A while back I was given a preview copy of Los Angeles Times assistant sports editor Houston Mitchell’s new book If These Walls Could Talk – Stories From The Los Angeles Dodgers Dugout, Locker Room and Press Box. The problem, of course, is that I was provided with the paperback book just as the 2014 season was about to kick off and… well… reading and reviewing books tends to take a backseat to Vin Scully and Dodgers baseball.

(Image courtesy of Triumph Books)

Last week I finally set everything else aside and committed some time to read Mitchell’s now year-old book and, in a nutshell, it is an excellent, brief, well-written and easy-to-read history of the Dodgers since their arrival to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958.

Although If These Walls Could Talk doesn’t go into the extremely fine details of the many historic events that have occurred in the 56 years that the Dodgers have been in L.A. (at the time of the book’s release on April 1, 2014), say like Roger Kahn or Neil J. Sullivan do in their great Dodgers books, but Mitchell didn’t miss any of them. Included is everything from Roy Campanella Night at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, the Koufax and Drysdale years, The Infield, Reggie Jackson’s hip up to and including the arrival of future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, Mannywood and the arrival of Cuban superstar Yasiel Puig. In fact, I can’t think of one major Dodger moment that Houston Mitchell might have missed.

Mitchell’s book, which is Forwarded by longtime former Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter, is 175 pages long and is broken down into eight chapters that themselves are broken down by specific events, thus making the book very easy to read and very difficult to put down. It is the perfect book for younger Dodger fans who want to learn about the first three or four decades of the Los Angeles Dodgers and is an outstanding reference guide for aspiring or even current Dodgers sportswriters – yes, it is that good with specific events easy to find.

The book also includes an excellent 14-page appendix loaded with L.A. Dodgers facts and records. (Did I mention the book is an outstanding reference guide?).

For an immediate and thorough immersion into the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers without all of the long, drawn out details that clutter the mind, If These Walls Could Talk – Stories From The Los Angeles Dodgers Dugout, Locker Room and Press Box it the perfect book for you and well worth the investment. And for you e-readers, it is also available in Kindle and other e-reader editions as well.

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About the Author:

Houston Mitchell has been an award-winning sports journalist and blogger for the Los Angeles Times since 1991 and is currently its assistant sports editor. He has been attending Dodgers games since 1974. He lives in San Dimas, California with his wife, Diana. They have three daughters, Sabrina, Samantha and Hannah, and three dogs, Lucy, Gracie and Ruby.