For more than a half-century, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants were two of baseball's leading lights. They had the beautiful ballparks, the winning pedigree, the stars past and present. More importantly, though, they both had that ineffable quality that elevates a team into something more, an unofficial civic institution: The Giants' home, the Polo Grounds, was the very essence of Manhattan, and no matter what anyone else had -- or how many times they fell just short -- Brooklyn always had Dem Bums.
Then, on May 28, 1957, MLB owners unanimously voted to allow both teams to up and leave the Big Apple for California. You may already know that part; all these years later, it still stings for some (just ask the next elderly guy you see at a Mets game). But just how did this happen? How did two teams seemingly so synonymous with a specific place and people wind up 3,000 miles away? How did baseball history get so thoroughly turned on its head?
