Wait Till Next Year

Doris Kearns Goodwin recounts her childhood in 1950s Rockville Centre, New York, centered on her obsession with the Brooklyn Dodgers and her bond with her father over baseball box scores. She describes how the sport provided a framework for understanding community, loyalty, and loss during a decade shaped by the Korean War, the polio epidemic, and the constant rivalry between the Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees. Through the lens of Ebbets Field and local neighborhood dynamics, she documents the integration of the major leagues and the eventual relocation of her team to Los Angeles.

This memoir is for readers interested in the intersection of sports history and domestic life in post-war America. It appeals to those seeking to understand how shared cultural rituals build resilience and personal identity within a family. Readers walk away with a specific perspective on how professional sports can serve as a common language for navigating social change and private grief, ultimately showing how childhood rituals provide a foundation for emotional endurance in adulthood.