took ten years to decide to move out of Brooklyn." Interesting. That means The Dybbuk was planning to take our Dodgers away as far back as 1947.

Hmmm. Anybody know what Branch Rickey died of, by the way?

Wow. Do they REALLY believe that The Dybbuk worked harder than anyone to keep the team in Brooklyn? Oh, good God! Can anyone here sing, "Oh Susannah" while I get out my shovel?

If New York City wasn't exactly falling all over itself to give us a new stadium, why didn't he do some grassroots organizing of the fans (that's us, folks) to put pressure on Mayor Wagner and Bob Moses? It would have worked. After all, Walter O' was smart enough to find Los Angeles on a map. The article says he paid for Traitors Stadium out of his own pin money. Hell, he could have bought enough land in Brooklyn to build us a new home. It all comes down to this:

HE DIDN'T WANT TO. :mad:



[http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-sp-omalley4dec04,1,1316816.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-sp-omalley4dec04,1,1316816.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true)


Rickey had a heart attack on November 13, 1965, while being inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He went into a coma immediately and died on December 9, 1965, at Boone County Memorial Hospital, Columbia, Missouri.

[Spirit of '55]

Thanks Musial---

Just as I suspected...a broken heart :(

[dodger dynamo]

you know something I'm no huge fan of peter o'malley after he sued the brooklyn dodger bar owner, but I bet the big O kept the little o in the dark like the rest of us and of course spoon fed him all of his propaganda. when his father died peter should have done something to improve his own image in brooklyn. instead he furtherd a legacy of the man many despise by ingnoring what was done to brooklyn and even tried to add to it. battlin bake, the dodger dynamo

[penncentralpete]

you know something I'm no huge fan of peter o'malley after he sued the brooklyn dodger bar owner, but I bet the big O kept the little o in the dark like the rest of us and of course spoon fed him all of his propaganda. when his father died peter should have done something to improve his own image in brooklyn. instead he furtherd a legacy of the man many despise by ingnoring what was done to brooklyn and even tried to add to it. battlin bake, the dodger dynamo

yeah, peter o'malley blew his chance. he merely continued the horrible ways of his daddy.

[xtimx]

that bar is a few blocks from my house. i remember all the crap revolving around that. its now called the salty dog. i always wondered why they changed the name after going through all that and winning.

[penncentralpete]

that bar is a few blocks from my house. i remember all the crap revolving around that. its now called the salty dog. i always wondered why they changed the name after going through all that and winning.

yeah, that's weird. did they sell??? have you been in there lately? any dodgers' stuff hanging up?

[aqib]

Rickey had a heart attack on November 13, 1965, while being inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He went into a coma immediately and died on December 9, 1965, at Boone County Memorial Hospital, Columbia, Missouri.

Branch Rickey is a native Ohioan (like Walter Alston), both are buried here in their home state.

I was at a politcal event earlier this year (I won't mention which party so as to not start that argument) but anyway the governor mentioned that this year was the 60th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson and LArry Doby (breaking he color barrier in the AL with the Indians) and that the guy who brought him up to the majors was also from Ohio. So he is still loved our here in his home state.

[penncentralpete]

Mr. Branch Rickey

[Spirit of '55]

Friends:

It doesn't surprise me that the owners of the Brooklyn Dodger Bar sold it after all the hoopla. Even though their Attorney Russo had apparently taken the case pro bono, so that it didn't cost them much money, the stress of the thing was probably enough to send them to the big batting cage---all the three thousand hours of high-pressure yaya that went on with the case itself probably caused arguments, slacked-off business management, maybe less customers---and if the Los Angeles Traitors were even making a peep about appealing to the higher court that would have been enough to call it quits. Representation in the Federal Circuit Court wouldn't have been a pro bono job, and neither would an appeal to the Supreme Court; and the Traitors certainly have the money to go all the way up that ladder.

Still, it's a great idea for a theme bar, and the use of the name is allowable. The irony is that the new owners could have kept the name without a problem.

It's just a damned shame that Petey Boy decided to be a %$@! and sue a little neighborhood watering hole 3,000 miles from Lost Angels just because the owners were nice enough to send him a standing invitation for a drink. Like father, like son. It just proves that it's always been just business to those two.

What I don't get is the letter that started it all. Why say you're "honoring" the Traitors at all? The Traitors aren't worthy of honor. And there's no honor among thieves anyway. What they were honoring was the BROOKLYN Dodgers, and that's a whole different thing. :homeplate:

[dodger dynamo]

I think today I'll remember and honor one of the greatest baseball minds of all time. Mr. branch Rickey. wish I could get a hold of branch Barrett rickey, branch's grandson. who by all accounts has done a terrific job in the pacific coast league. why no big league club has hired obviously another great base ball mind as a gm is beyond me. mccourt or any owner should consider this. I'd like to know if he'd be interested in the job?. BRANCH RICKEY THE REAL ARCHITECT OF THE GREAT DODGER TEAMS OF THE LATE 40'S AND 50'S. you know what does my heart good is the fact than when he was forced out he left with a nice chunk of o'malley's money. way to go mahatma! that would be a nice chant at coopers town. shouting RICKEY! very loudly every time they mention o'malley. battlin bake, the dodger dynamo

[Mattingly]

I happened across this Jan 7, 1997 article from the Times about the restaurant:

Brooklyn Has a Reason To Smirk (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2DF1039F934A35752C0A9619582 60)
AN O'Malley put a ''for sale'' sign on the Dodgers yesterday -- 40 years too late for Brooklyn.

But from Flatbush to Bensonhurst, from Red Hook to Coney Island, anyone who remembered how the late Walter O'Malley hijacked the Dodgers to Los Angeles after the 1957 season had to be smirking when they learned of the devotion of his son, Peter O'Malley, to the Los Angeles community.

Asked about the possibility of international buyers, Peter O'Malley never hesitated.

''Commitment to community, to Los Angeles and to Southern California is the No. 1 priority,'' the Dodgers' president said. ''The franchise has meant so much to so many people in this community for so long.''

Once upon a time the same Dodger franchise meant so much to so many people in another community for so long, too -- Brooklyn.
But when Walter O'Malley hurried to Los Angeles and persuaded his accomplice, Horace Stoneham, to take the New York Giants to San Francisco, people realized that baseball was a business, not a game. That if there was more money to be made elsewhere, Walter O'Malley wanted to make it. That the community that had supported the Dodgers for so long suddenly no longer mattered.

It's a philosophy that Al Davis and Art Modell, who both grew up in Brooklyn then, would later use to justify bouncing National Football League clubs from one city to another.

Now, ironically, baseball is such a big business, Peter O'Malley acknowledged that ''estate planning'' was ''probably the best reason'' why the franchise was now on the market.

The guess here is that the Dodgers will sell for at least $350 million, a price that would include Dodger Stadium as well as the club's real estate in Vero Beach, Fla., and the Dominican Republic. Peter O'Malley, however, was talking about family estate planning, primarily inheritance taxes.

But in Brooklyn they remember the Dodgers' hallowed real estate, Ebbets Field, where red-brick apartment houses now testify to Walter O'Malley's departure.

Now there's only one ''Brooklyn Dodger'' left in Brooklyn, a restaurant and bar by that revered name on Third Avenue at 75th Street in Bay Ridge not far from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. And late yesterday afternoon one of its owners, Richard Picardi, talked about Peter O'Malley's announcement.

''We're still here,'' Picardi said, ''but Goliath is leaving.''

All around the ''Brooklyn Dodger'' are framed reminders of another Brooklyn when Ebbets Field was baseball's best ball park, when Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Preacher Roe and Clem Labine wore those creamy white uniforms with ''Dodgers'' in blue script across the chest and blue caps with a white ''B'' on them.

In those years, Walter O'Malley's home was in Amityville, L.I., but earlier he had lived on Maple Street in Flatbush.

''After the Dodgers left,'' Picardi said, ''my father drove me down Maple Street one day, pointed to a house and said, 'Richie, that's where that bum lived.' My father had a box seat at Ebbets Field. My father never forgave Walter O'Malley.''

In Brooklyn not many, if any, forgave Walter O'Malley for abandoning the community. And at the Brooklyn Dodger restaurant they haven't forgiven Peter O'Malley, either.

''When we opened 10 years ago,'' Picard said, ''we got a letter from Peter O'Malley wishing us good luck, but a year later we got another letter that the Dodgers were suing us for using the name. Two or three years ago they finally dropped the suit.''

And now Peter O'Malley has put his own ''for sale'' sign on the last of baseball's family-owned franchises.

''Family ownership is probably a dying breed,'' O'Malley said. ''It's as high risk as the oil business. You need a broader base than a family.''

Peter O'Malley has only his father to blame for making the first move that turned the perception of baseball from a game to a business that is now a risky business ever since free agency allowed players to do what owners such as Walter O'Malley had done: move from one community to another.

And now, 40 years too late, the Dodgers are for sale. Brooklyn is smirking.

[DODGER DEB]

I happened across this Jan 7, 1997 article from the Times about the restaurant:

Brooklyn Has a Reason To Smirk (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2DF1039F934A35752C0A9619582 60)

Thanks for reminding me of this article, Matt, and for posting it for all BROOKLYN DODGER FANS here on OUR forum whohave never read it.

What goes around, comes around. Those words will ring more true in the months to come.

c.

[Spirit of '55]

Friends:

I got a treat last night!

My Dad, who has dementia, turned 79 last week. I bought us both Brooklyn Dodgers caps to celebrate his birthday---my Dad loves ballcaps and hasn't not worn one in years.

Living in South Florida, the cap has attracted a lot of attention. My Mom was telling me last night that she is simply AMAZED how many old neighborhood Brooklynites come up to my Dad and start talking about the Dodgers with him, congratulate him, and want to know where to get a hat like his.

Considering they live in Retirement Central I'm surprised that she's surprised.

I stopped off to visit them last night and my Dad launched into a wonderful reminiscence of the first ballgame he ever saw. He came from Europe after WWII, arriving here on January 1, 1947. His first ballgame was at Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947---Jackie Robinson's debut.

I was stunned as he began recounting in detail not only the game but the fact that he'd brown-bagged his own salami sandwich, and how he was shoulder-to-shoulder with all these nice people---"It was like being in my own living room. It was a baseball game in your lap."

It was a blast to hear him talk about the first day crowd's reaction to Jackie, which, he says, was very ordinary---"Yeah, yeah, but can he play ball? is all I care about."

My Mom contributed by giving me the names of every player on the 1955 team and their field position. "What's this? You know this?"

"It's my team!" she snorted.

This from people who haven't looked at a sports page since I've known them. Dementia's terrible. It's great that he remembers Number 42. I just wish he could remember where he lives when he wanders off. :sorry:

[Todd Anderson]

Bless yer heart, Spirit. My mom suffered from Alzheimers for four years before passing on a couple of years ago. I can relate to your journey and give you high praise for your involvement in your parents golden years.

Two quick things:

!. My mom would recognize my "Brooklyn" hat when I'd visit her. She could relive those days spent living there during my dad's brief stint as a catcher. I was astounded how some things like that were still remained in her memory for so long!

2. I was on a tram-ride that was taking folks from the parking area into Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. This happened about a year ago.

I was wearing my Brooklyn ball hat when a guy said, "Hey, that's a Brooklyn hat! Don't see those much anymore."
I asked the man how he knew about it—if he lived in New York.
He said, "No my dad played for 'em."
I replied, "You're kidding? My dad did, TOO!"
(The whole tram perked up listening to us.)
"Who was your dad?" I asked him.
"My dad was Mickey Owen—a catcher for Brooklyn."
"MICKEY OWEN?" Holy cow!," I shouted. "YOUR dad jumped to the Mexican league in 1946, which gave my dad a chance to become the starting catcher for Brooklyn that same year!"
We had a great conversation. It was amazing! And to think, we would have never met...if it weren't for that HAT! I wear that puppy all the time now! haha

Sorry to ramble. Just thought you'd get a kick outta that.
Best wishes,
Todd (Anderson)
Andy's #3 son

[Spirit of '55]

Dear Todd:

Thanks for the memories! Those are great stories.

You know, the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that someday the team will return to Brooklyn. After all, the salmon always swim upstream and the swallows come back to Capistrano.

We inherit tales of Ebbets Field.

Even today, young Brooklynites remember the Dodgers. It isn't just us and ours. Like the Sox beating out the Yanks, there's a kind of cosmic inevitability to it.

Someday. Sooner than we think. And in anticipation, I'll keep my hat on :reporter:

[dodger dynamo]

I so feel that way to. battlin bake the dodger dynamo. fellas just great stuff. battlin bake, the dodger dynamo

[Ralph Zig Tyko]

Hey dd, just wanted to thank you for recognizing the greatness that was Mr. Rickey. As you know, he was also the father of the farm system, built the Cardinals [before th Dodgers], the Pirates after he left Brooklyn. consulted for the '64 Cardinals and started the Continental League [which let to expansion and the return of NL baseball in NY].

[dodger dynamo]

rzt he sure was a great baseball man. still you know because he was ousted before most of the championships he has been overlooked by many in baseball. the dodgers all but tried to erase him from their history along with carl furillo after o'malley took over. It's a disgrace, a sad pitiful disgrace. battlin bake, the dodger dynamo

[Ralph Zig Tyko]

Many things are, dd. Too many.