was a
Major League Baseball Park located 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.
, namesake of Ebbets Field.]]
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 first promotional wizard
Larry MacPhail (in
1938 ), then, after MacPhail's wartime resignation, player development genius
Branch Rickey (in
1943 ). 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.
The Dodgers won pennants in
1941 (under MacPhail),
1947 ,
1949 ,
1952 ,
1953 ,
1955 and
1956 . They won the
1955 World Series (the first and only world title in Brooklyn Dodger history), and were within two games and a playoff heartbreak of winning five NL pennants in a row (1949-53). Ebbets hosted the 1949
Major League Baseball All-Star Game .
The Dodgers were soon victims of their own success, because only a limited number of eager fans could cram into minuscule Ebbets Field, and it had almost no automobile parking for Dodger fans who had moved east to suburban
Long Island , NY. Club owner
Walter O'Malley lobbied for a
Domed Stadium for his Dodgers at the
Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, where a large market was being torn down, but New York City Building Commissioner
Robert Moses wanted the stadium located in
Flushing Meadows , NY, located in the borough of
Queens , NY (the site of the current
Shea Stadium ). The thought of the Brooklyn Dodgers playing anywhere in New York other than Brooklyn was unacceptable to the club owner. As a result, O'Malley began to flirt publicly with
Los Angeles, California , using a relocation threat as political leverage to win favor with his desired Brooklyn stadium. Ultimately, O'Malley and Moses could never come to agreement on a new location for the Dodgers, and the club moved west to Los Angeles. During the last two years in Brooklyn, the Dodgers played several games each year in
Jersey City, New Jersey 's
Roosevelt Stadium , as part of O'Malley's additional 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 , based upon O'Malley's urging to Giants owner
Horace Stoneham . That meant lights out for Ebbets Field, which was demolished, beginning on
February 23 ,
1960 .
pitching in the first game at Ebbets Field,
April 5 ,
1913 .]]
Ebbets Field was but one of several historic major league ballparks demolished in the 1960s, but more mythology and nostalgia surrounds the stadium and its demise than possibly any other defunct ballpark.
A great deal of history happened at Ebbets Field during its relatively short 45-year lifespan with the Dodgers. Of the many teams that uprooted in the
1950s and
60s , the Dodgers have probably had the largest number of public laments over their fans' heartbreak over losing their team. 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' move 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 '
Public-television Documentary ''
Baseball '', as well as a 2007
HBO documentary called ''Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush''.
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." As a side note, as of
2007 the Dodgers have played in
Dodger Stadium for more years (46) than they played in Ebbets Field (45).
However, Ebbets Field has 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. Its influence can be seen in the designs for the new ballpark of the
New York Mets ,
Citi Field , which features replicas of Ebbets' exterior façade and entry rotunda, which is named in honor of
Jackie Robinson .
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 Robinson died.
Though known as a cathedral for baseball, other sports were played at Ebbets Field as well. On April 11,
1926 , Ebbets Field hosted the US National Challenge Cup soccer tournament (now known as the
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup ).
Bethlehem Steel F.C. from
Pennsylvania of the
American Soccer League won its sixth and final National Challenge Cup title, scoring a convincing 7-2 victory over
Ben Miller F.C. of
St. Louis in the final before more than 18, 000 fans. On June 7,
1931 , over 10,000 fans came out to Ebbets Field to watch
Celtic of
Scotland crush local side
Brooklyn Wanderers 5 - 0. On June 17,
1947 , the first known televised soccer game in the US took place at Ebbets Field when
Hapoel Tel Aviv lost to the American League Stars 2 - 0. On June 18,
1948 ,
Liverpool of
England beat
Djurgården of
Sweden 3 - 2 in front of 20,000 fans at Ebbets Field. On October 17 of that year, the
U.S. National Team beat the
Israel National Team team in front of 25,000 at Ebbets Field. On May 8,
1955 ,
Sunderland of England beat the American league Stars 7 - 2. On May 17, Sunderland tied
FC Nürnberg of
Germany also at Ebbets. On May 23,
1958 ,
Manchester City of England lost to
Hearts of
Scotland 5 - 2 in front of 20,000 patrons at Ebbets Field. On June 28,
1959 ,
Napoli of
Italy lost to
Rapid Vienna of
Austria 1 - 0 in front of 18,512. At the rematch, also at Ebbets Field in front of 13,000 people on July 1, Napoli tied Rapid Vienna 1 - 1.
- 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
In Arthur Miller's
Death Of A Salesman , Ebbets Field is mentioned by Willy's wife, Linda, as the place of Biff's game (89 in Penguin Plays ed., 1949). This is immediately mocked by their neighbour, Charley, thereby serving as a symbol of the family's downfall at the hands of modernity and self-delusion. The field is also mentioned in 'The Zodiacs' by Jay Neugeboren, a story about a team in Brooklyn.
The only time I ever saw him excited—-outside of what happened with him and our team—-was when our fathers would take the two of us to games at Ebbets Field.
In "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," by
Michael Chabon , some readers are surprised to find the novel's two protagonists attending a
Brooklyn Dodgers football game at Ebbets Field.
- ''Green Cathedrals'', by Phil Lowry.
- ''Ballparks of North America'', by Michael Benson.
- ''Old Ballparks'', by Lawrence Ritter.
- ''The Zodiacs'', by Jay Neugeboren.
