History Literature / TheManWhoBroughtTheDodgersBackToBrooklyn

''The Man Who Brought the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn'' is a 1981 novel by David Ritz. It blends together elements of SpeculativeFiction, AlternateUniverse, and NextSundayAD; and strives to answer the question: how could the [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Dodgers]] baseball team plausibly move out of Los Angeles and back to a rebuilt Ebbets Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn?

** The book also has the main characters break baseball's gender barrier by signing female pitcher Ruth Smelkinson, Squat's love interest. As of 2022, however, there are still no women playing in Major League Baseball.[[note]]Technically, a 1952 ban on women in the MLB was lifted in 1992, and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carey_Schueler Carey Schueler]] was drafted by the White Sox for the 1993 season and played in the minors, but nothing else really came of that.[[/note]]

* CoitusEnsues:
** After being injured by an angry mob at Ebbets Field Apartments, Bobby spends the night walking from his family home in Brooklyn Heights to the Brooklyn Bridge. He's halfway across to Manhattan when he discovers [[spoiler:Oran has been following him. They go around Manhattan together, get drunk and high, and end up back in his Brooklyn Dodgers trophy room at the Hanes residence in Brooklyn Heights. One thing leads to another.]]
** The same two also agree later on that her journalistic integrity and his baseball team ownership would be negatively impacted by a relationship. [[spoiler:A paragraph later, they've slept with each other again.]]
** Though they'd slept together before, Squat starts neglecting Ruthie so she'll pitch better. Eventually, after a stellar pitching performance during a Dodgers road trip, Ruthie makes her way into his hotel room, [[spoiler:and they make love again. This later comes back to bite them when she finds out, shortly before the playoffs, that she's pregnant.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Pictured: Squat, Ruthie, and Bobby. Not pictured: Oran and UsefulNotes/LosAngeles.]]
''The Man Who Brought the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn'' is a 1981 novel by David Ritz. It blends together elements of SpeculativeFiction, AlternateUniverse, and NextSundayAD; and strives to answer the question: how could the [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Dodgers]] baseball team plausibly move out of Los Angeles and back to a restored Ebbets Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn?

** The book also has the main characters break baseball's gender barrier by signing female pitcher Ruth Smelkinson, Squat's love interest. As of 2021, however, there are still no women playing in Major League Baseball.[[note]]Technically, a 1952 ban on women in the MLB was lifted in 1992, and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carey_Schueler Carey Schueler]] was drafted by the White Sox for the 1993 season and played in the minors, but nothing else really came of that.[[/note]]

* HighConcept: In the mid-1980s, two childhood friends purchase and move the Dodgers back to a restored Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, and meet love interests along the way.

* DeweyDefeatsTruman: The story was written in 1981, but largely takes place in 1985-88, so things were obviously different in reality:

* DistractedByTheSexy: In order to gain approval for the move back to Brooklyn from the other owners in the league, Bobby entices them with alcohol (as he had previously done when trying to buy the team), then one-ups himself by bringing in strippers dressed in mascot costumes.
* DownerBeginning: After spending time establishing how Squat and Bobby bonded over the Brooklyn Dodgers as kids, the intro then shifts to the Dodgers' move to LA in 1958, followed by a teenage Squat losing his leg in an automobile accident, the two watching Ebbets Field being torn down in 1960, and Bobby's dad dying in 1965. After all that, the narrative fast-forwards to 1985 and the main plot begins.
* TheEighties: The bulk of the story takes place from 1985 to 1988.
* EveryManHasHisPrice: The plot wouldn't progress without this trope. Bobby Hanes' talent is figuring out what people's prices are, or at least knowing how to negotiate their prices down. Throughout the book, he's able to finagle mutually lucrative deals from the Schmidt Conglomerate (which sells him the Dodgers), the other MLB team owners (who approve the sale and the move back to Brooklyn), and even the owners and residents of Ebbets Field Apartments (to allow the ballpark to be rebuilt).

* NotSoDifferent: Oran and Bobby, who both like attention. Eventually lampshaded by Squat, to their displeasure.

** The book also has the main characters break baseball's gender barrier by signing female pitcher Ruth Smelkinson, Squat's love interest. As of 2018, however, there are still no women playing in Major League Baseball.[[note]]Technically, a 1952 ban on women in the MLB was lifted in 1992, and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carey_Schueler Carey Schueler]] was drafted by the White Sox for the 1993 season and played in the minors, but nothing else really came of that.[[/note]]

** Though they'd slept together before, Squat starts neglecting Ruthie so she'll pitch better. Eventually, after a stellar pitching performance during a Dodgers road trip, Ruthie makes her way into his hotel room, [[spoiler:and they make love again. This later comes back to bite them when she finds out, shortly before the playoffs, [[spoiler: that she's pregnant]].]]

** Though they'd slept together before, Squat starts neglecting Ruthie so she'll pitch better. Eventually, after a stellar pitching performance during a Dodgers road trip, Ruthie makes her way into his hotel room, [[spoiler:and they make love again. This later comes back to bite them when she finds out, shortly before the playoffs, [[RealityEnsues that she's pregnant]].]]

** When Bobby signs Ruthie to the team, she immediately joins the main Dodgers roster. In modern baseball, rookies -- ''especially'' unknown pitchers with no professional experience -- typically go through the minor leagues before hitting the majors.
** Bobby would also have had to contend with the MLB's ban on women, which was still in effect when the book was written. The book didn't address the issue whatsoever.

** The book also has the main characters break baseball's gender barrier by signing female pitcher Ruth Smelkinson, Squat's love interest. As of 2017, however, there are still no women playing in Major League Baseball.[[note]]Technically, a 1952 ban on women in the MLB was lifted in 1992, and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carey_Schueler Carey Schueler]] was drafted by the White Sox for the 1993 season and played in the minors, but nothing else really came of that.[[/note]]

** The book assumes that, by the mid-Eighties, Tommy Lasorda is no longer the Dodgers manager (having been replaced by an OriginalCharacter who later gets fired), and that Vin Scully is no longer the play-by-play announcer. Lasorda retired as manager in 1996; Scully's last season with the Dodgers was in 2016 after a whopping '''''67''''' seasons as announcer.

* HotScoop:
** Oran, naturally. Squat wastes no time in telling us how attractive she is.
** Also a female reporter in LA named Patty Sides, who is described as nothing more than a bleached-blonde bubblehead, who comes across as more of an entertainment reporter than a sports reporter, who everyone knows was hired for her looks. This spurs Oran to rant about how, from an insider perspective, looks are preferred over honest journalism.

* XMeetsY: Bobby's speech to the National League owners is described by Squat to Oran thusly:
-->"If you can feature a combination of the Sermon on the Mount and a Roman orgy, you'd be pretty close."