Ebbets Field
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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.
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.
Dimensions
Original (estimates)
- Left field pole - 419 ft
- Center field deep - 477 ft
- Right field pole - 301 ft
1932-1947
- Left field pole - 343 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 - 343 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
Some sources
- Green Cathedrals, by Phil Lowry.
- Ballparks of North America, by Michael Benson.
- Old Ballparks, by Lawrence Ritter.de:Ebbets Field