Ebbets Field

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Ebbets Field <tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">Image:Ebbets1913OpeningDay.jpg </td></tr>
Location	55 Sullivan Place Brooklyn, New York 11225
Opened	April 9, 1913 <tr><td>Demolished</td><td>February 23, 1960</td></tr>
Owner	Brooklyn Dodgers <tr><td>Surface</td><td>Grass</td></tr><tr><td>Construction cost</td><td>$750,000 USD</td></tr><tr><td>Architect</td><td>Clarence Randall Van Buskirk</td></tr>
Tenants
Brooklyn Dodgers (1913-1957) Brooklyn Lions (NFL) (1926) Brooklyn football Dodgers/Tigers (NFL) (1930- 1944) Brooklyn Dodgers football (AAFC) (1946- 1948)
Seats
25,000 (1913); 32,000 (1932)

Ebbets Field 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.

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 1960s, 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' 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.

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 foreseeable future.

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.

Interior view of Ebbets Field during a game

1 Soccer at Ebbets Field
2 Dimensions
3 References in literature
4 Some sources
5 External links

[edit] Soccer at Ebbets Field

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 Glasgow 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 FC lost to the American League Stars 2 - 0. On June 18, 1948, Liverpool FC of England beat Djurgårdens IF Fotboll of Sweden 3 - 2 in front of 20,000 fans at Ebbets Field. On October 17 of that year, the U.S. national soccer team beat the Israel national football team team in front of 25,000 at Ebbets Field. On May 8, 1955, Sunderland FC of England beat the American league Stars 7 - 2. On May 17, Sunderland FC tied FC Nürnberg of Germany also at Ebbets. On May 23, 1958, Manchester City of England lost to Hearts of Midlothian of Scotland 5 - 2 in front of 20,000 patrons at Ebbets Field. On June 28, 1959, S.S.C. 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.

Image:Ebbets Field aerial.JPG

[edit] 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

[edit] References in literature

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Ebbets Field is mentioned by Willy's wife, Linda, as the place of Biff's football 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.