Ebbets Field

With the 2011 Major League Baseball season in full swing (pun intended), perhaps now is a good time to tell you about Mark’s trip to Ebbets Field, the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 to 1957. (The trip took place last fall and was part of Mark’s informal Brooklyn Dodgers heritage tour that included a visit to Jackie Robinson’s grave.)

Located at 55 Sullivan Place in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, Ebbets Field was named after Charles Ebbets, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1902 to 1925. Here’s how Ebbets Field looked on the opening day of the 1913 baseball season, when it was a brand new ballpark.

en.wikipedia.org

Here’s a color photo of Ebbets Field taken in the 1950s — notice the addition of stadium lights.

www.dugout-memories.com

Here’s how Ebbets Field looks today.

Sadly, the Dodgers left Brooklyn following the 1957 season (becoming the Los Angeles Dodgers) and Ebbets Field was torn down in 1960. In its place was built the Ebbets Field Apartments, which opened in 1962. Below is a photo tour of the block.

The main sign for the Ebbets Field Apartments is located where the right field wall used to stand and faces Bedford Avenue.

The corner of Bedford and Sullivan is where the right field foul pole once stood.

The center field wall used to stand at the corner of Bedford and Montgomery. Walking along the outfield streets, one can imagine what a homerun ball bouncing on the pavement would have looked like.

The left field foul pole once stood at the corner of Montgomery and McKeever.

In place of the baseball diamond, a courtyard now resides.

And a playground is situated near where homeplate used to be.

In a sad touch of irony, no ball playing is allowed at Ebbets Field.

But, perhaps in an effort to make things better, some pretty fancy public art can be seen.

And some high flying views of the tops of the apartment buildings.

While there is apparently a plaque somewhere at the Ebbets Field Apartments commemorating the baseball heritage of the block, the closest Mark could find to a Dodgers reference was parking spot #42. This was Jackie Robinson’s number, which was retired by all Major League Baseball teams in 1997.

Across the street, however, he discovered Jackie Robinson School.

That featured a nice Jackie Robinson mural.

And some nice baseball lingo in the windows.

North of Jackie Robinson School is Jackie Robinson Playground.

Where kids can play basketball in the shadow of Ebbets Field.

And where one of the fences is decorated with baseball imagery.

While it was fun for Mark to visit the site of the former Ebbets Field, one of the most storied ballparks in baseball history, it was sad for him to see how the area had fallen into disrepair following the departure of the team for California. While Brooklyn has moved on as a city, in many ways it has never recovered from having lost its heart and identity half a century ago.

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Posted in History, Sports
Tags: 42, apartments, baseball, Bedford, brooklyn, dodgers, ebbets field, flatbush, jackie robinson, McKeever, Montgomery, mural, no ball playing, playground, school, Sullivan