HBO To Debut Documentary On Dodgers’ Brooklyn Departure

HBO on Wednesday at 8:00pm ET will air a two-hour documentary titled “Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush,” which tells the story of what led to the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn, according to Larry Stewart of the L.A. TIMES.  There is no baseball that night because of the All-Star break.  The film focuses on a period from ’47, the year Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, to ’57, the Dodgers’ last season in Brooklyn.  This year marks the 60th and 50th anniversaries of those events.  Details of the “rifts” between the late Walter O’Malley and Branch Rickey, who O'Malley bought out in '50 to become majority owner of the Dodgers, are included in the film.  It is noted in the film that O’Malley thought Rickey “got all the credit for signing [Robinson] even though O’Malley also was involved” (L.A. TIMES, 7/6).  The VENTURA COUNTRY STAR’s Jim Carlisle writes the film is “very good … but it has a dark feel to it, which I thought was overdone and unnecessary” (VENTURA COUNTY STAR, 7/6).