Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers by Peter Golenbock is exactly what it says on the tin. It is an oral history, which means the book is stitched together mostly out of firsthand accounts - players, managers, executives, sportswriters, and fans - with Golenbock providing just enough connective tissue to keep the timeline moving.

We read it in the fall of 2022 and it turned out to be one of the better baseball books we have picked up. Below are our notes, chapter by chapter.

The Setup

The Brooklyn Dodgers were, until 1957, one of the two National League teams …