Superstars and Screwballs: 100 Years of Brooklyn Baseball

Yet another reminder that the Brooklyn Dodgers still live, though not in Brooklyn, this carefully researched history of the team by a New York Times sports editor is one of the best. Books around about the ``Daffiness Boys'' of the 1920s, ``Dem Bums'' of the 1930s and the 1950s' ``Boys of Summer''--and Goldstein ably surveys the stories of those teams. Where he excels, however, is in recounting the early years of the diamond sport in the City of Churches, and all the franchises born and done in during pre-Dodger days--the Eckfords, the Excelsiors, the Atlantics, the Mutuals, the Mets, the Brooklyns and the Bridegrooms, among them. This should be required reading for all fans still cursing Walter O'Malley for moving the beloved team west in 1957. Photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)