After the old National Association of Professional Ball Players collapsed in 1875, Brooklyn went eight years without a baseball team of its own. Then, in 1883, urbane real estate investor Charles Byrne and hustling news editor George J. Taylor joined forces to create the club that would become the Brooklyn Dodgers. Nicknamed the "Bridegrooms" by sportswriters after several players got married, they won their first major league pennants in 1889 and 1890 under pioneering manager Bill "Gunner" McGunnigle. This first history of the birth of the Dodgers franchise chronicles the owners' efforts to...