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.
1913:
Left Field - 419 ft
Center Field - 450 ft
Right-Center - 352 ft
Right Field - 301 ft
Backstop - 55 ft
1957:
Left Field - 348 ft
Left-Center - 351 ft
Center Field - 393 ft
Right-Center - 352 ft
Right Field - 297 ft
Backstop - 72 ft
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, part of which had been used as a
dump.
Ebbets' purchase of the club ten years earlier prevented it from being
moved to Baltimore. Ebbets asked Brooklyn sportswriters to decide what to
call the stadium and they honored his 29 years of supporting baseball in
the city by suggesting "Ebbets Field."
Among the innovations was the installation of "armless"
chairs for maximum comfort and an early PA system for announcements.
The park opened on April 6, 1913, replacing the old Washington Park for
an exhibition game against the New York Yankees. Over 30,000 attended with
an estimated 5,000 unable to get tickets.
Fly
to the site of Ebbets Field!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of Ebbets Field. Of course the
stadium is no longer there, but you can see the old neighborhood.
(If you do not have it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
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. Despite
being contenders, they won only one World Series in Ebbets Field, in 1955.
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.
Primary
research by Jim Herdman & David Vincent
Courtesy of Retrosheet.
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.
Our sites have always been by you and about you. If
you check
our TV Forums or our Technology & Science forums, you'll find literally thousands of messages from fans
of 1970s TV shows, survivors of hurricanes or aircraft accidents, etc. from all over the world sharing their memories, asking
questions, making comments. Our baseball section is new, but don't let
that stop you from sharing
your memories of the first game you went to, your favorite player, a
now-forgotten stadium, etc. Of course you can also ask questions, post
trivia, tell the world what you think of Barry Bonds, or just read what
others are saying.
Logos and team names may be trademarks of their respective franchises or leagues. This site is not recognized, approved, sponsored by, or endorsed by Major League Baseball nor any sports league or team. Any marks, terms, or logos are used for editorial/identification purposes and are not claimed as belonging to this site or its owners. Any statistical data provided courtesy of Retrosheet (see credits).
Notice from Retrosheet:
The information used here was obtained free of
charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested
parties may contact Retrosheet at 20 Sunset Rd.,
Newark, DE 19711.
.gif)
.gif){kind=small}
.gif){kind=small}
(80).jpg&S=&L=2013&O=12/3/2008)
Stadiums
.jpg)
