I don’t know how many of you saw the HBO Special that aired several weeks ago about the Brooklyn Dodgers (“The Ghosts of Flatbush”), but it was really wonderful stuff, and I recommend it to those of you who didn’t see it but who might be able to catch it as part of an On Demand service. I’m a Brooklyn boy, born and bred (and damn proud of it, too!), six years old when the Dodgers decamped for L.A. (an event that had deep significance for me and for most other kids growing up in Brooklyn at the time), so maybe it’s just me — the Dodgers’ story does, I admit, grab me in some deep place. But I think it’s more than that; the Dodgers were integral parts of three of the great stories in post-war America: (1) Jackie Robinson, (2) Winning the ’55 Series (after having lost and lost and lost and lost, often in heart-breaking fashion, and usually to the Yankees), and (3) Moving West. It’s not “Greek tragedy,” but Aristotle would have recognized the themes: the Brotherhood of Man, the Triumph of Good over Evil, and Abandonment and Loss. That’s a pretty good list for 10 years (’47 – ’57), and it made for a terrific couple of hours of intense TV.