Batty Borough (Brooklyn, home of the baseball-batty Dodgers)
The New York City borough of Brooklyn had the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team (the team also went under other names) from 1884 until 1957, when the team was moved to Los Angeles. Brooklyn went “baseball batty” (“batty” as in “crazy”) and was called the “Batty Boro/Borough” in the 1940s and 1950s. New York (NY) Daily News sportswriter Joe Trimble popularized the nickname in his stories.
“Batty boro” was printed in the Asbury Park (NJ) Evening Press (The Evening News) on April 10, 1942, and the Daily News (New York, NY) on June 19, 1944. “Batty borough” was printed in the Daily News on August 25, 1944.
After the Brooklyn Dodgers won their first World Series, Joe Trimble wrote in the Daily News on October 5, 1955:
“They won’t make October 4 a red-letter day in Brooklyn. They’ll print it in letters of gold from now on because it’s only the greatest date in the history of the batty borough—the day those darling Dodgers finally won the World Series.”
Wikipedia: Brooklyn
Brooklyn (/ˈbrʊklɪn/) is a borough of New York City, coterminous with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. It is the most-populous county in the state, the second-most densely populated county in the United States, and New York City’s most populous borough, with an estimated 2,648,403 residents in 2020. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, it shares a land border with the borough of Queens at the western end of Long Island. Brooklyn has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan across the East River, and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge connects it with Staten Island.
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10 April 1942, Asbury Park (NJ) Evening Press (The Evening News), “Sports Angles” by Herb Kamm, pg. 16, col. 1:
All of which goes to prove again that anything can happen in Brooklyn. Some have referred to the batty boro as the “cemetery with lights.” We don’t get it.
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19 June 1944, Daily News (New York, NY), “A’s Win Pair, 4-0, 8-6, Drop Yanks to 6th” by Joe Trimble, pg. C16, col. 1:
Lake was labelled “through” and was booted out of the batty boro a couple of years ago, but he proved such notions to be bushwa yesterday as he doled out four meagre hits.
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25 August 1944, Daily News (New York, NY), “M’Phail Offers Flock Staff Yankee Jobs (If & When) by Joe Trimble, pg. 34, col. 3:
Jack Collins, business manager of the Brooklyn club, is one of those MacPhail is interested in bringing across the river with him and there are others whose ability in handling the financial end of the Dodgers Larry thought well of when he was boss in the batty borough.
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12 November 1944, Sunday News (New York, NY), pg. 23, col. 1:
Rickey’s 25% Guarantees
Brooklyn 100% Team
BY Joe Trimble
When Branch Rickey, with the financial aid of a couple of business men, bought control of 25% of the Dodger stock 10 days ago, he made it definite that he has firmly planted his roots in the baseball future of Brooklyn, and that, eventually, his “youth movement” and farm system program will bring another pennant to the batty boro.
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11 April 1945, Daily News (New York, NY), “Plan Huge Arena For Brooklyn?” by Joe Trimble, pg. 42, col. 1:
These gentlemen, who don’t want to reveal their identity at this time, are planning for the batty boro a huge arena which will make Madison Square Garden look like a shoe box.
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4 October 1947, Boston (MA) Daily Globe, “Bevins Most Nervous Man in Park at Zero Hour” by Hy Hurwitz, pg. 4, col. 4:
Lavagetto’s two-base belt enabled a couple of pinch runners—Al Gionfrido and Eddie Miksis—to score the tying and winning runs and set off one of the most deafening celebrations this batty borough has ever known.
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21 September 1953, Daily News (New York, NY), “Ford Fails—Yanks Rally to Win, 10-8” by Joe Trimble, pg. C24, col. 3:
Both were to left-center and would have been four-baggers in the Batty Boro.
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5 October 1955, Daily News (New York, NY), pg. 84, col.1:
Dodgers Champs! Podres Wins, 2-0
Johnny Brilliant in 2d WS Victory
By Joe Trimble
They won’t make October 4 a red-letter day in Brooklyn. They’ll print it in letters of gold from now on because it’s only the greatest date in the history of the batty borough—the day those darling Dodgers finally won the World Series.
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5 October 1955, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Bums Blank Yanks, 2-0; Take Series” by Al Wolf, pt. 1, pg. 1, col. 1:
Not even the completion of the famed Brooklyn Bridge, which first linked that baseball-batty borough to the United States many long years ago, ranks as a comparable occasion.
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25 February 1967, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Sports Trail: Brooklyn Adds Mr. to Irish Jim Lynch” by George Langford, sec. 2, pg. 3, col. 1:
THE DODGERS are gone from Brooklyn, but strange and wonderful things still abound in the batty borough where the bums were once kings.
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12 December 1993, Daily News (New York, NY), pg. 56, col. 2:
Scribe Joe Trimble did it write
By GENE MUSTAIN
Joe Trimble, a son of Brooklyn who realized his dream and became the Daily News’ man at Yankee Staium, died last week of congestive heart failure.
The legendary sportswriter, who chronicled the exploits of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and dozens of other greats and near-greats during a renowned journalism career spent entirely at The News, was 79.