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Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball park located at in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. Two different incarnations of a Brooklyn Dodgers football team also used Ebbets Field as their home stadium.
Ebbets Field was on the block bound by Bedford Avenue, Sullivan Place, McKeever Place and Montgomery Street. Club owner Charlie Ebbets acquired the property over several years, starting in 1908, by buying parcels of land until he owned the entire block.
The park opened on April 9, 1913, replacing the old Washington Park. It was the scene of some early successes, as the "Robins" (so-called for long-time manager Wilbert Robinson) won league championships in 1916 and 1920. Then the team slid into some hard times for a couple of decades, until new ownership brought in player development genius Branch Rickey. In addition to his well-known breaking of the color line by signing Jackie Robinson, Rickey's savvy with farm systems produced results that made the Brooklyn Dodgers "Bums" a perennial contender, which they would continue to be for decades to come. Ebbets hosted the 1949 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The Dodgers were soon victims of their own success, because there were only so many eager fans they could stuff into minuscule Ebbets Field. Club owner Walter O'Malley lobbied for a domed stadium for his Dodgers, but the borough politely declined this opportunity, so O'Malley decided to move the team. During the last two years in Brooklyn, the team played several games each year in Jersey City, New Jersey's Roosevelt Stadium, as part of their tactics to force a new stadium to be built.
The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, California, after the 1957 season, while their long-time crosstown rivals the New York Giants moved to San Francisco. That meant lights out for Ebbets Field, which was demolished starting on February 23, 1960.
Ebbets field was but one of several historic major league ballparks demolished in the 1960's, but more mythology and nostalgia surrounds the stadium and its demise than possibly any other defunct ballpark. There are a few possible explanations for this:
A great deal of history happened at Ebbets Field during its relatively short 45-year lifespan with the Dodgers. The unique atmosphere could perhaps best be likened to the current ambience of Fenway Park. It is fair to say that of the many teams that uprooted in the 1950s and 60s, the Dodgers left their fans the most heartbroken. A couple of decades later, Roger Kahn's book The Boys of Summer and Frank Sinatra's song There Used to Be a Ballpark mourned the loss of places like Ebbets Field, and of the attendant youthful innocence of fans and players alike. The story of Ebbets field and the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles were also chronicled by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, figured into the plot of the film Field of Dreams, and were featured in an entire episode of Ken Burns' Baseball program.
Ebbets field is arguably a more popular venue now than when it actually stood. Some fans who did attend games at the stadium remember it as cramped and decrepit towards the end of its life. Baseball historians occasionally point out that although the stadium was no doubt a pleasant place to watch a ballgame, architecturally speaking it was not any more remarkable than several other "lost parks." It is interesting to note that as of 2006 the Dodgers have played in Dodger Stadium for the same amount of time they played in Ebbets field, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.
However, Ebbets field has somehow managed to transcend the realm of mere fact to become a kind of icon for what many see as the golden era of the national pastime, and its destruction symbolic of the "lost innocence" of a bygone era. It is small consolation to the Brooklyn faithful that their cramped and beloved ballpark became the site of the Ebbets Field Apartments, which were renamed the Jackie Robinson Apartments in 1972, the same year Jackie died.
Dimensions
Original (estimates)
- Left field pole - 419 ft
- Center field deep - 477 ft
- Right field pole - 301 ft
1932-1947
- Left field pole - 348 ft (unposted)
- Left field corner - 357 ft
- Left-center field - 365 ft
- Deep left-center - 407 ft
- Deep right-center bleacher corner - 389 ft (unposted)
- Deep right-center notch - 395 ft
- Right-center, scoreboard edges - 344 ft and 318 ft
- Right field pole - 297 ft
1948-1957
- Left field pole - 348 ft
- Left-center field - 351 ft
- Deep left-center - 393 ft
- Deep right-center bleacher corner - 376 ft
- Deep right-center notch - 395 ft
- Right-center, scoreboard edges - 344 ft and 318 ft
- Right field pole - 297 ft
- Backstop - 71 ft
References in literature
Ebbets Field is the location of one of Biff Loman's major football games in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Some sources
- Green Cathedrals, by Phil Lowry.
- Ballparks of North America, by Michael Benson.
- Old Ballparks, by Lawrence Ritter.
External links
Defunct baseball venues | Defunct Major League Baseball venues | New York City sports history | Brooklyn | Sports venues in New York | Buildings and structures in New York City | 1913 establishments | 1960 disestablishments | MLB All-Star Game venues | Defunct National Football League venues
"Ebbets Field"