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 .
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.
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.
- Left field pole - 419 ft
- Center field deep - 477 ft
- Right field pole - 301 ft
- 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
- 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
- ''Green Cathedrals'', by Phil Lowry.
- ''Ballparks of North America'', by Michael Benson.
- ''Old Ballparks'', by Lawrence Ritter.
