HBO builds bridge to Brooklyn
HBO has seen to it that there will be baseball of the highest quality tomorrow, even on the off day after the All-Star Game. That's because the pay channel will offer the latest in its series of moving documentaries, "Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush,'' premiering at 8 p.m. with re-airings throughout the month.
The two-hour documentary, split into two parts, concentrates on the years from 1947 to 1957, the last 10 years the Dodgers were in Brooklyn before the wrenching move west to Los Angeles. The documentary uses archival footage from the era and interviews with famous Brooklyn residents.
The program marvelously lays out the heartbreaking on-field losses the Dodgers suffered at the hands of the Yankees, as well as the wrenching details of Jackie Robinson's struggles as the first black Major Leaguer and the mechanics of how owner Walter O'Malley took the team west, essentially ripping the heart out of the borough.
Once again, HBO proves that it is the winner and still champion of sports documentaries with "Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush."

