October 1957, Brooklyn
It has been almost half a century since property developer Walter O'Malley did the unthinkable by moving the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles, but many baseball fans still haven't recovered. The Dodgers, who had been in Brooklyn since 1890 and had beaten the Yankees in the World Series two years earlier, had come to symbolise the hopes and dreams of a diverse, working-class borough. Cheering on the Dodgers was not only a way to show hometown pride. It was a political statement, ever since Jackie Robinson had joined the team in 1947, becoming the first African-American to play in the major leagues.
When the Dodgers left town, it was a watershed moment in American professional sports, when business concerns trumped sentiment. Older New Yorkers will still tell you that they agree with the great newspaper columnists Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield, who argued that the three most evil people of the 20th century were, in no particular order, Hitler, Stalin and Walter O'Malley.