I was sad to read that Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres died on Sunday. He was the Most Valuable Player of the 1955 World Series, winning two crucial complete games. His death reminded me of the fantastic World Series that finally brought the World Championship to the borough of Brookyln.

Before people started laughing at the Cubs' postseason failures and blaming a goat, or looking at the Red Sox like the guy who goes to the Prom with the hottest girl and yet can't get a kiss at the end of the night, the Brooklyns were the disgrace of baseball.

The old Dodgers were very much like the Red Sox of the last half of the 20th Century, and first several years of the postseason. They were in the World Series (something my Cubs can't seem to do since 1945) in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1953, and 1953. They should have been in the World Series in 1951, had Bobby Thomson not stolen the Dodgers' signs in the final game of the National League Playoff (the "Shot Heard Round the World" for you non-baseball intellectuals).

Yet in 1955, "Dem Bums" made it to the World Series again, facing the New York Yankees. It was nothing new to the Brooklyns, as their previous five World Series appearances ended in failure to the Bronx Bombers.

And like usual, the Yankees took the first two games of the series in Yankee Stadium. Whitey Ford "Chairman of the Board" and Tommy Byrne pitched lights-out for New York in both games.

The series moved back to Flatbush, Brooklyn, and the Dodgers won the next three games at Ebbets Field.

The man who jumpstarted the Dodger surge in those middle three games was Johnny Podres, a 23 year-old left-hander from upstate New York.

Podres pitched all nine innings for the Bums in Game 3, only allowing two earned runs. His battery-mate, Hall-of-Famer Roy Campanella hit a homer that day in the 8-3 Dodger triumph.

Campy's continued hitting the next day, going three for five with another home run.

The Dodgers won Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in the series. The winning pitcher of Game 5 was Roger Craig, a rookie from North Carolina. Craig would end up managing the 1989 Giants team that defeated my Cubs in the 1989 NLCS.

The series moved back to the Bronx, where the Yankees were much more comfortable than in cramped Ebbets Field. Whitey Ford won his second game of the series, and Bill "Moose" Skowron hit a three-run homer in the first to give the Yankees all the momentum in the series.

That's where Johnny Podres comes into play again. On October 4, 1955 he faced Tommy Byrne for Game 7 of the World Series, the most dramatic situation in sports.

Podres was brilliant, throwing four strikeouts in shut-out baseball.  According to legend, Podres told his teammates, "If you give me one run, I'll win it."

The Dodgers gave him twice as much as he needed. Gil Hodges drove in both runs for the Brooklyn nine, and they nursed a two-run lead going into the bottom of the sixth.

Here the real drama began. Billy Martin, the future tumultuous manager of the 70's era Yankees, started the inning with a walk. Gil McDougald had a bunt single, and Martin  moved to second.

Yogi Berra hit a long fly-ball into deep left field. Sandy Amoros, the Dodger left-fielder made a spectacular catch near the stands, with his right handed glove, despite being a lefty. Observers have said that only a man with a glove on his right hand could have grabbed it. Amoros had just been inserted into the game to replace Jim Gilliam (a righty). Amoros then made an amazing throw to cut-off man Pee Wee Reese, who threw out McDougald at first base.

Podres then forced a Hank Bauer ground out to end the inning, and effectively the hopes of the Yankees. Finally, Brooklyn got a break in the World Series.

Podres breezed through the rest of the game, and went 1, 2, 3 on Yankee hitters Skowron, Bob Cerv, and Elston  Howard in the ninth to win Brooklyn their first World Championship.

The Dodgers celebrated like never before, and the borough of Brooklyn went mad. The Dodgers had finally done the impossible.

Johnny Podres was almost a unanimous Most Valuable Player, the highest honor of his All-Star career.

You are probably wondering why I am ga-ga over this series and sad that the MVP has now died.

I loved this series because Brooklyn finally got a World Series championship. All my life, I have wondered what it would be like for my Chicago Cubs to win it all. Here, the Dodger fans who suffered just like I have (albeit not 100 years like me), got to experience the thrill of victory for their own. This was a radical change from watching their neighbors in the Bronx win it year after year.

I also get misty about this series because it represents what I believe is the golden age of baseball. This is when the power of baseball was all in New York (Giants, Yankees, Dodgers). Sadly, the Dodgers and Giants would move away from New York following the 1957 season to California.

Also, this was the ninth season of integrated Major League Baseball. Anyone who tells you that their "Golden Age of Baseball" comes before 1947 is making a huge misjudgement. As it was eloquently said in Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, baseball became our national pastime in 1947, because it was finally everyone's game.

And how fitting, it was the Dodgers who first integrated baseball that won this amazing World Series with none other than Jackie Robinson still on the team.

The integration of baseball was Branch Rickey's and the Dodgers' gift to baseball and this country. It was his integration that started changing our country. While others did more to advance racial equality, no one did it with the simplicity of Robinson's task of playing Major League Baseball.

It was truly a great time in the game of baseball, and as I sit through the boredom of January sports, I miss it even more.

But have no fear; our game is coming back in only 59 days.