Brooklyn's most famous historical team, the
Brooklyn Dodgers, named for "trolley dodgers" played at
Ebbets Field. In 1947
Jackie Robinson was hired by the Dodgers as the first African-American player in Major League Baseball in the modern era. In 1955, the Dodgers, perennial National League pennant winners, won the only
World Series for Brooklyn against their rival
New York Yankees. The event was marked by mass euphoria and celebrations. Just two years later, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.
Walter O'Malley, the team's owner at the time, is still vilified, even by Brooklynites too young to remember the Dodgers as Brooklyn's ball club.