Oct 4,1955: Brooklyn Dodgers Win the World Series

The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, winners of the World Series

Oct.4, 1955 is a somewhat sacred date in Brooklyn history. It was the day the Brooklyn Dodgers finally became World Series champions. The sweetest part was that they earned their victory against the arch rival New York Yankees, who had dashed the Dodgers' World Series dreams five times before. But not this time. And Brooklyn was granted its moment of glory just in time; the team was spirited away to the West Coast two seasons later.

Here's the story that Hearst's International News Wire sent out after the Dodgers' 2-0 Game 7 victory at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 4, 1955:

"At 3:44 p.m. (EDT) yesterday [Oct. 4], the New York borough of Brooklyn exploded.

"That was the moment the ball slid into Gil Hodges’ mitt for the final out at Yankee Stadium. The Dodgers were champs for the first time.

"From the east end of the Brooklyn Bridge, up along the Gowanus Canal and on into 'Greenpernt,' the shout went up:

"'Da bums is kings … whadda woild serious!'

"Bedlam was never like this and the ashes haven’t settled yet.

"Every auto horn in the borough began blasting, factory sirens started to shrill and the voices of the delirious multitudes became screams. The sound must have carried far across the Hudson River into Newark.

"They locked up shop, boarded up the glass fronts and went on a baseball binge — all 3,000,000 of them.

"Men and women danced in the streets. Respectable housewives threw their arms around the nearest male and kissed like so many Marilyn Monroes.

"Dodger rooters throughout the other New York boroughs went almost as crazy over the first Dodger World Series triumph.

"Telephones were jammed as every fan in Brooklyn called every other fan. Offices stopped work. Factories gave up as the workers went out into the streets to snake-dance.

"From the windows of Brooklyn’s staid board of education and courts buildings, torn-up telephone books, wastebaskets of paper and shredded newspapers, poured into the street.

"In the midst of the bedlam along Livingston Street, an old man with a long white beard and a portable radio leaned on his cane and said: 'I never thought I’d live so long!'

"A fan named Joe Flanders shouted 'This IS next year,' and cabbie Irving Davidoff predicted the series win would mean the end of Brooklyn gang wars and juvenile delinquency.

"As two chartered busses brought the Dodgers back to their Ebbets Field dressing rooms, a police escort led the procession.

"Around the Brooklyn field where the Dodgers won three straight, four cars cruised bearing huge signs: 'Podres for President … We’re in.'

"In the crowd at the dressing room entrance stood Mrs. Mildred Silverman and her 10-year-old son, Elliott, waiting for autographs.

“'Daddy’s just going to have to wait for supper tonight,' she announced.

"Anywhere in Brooklyn last night, it was 'moider' to mention 'Joisey' — or any place else as a home for the Dodgers. [Jersey was under consideration as a new home for the Dodgers]. Outside a corner bar along howling Flatbush, one Dodger partisan summed it up:

“'Yesterday dey was da Bums. Today dey’s kings. And dey’s stayin’ right here in Flatbush fer good.'”