Brooklyn Dodgers
Gilliam made his debut with the Dodgers in April 1953, with the formidable task of taking over second base from Jackie Robinson, who was shifted to the outfield and third base; he proved capable, batting .278 with a team-leading 125 runs for the NL champions. His 17 triples led the NL, and remain the most by a Dodger since 1920; he was second in the league (behind Stan Musial) with 100 walks, and third in the NL with 21 stolen bases. For his excellent season he earned NL Rookie of the Year honors, as well as The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award.
He continued to play well during the team's Brooklyn years, batting .282 in 1954 with a career-high 13 home runs before slipping to a .249 average for the 1955 champions; he scored over 100 runs both years, as well as in 1956. With the 1956 pennant winners, he batted a career-best .300 and made his first major league All-Star team, also finishing fifth in the MVP voting; he was again second in the NL in walks (95, behind teammate Duke Snider) and steals (21, behind Willie Mays). On July 21 of that year, he tied John Montgomery Ward's 1892 major league record of 12 assists in a game. In the Dodgers' last season in Brooklyn in 1957, he batted .250 but led the NL in putouts and fielding percentage and again finished second behind Mays in stolen bases.
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Famous quotes containing the word brooklyn:
“I know that I will always be expected to have extra insight into black texts—especially texts by black women. A working-class Jewish woman from Brooklyn could become an expert on Shakespeare or Baudelaire, my students seemed to believe, if she mastered the language, the texts, and the critical literature. But they would not grant that a middle-class white man could ever be a trusted authority on Toni Morrison.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American scholar and educator. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B2 (July 27, 1994)