Back in Brooklyn, These Patrons Hope to Keep Drinking Dodger Brew

The Brooklyn Dodgers left town in 1957, but whether they took their name with them was the subject of debate Tuesday in federal court.

A federal judge ruled that the Brooklyn Dodger Sports Bar and Restaurant in Bay Ridge can keep using the name, pending the result of a lawsuit filed by the Dodgers and Major League Baseball Properties Inc.

However, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood ruled the Dodger name must come off of a sister bar recently opened in the nearby neighborhood of Canarsie.

The original bar was opened in 1988 by three Brooklyn baseball fans. They were sued in 1990 for trademark infringement.

Ronald Russo, attorney for the bars, said the owners would remove the Dodger name from the Canarsie bar, which opened last year after the lawsuit began, at least until the trial is over.

“The name doesn’t belong on the West Coast,” Russo said. “The people in California have no right to call themselves ‘Brooklyn Dodger’ because they left.”

No trial date has been set.