Interviews with fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers sharing their experiences at one of the most intimate ball parks ever, where they played from 1913 to 1957.
A crying shame !! These landmark ballparks should NEVER have been torn down. They represented a precious part of our culture which ought to have been preserved FOREVER.
My first game at age 7 was the Brooks against the Cubs, June 19,1952. My dad walked me up the darkened concourse where we climbed a concrete ramp into the sudden sunshine where I glimpsed a miracle: baseball in color! The manicured, crayon-green grass, the red-brown clay infield, the dazzling colored outfield signs, and the towering -- to me at a tiny 7 -- black grandstands against the backdrop of a high blue sky. And I will never forget the peanut-popcorn-hotdog breeze wafting through the stands, and Gladys Gooding's light-hearted carnival organ music, and the thrilling moment when the Dodgers, in their milk white uniforms took the field, spurred on by the rousing fight song, "Follow the Dodgers." A game at Ebbets -- which felt like a game in your neighborhood -- was a symphony for the senses. That first game was historic too; it was Carl "Oisk" Erskine's first no hitter. When they tore down Ebbets in February '60, they tore down my kid's heart. I lived in Chicago for 20 years later in life and felt a "Dem Bums" kinship with the "Loveable Losers" Cubbies and their bandbox ballpark that felt a lot like being in Ebbets ... But baseball never felt the same again after they took away my Gorgeous Cozy Ebbets. (Alan Steinberg).
Beautifully written, Alan. I share your feelings completely, even though I never had the honor of seeing Ebbets. I lived near Chicago during the last years of baseball's golden age, and remember fondly the grand atmospheres of Old Comiskey and Wrigley. Times have changed. Now, a season ticket to Wrigley's bleachers will dock you more than 34 hundred bucks. In 1965, a season in those bleachers cost $81. Even with inflation, that was a bargain price! Players made about 50 grand at the most back then. Now, some of them make about a million just for throwing one pitch (if you do some fuzzy math, you'll see what I mean).
Oh, by the way, Wrigley gets a bum rap as a bandbox park, but it's 355 down the left field line, as I recall, and something like 353 to right. Power alleys are 368, and center is 400. That's not really that small. It's the wind that makes it seem smaller.
Those Brooklyn fans were the best baseball fans ever. Italians, Jews, Irish, Poles, Norwegians, Blacks, etc. all united in their love of the Dodgers, men as well as women, boys as well as girls. And the Dodgers were named after Brooklyn pedestrians of the 1890's who had to dodge street trolleys.
Dennis Middlebrooks you have to wonder how many times kids cut class at Lincoln High School to take in a mid-spring Summer-like day to walk or take the train to Ebbetts Field, then head to Coney Island Beach...
I grew up as a Los Angeles Dodger fan and even I'm pissed that they left Brooklyn after watching this. Really wish I could travel back in time and watch a game there.
At least you can do the next best thing : Listen to a 1957 Dodgers radio broadcast, and soak up the old time atmosphere! ua-cam.com/video/9w7Kt1vo-3Y/v-deo.html
Call me sentimental, call me a wimp. Hearing from friends, relatives of the old parks, it brings me to tears....the lost memories, the new buildings replacing the old stadiums. It sucks.
As someone whose lived his entire life in Brooklyn, I can only imagine how the Dodgers brought the borough together. It looked like a really fun stadium and its a shame O'Malley and Moses couldn't work something out.
The City of Los Angeles stole the Dodgers from the County of Kings. A thief never acquires good title because the thing that is stolen always remains the property of its rightful owner. The Dodgers were born, bred and are of Brooklyn. O’Malley had the legal right to move but the “Dodgers” should have remained in Brooklyn, just like that fink Modell was not allowed to take the Browns to Baltimore.
Moses offered the corona/flushing queens site near the salvage yards. O'Malley wanted the Brooklyn yards location that wasn't available to be developed till the Barkley center. I grew up in queens 1 mile from Shea stadium. I'm a lifelong Mets fan who would have been a Dodgers fan. People should be greatful they had that neighborhood-home town relationship with the Dodgers while it lasted. I never had that with the Mets.
TheLeftFieldMikeShow-Moses didn't WANT to work anything out. So when O'Malley couldn't get his desired location (where the Barclay's Center is now), he took the offer Los Angeles provided, and pulled up stakes after the 1957 season, taking the Giants with him, thus preserving the Dodgers/Giants rivalry.
I lived on one side of Ebbets Field (160 or 190 Fenimore St) and my grandmother lived on the other side. Prospect Park and Ebbets Field were our life. We were Dodgers fans, through and through!
Hi Carolyn! I'm doing a story about the community that lived around Ebbets Field and in the apartments that replaced the field. Any chance you'd be willing to talk for a brief interview?
I grew up as a die hard Yankees fan because of my father. We had to move away when I was seven. But he had tears in his eyes when Ebbets Field was torn down. Those New York ball fields were special places for the all the fans.
I was a kid in Brooklyn and like my father and uncle, was a Dodgers fan. My first visit to Ebbets Field was through the center entrance and as I got to sunlight, the green was jaw dropping. It was home to us kids and our adults. I remember the Dodgers Symphoney and the fans. My favorite players were Jackie Robinson, Peewee Reese, and Duke Snider. When Jackie got on base, everybody stood up. He was amazing and played like nobody else, driving pitchers nuts. If someone yelled at a player, they could hear him or her and would sometimes answer because the distance from home plate to the stands was short. When I got into my teens, I remember winning the WS and the noise in the streets.
I had the same feelings in Chicago in those days, and was heartsick when they tore down Old Comiskey Park. Such a shame so many of the grand baseball palaces are gone. They had fantastic atmosphere. Now, here's something to think about: the closest upper deck seat to home plate (directly behind home plate) at Guaranteed Rate Field is farther away from the plate than the farthest one in the old park. Talk about lost intimacy. And I haven't checked lately, but the players probably want big bucks for autographs now, while in 1965 at Wrigley Field, I watched Mr. Cub Ernie Banks putting one foot slowly around the other as he side-stepped his way all around the back-of-the-plate screen, signing autographs on the scorecards kids had rolled up and stuck between the wires. Didn't see money exchanged, and Ernie spent about 20 minutes signing. Those were the twilight days of baseball's golden age. Gone but not forgotten. Oh, and my dad told me he sat directly above Satchel Page as that legendary pitcher warmed up in the Fenway bullpen in the early 1950's. You can still sit there now, I think. Thank God some shrines still exist!
I saw two games at Comiskey Park. It was a rickety old place and I was afraid to buy anything at the concession stands in the Upper Deck. But boy did I love watching a game there. You were so close to the field in the upper deck you could hear the SS curse when he made an error anywhere in the park. Haven't been to the new park yet but it's not calling me.
At least the Chi Sox stayed in the same neighborhood. The Dodgers left the confines of Ebbets field for the LA Coliseum and later a symmetrical modern stadium in Dodger Stadium. It is nice , but it isn't Brooklyn. Teams losing the old park most of us can come to terms with....but leaving a loyal and thriving fan base....ya...not cool
Most people do not know the real story. O’Malley was not the villain, Robert Moses and Mayor Robert Wagner were. O’Malley wanted a new, bigger stadium. He would build at his expense. Wanted approval for site and Moses - Wagner denied. Moses wanted it built where Shea later was. LA and Minneapolis then offered O’Malley basically anything he wanted. One of the most financially profitable franchise moves ever.
Reminds me on the first time I came up the walkway at Fenway Park for the first time as a kid in the 80s. Amazed. Got the chills. Excitement. I’ll Never forget. Now it’s too expensive to go. $125 for shit seats
There are some places in Fenway where you can't see the batters circle and you miss most of the game. And some of those seats are expensive box seats. But if you have a good seat the place is magic.
My grandfather who is almost 90 grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. He still sports his Dodger cap with the B on it. He is salty to this day about the move to L.A. Gets him all riled up when he talks about it haha.
They had a number of names over the years. These include the Atlantics, Grays, Bridegrooms, Grooms, Superbas, Robins, and Dodgers. They became the Dodgers permanently in 1932 and they also were the Dodgers 1911-1912. They were the Robins 1914-1931 after their manager Wilbert Robinson. The LA Dodgers have an excellent history of their own, (5 World Series wins, Koufax and a number of other great players), but the Brooklyn Dodgers were very special and should never have been moved. And actually the name LA Dodgers is like the LA Lakers, is LA known for it's lakes? No, but Minneapolis where they moved from is.
@@sdgakatbk Correct, but even after they were officially called the Dodgers, they were still many times referred to as the "Flock" in reference to Robins. Newspapers would use the name because it had less characters in it and they could run a bigger headline.
I was a die hard Giants fan and a bunch of my friends would often sit in the far right field corner at Ebbets Field when the Giants were in town. We'd heckle Furillo mercilessly and he came to know us. We coul'ndnt stand the Bum but at the same time we loved him because he was our villian. Furillo understood that and he'd always stop to sign autographs after the game. There was no greater rivaly. We hated the Dodgers and loved them at the same time.
I grew up in LA and my family were long time Brooklyn fans. I was delighted when my heroes moved to LA and was sad too. At age 9, 1957, I understood my heroes would not be the same after the move. The Brooklyn fans were the heart of the Dodgers and I was sad for them losing a team that was core to who they were. No more 'Boys of Summer." The Dodgers were a different team with new heroes. I missed the old Dodgers even as I cheered the new ones. Ebbits should have survived as a shrine.
Amazingly, Ebbets Field was built in the middle of nowhere. The location was a city dump known as "Pigtown." After Ebbets Field was built, a neighborhood sprung up around it.
There are a few iconic ballparks that deserve to be recreated. Even if the fan base and ballpark size couldn’t support a MLB team there should be a new Ebbet’s field and call it a AAA Brooklyn Dodgers again. Recreate the feel of that classic experience
my dad, who's a real old school tough guy and not prone to public displays of emotion, can barely talk about this place w/o his eyes welling up and his voice cracking. i love baseball, love my yankees and love/miss the old stadium but i must admit, this place (ebbet's field) must've been something else.
What's up with the new Yankee Stadium? It seems (and I have not personally been there) that the place is missing something. The bells and whistles of the old Stadium have not transferred to the House That Jeter Built.
That's because baseball...especially in New York...has always been a Working Class sport: the kind of thing that common factory workers could talk about over a beer. But the "new" Yankee Stadium is so insanely expensive, a Working Class fan can't afford it. Red Sox-Yankees used to be the toughest ticket in sports. Not anymore. Nobody can blow $2000.00 on a seat, snacks and souvenirs.
***** I've been there and its fine as far as a facility goes but as David Lafleche correctly states, the Yankees have created a class society in this new building. In the old building you could get general admission seats for under $10 but if you wanted to show up early enough you could go down the the rail next to the dugout and watch BP, chat w/players, get stuff autographed, etc. It was nice, it made you feel connected to the game, the players and the stadium. In the new park this area is off limits to anyone w/o a $2,000 ticket no matter how early you get there or whether the seats are empty during the game (which they often are). The people sitting there get waitress service for their food and drinks and it becomes very clear once you're there that the "VIPs" who can afford these box seats don't want to be bothered with, or mingle amongst, the "common folk" who can't afford these seats. To me and any others, this is not the Yankee stadium we grew up in and came to love. Baseball, at least there, was always a game for the masses. No matter your income, occupation or education level we all had one thing in common. This is no longer the case at the new yankee stadium
Thank you for your comments, David Lafleche and THEJMSESQ. It is unfortunate there was sort of a culture shift that occurred when the new Yankee Stadium was created. I was originally distressed in 2008 for the simple fact that so much tradition would be lost when the old stadium was torn down but now I see that there are more ramifications than I originally foresaw.
Nothing lasts forever. Even Yankee Stadium could be renovated only so many times before it had to be replaced. But that didn't mean it had to become a formal, black-tie affair.
I can see that there are limitations on how many times renovations can be made to an old ball park, but if they're going to knock them down, they can preserve a portion of the old structure and make it into some sort of museum.
I grew up near Ebbets Field, 14 years after they left. As kids we felt the tragedy. Older folks told us that they could hear the homeruns during the rabbi's sermon at the synagogue a few blocks away; the yeshiva students would jump on the Bedford Avenue trolley for 2 minutes to catch the last innings of ballgames etc. The neighborhood collapsed and descended into a crime-ridden ghetto after the Dodgers left. Had they stayed, our childhood would have been different.
Die Hard Red Sox fan here. I was born in '68 so Ebbets wasn't around when I was born but I watch these old films and I think how great it would of been to have seen a game there. I don't think I'll ever understand how a team that has dedicated and loyal fan support like they did can just pick up and move on to another city. It just ain't right I tell ya!
It's called greed. I see so many similarities between Fenway and Ebbets Field. So many similarities between the loyal Sawx fans and the Brooklyn Dodgers fans. What a thrill it would have been to have seen the Dodgers stay in Brooklyn and then years later maybe a Red Sox vs Brooklyn World Series.
I'm an LA dodger fan but I always felt bad about them leaving behind all these people who had fond memories growing up there with the Dodgers and the old ballpark. I wouldn't mind if they moved back, I'd still be a fan
@South Side Comptown Guess what? The Dodgers, Lakers and Rams were ALL SUCCESSFUL teams where they were originally. That's why L.A. poached them in the first place.
What a great video. I have those same feelings about the Old Arlington stadium where the Texas Rangers played. Yes, it was not the most appealing stadium but as a kid it was a Temple to me.... Seeing Nolan Ryan run the warning track before he pitched.... Those are memories I'll never forget
A few years ago I visited the site. You're first impression was how did they fit a ball park in such a small space. Then you imagine what it must have been like.
Yeah it’s a shame. Back then, they really didn’t think about preserving for posterity then. The mindset was “Pay extra money to save some junk? No way.”
The destruction of Penn Station was a crime against public architecture FFS! Unbelievably beautiful, used for only a few decades, and most of the chunks dumped into the Jersey meadowlands as landfill.
Walter O’Malley wanted to stay in Brooklyn. He was willing to build his own domed Stadium where the Barclay Center is today. Robert Moses wanted the new stadium to be where Shea stadium would eventually be built...
I don't think nearly as many people in the New York area cared about the Giants leaving. Back in the '50's more folks in New York were Dodgers fans than Giants fans.
I'm obsessed with this era, even though it ended a few years before I was born. I like to play the "what if" game. Could the dangers have stayed after the Giants left for San Francisco? Would they have become the NY Dodgers, and relocated to Flushing? It's hard to imagine. Maybe the Dodgers could have only stayed if the Giants also stayed, and Stoneham was broke and not drawing in the Polo Grounds.
Abe Stark went on to become the borough president of Brooklyn and was twice elected to the NYC Council. He died in 1972, three months before Jackie Robinson. An ice skating rink and an elementary school in Brooklyn are named after him.
Was at the Metrodome once. Looked like a giant field house, couldn't believe major league baseball was being played there. How's the new Target Center?
Wow. For the fans, celebrities, and even for everyone who was born in the post-war, baby boomers and Gen X, they all remember the time that Ebbets Field became a ball Park in Central Brooklyn (Crown Heights/ Prospect Park) since 1913. : )
Life in Central Brooklyn, New York became a history for everyone to know that Ebbets Field (a ballpark) now become an apartment place for everyone to live in. Man, days go by.
The reason why they tore them down is that the classic ball park needed time after it was torn down for people to get nostalgic. If you visited one of them, I went to Connie Mack Stadium and the Polo Grounds several times, the atmosphere of a 50 or 60 year old ball park pulled the franchise down, not up. You would get confronted with the reality of a crummy team in a crummy venue. The next to last year that Connie Mack Stadium was in use they drew 519,000 fans for the entire season. The last two years of the Polo Grounds, the Giants drew 600,000 each year. The Dodgers also suffered because their fans had a reputation for being very rowdy. The suburban families were turned off by the thought of going to a place like that. Driving over miles of city streets from Long Island or New Jersey, then being worried about your car parked in such a lousy neighborhood, then paying good money to see a team play in a run down, joint like Ebetts Field. So the Dodgers tried to make Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City work for them and then bet the franchise that football oriented Los Angeles would support a baseball team after two minor league teams had gone broke there.
Sounds like Tiger Stadium in Detroit in the 90s. The team was dreadful, the Corktown area although a historic neighborhood was kinda dead (it's much more lively now) and there was no parking garage.
Everyone was moving to the suburbs. The neighborhoods changed. The parking was bad. The ball parks were outdated and needed repairs. NYC didn't want to build the teams new stadiums. Attendance was dropping. LA & SF were giving out big hand outs and had an untapped potential fan base. All this leads to the Dodgers and Giants moving to the West Coast.
@therealjoebloggs A true lesson learned, but we are replicating what L.A. did to New York baseball, moving a team from another state. The Dodgers were a true New York team, and all efforts should have been made to retain them.
The life and times of Ebbetts field and those that became part of it's daunting magic know words are not adaquate to describe what it was. A friday night with Musial and the cards in 1953 with the cigar smoke waffing ,mixed with the garlic of mustard, and the raucus sound of mocking instuments numbing a boy's senses, Yes it was stimulation overload that can only be experienced but not descibed. today those memories resonate even louder against today's backdrop of modern sterility.
Notice the Abe Stark sign at the start of the video on the right field wall. Stark owned a large suit store in Brooklyn. The sign read "Hit Sign, Win Suit." Any player who hit the sign with a batted ball won a free suit. And any player who did so showed up to get his new suit! This was when major league players were not very well paid. Now the money the first base coach makes could have bought out Abe Stark's entire stock.
I'm not old enough to remember the Brooklyn Dodgers. They've always been the L.A. Dodgers to me, and Dodger Stadium has always been a monument to baseball. That said... I agree with the guy at the end. Why tear down Ebbets Field? I can understand converting it and re-purposing it into the apartments that are there now, but they could've left a good portion of that stadium there. Heck, they could've left enough of the field there that kids could've played on it, and someone like me could've went.
Robert Moses the Master Builder of NYC hated baseball and actually did not even understand it's appeal. He wanted the land Ebbets Field and The Polo Grounds were on to build his high rise public housing complexes. Such an awful time in New York City. Ebbets Field, The Polo Grounds and the Original Penn Station all torn down.
great video, nice to see some color footage of Ebbets Field. If the Dodgers had stayed in Brooklyn, maybe the stadium would have been preserved similar to Fenway Park (they likely would have expanded capacity over time)
The only way the Dodgers would have stayed in Brooklyn was in a new ballpark. It was the city's refusal to enable it that forced them to move. Either way, Ebbets Field, unfortunately, had no future.
Born, and grew up in Pasadena(Mr.Robinson'sneighborhood). Have bled the blue all my life..would've loved to be in Brooklyn and see that team, at that ballpark..had a colleague, about 12 years my senior, who grew up in Jersey a Giants fan..he'd have my back hairs standing up talking about watching games at Ebbets and the Polo Grounds
Lost icons of a golden age in NY; The old Penn Station, Ebbetts Field and the Polo Grounds. Imagine if the Giants and the Dodgers played here still. The vacuum that O'Malley created, and the Mets couldn't fill was dominated by the Yankees. The baseball conversation in NYC would have been totally different.
Most ballparks will get replaced sooner or later...That Pac Bell Park in SF that the fans love, someday, maybe 100 years from now will be replaced, like Candlestick was. The fans hated Candlestick but now they all have their fond memories of it
If you mean Baltimore, I loved going to a game there once and wondered why they wanted to build a new park. But Oriole Park at Camden Yards may be the best all around park in the majors. Simple, attractive and feels like a baseball park and not an amusement center. But I still remember the picnickers on the grass outside the parking lot of Memorial Stadium without a fence surrounding it and enjoying themselves before a game.
The 60's and 70's was kind of a sad time for baseball stadiums. Many classic stadiums like this one, Forbes Field, Griffith Stadium, and the Polo Grounds were demolished for those hideous cookie cutter Astro turf stadiums. Luckily though after Camden Yards, that classic style has started to come back.
+Jamie Tattersall It was a bad time for architecture in general! It saw the destruction of many beautiful, historic buildings for hideous, functional concrete ones to be put in their place. Pennsylvania Station case in point!
The "concrete doughnuts" that got built (Shea Stadium, RFK Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, Riverfront Stadium, Busch Stadium, Astrodome, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Kingdome, HHH Metrodome, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum) were true dumps that didn't work for both football and baseball are now mostly gone. Oakland remains but for how long? Only 2 baseball only stadiums were built between 1960-1991. Dodger Stadium in L.A. and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Polo Grounds may have had history but it was hardly the last word in 20th century stadium design.
Dodger Stadium opened in '62. Shea opened in '64. Dodger Stadium is specifically a baseball stadium. Shea was a cookie cutter that was made for baseball and football. Other than hosting baseball teams in the summer they have nothing in common.
It wasn't a bluff. The Dodgers' owner would have turned the wrecking ball on Ebbets Field himself. He wanted an alternative site nearby, to be given him by the city through a misbegotten interpretation of an urban renewal program. The city turned him down, correctly. In the meantime, Dodger attendance was plummeting as the fan base gravitated to the suburbs.
Shea Stadium was supposed to be built for a Continental League team, that league folded before the first pitch when the Major Leagues expanded in the early 60s.
Also, NYC offered the Dodgers the land where Shea/Citifield is to build a new stadium. Walter O'Malley turned it down saying we are the Brooklyn Dodgers not the Queens Dodgers. Instead he wanted the land that is now the Barclays Center. NYC said no because of traffic concerns.
@@df5295 At the time the city was right. A lot of good businesses would have been lost then. By the time the Barclays Center was built the businesses were declining.
What's the story on Tom Brokaw offering memories of Ebbets Field? Brokaw was born in South Dakota in 1940 and graduated from University of South Dakota in 1964. According to Wiki, he DID visit New York as a high schooler once, and that would have pre-dated the demolition of the stadium, 1960, but there was no more baseball there after Sept. 1957. Brokaw was in NYC on a school-related junket with the South Dakota governor for a game show appearance but when was that exactly?! Guess they got out to the stadium? Maybe once? Brokaw was 16 or 17? Tom talks like he knew the place intimately, which is highly doubtful.
I grew up not far from Ebbets Field and have never forgiven the Dodgers for moving to LA. But the reality is that O'Malley struck gold on the West Coast and it was probably the right move.
Give it another 30 or 40 years and every single Brooklyn Dodgers fan will be gone and so will their memories. Most of the old Brooklyn Dodgers players have passed away.
Oh, this is so fantastic! As a AA ex ball player myself (in the mid to late '70s), I truly appreciate this. Was Larry King, the founder of Ebbets Field?
thanks for this film...if I had a time machine i would be sitting in Ebbets field. where pretty girls actually kept score. I don't think you could find a girl even a woman in her 40s who can keep score.
You are correct about Braves Field in Boston. The right field pavilion is still standing as part of BU's Nickerson Field. BU has 3 large dormitories built in the footprint of the grandstand of Braves Field and their indoor sports complex is built where the left field pavilion used to be.
I saw the actual Left Field Wall (w/ ivy covering) of old Forbes Field. The exact spot where Maz hit the HR that one the '60 series. Simply beautiful. ALSO inside the University is the actual home plate (under protective glass) from Forbes Field exactly where it stood for so many years.
Walter O'Malley put the dollar ahead of the fans. He saw an opportunity to control the West Coast of MLB and he took it. He showed, once again, that Baseball is a busi - ness disquised as a sport. I learned at an early age ... growing up in Brooklyn ... that being loyal to a professional sports team just doesn't pay. It's entertainment and you're just a custom- er ! Nothing more. 😩⚾
Well remember, Moses didnt want to build a new ball park over flatbush because he sought after building transit ways with roads and railways. And he didnt see any reason to build a new ballpark in Brooklyn.
It’s surprising that old Yankee stadium wasn’t torn down during the time when people didn’t care about the old and only wanted new, as a Met fan, I’m upset they tore down Yankee stadium because the history that stadium was apart of was breathtaking, playing a game or even watching a game in that stadium is something we will never be able to replicate, it’s sad that the polo grounds and beets came to that fate though, upsetting
A friend of mine, his dad grew up a Yankees fan in NYC back in the 50’s and 60’s. In 2014 he came to my uncle’s wake and when I asked him about what he thought of the new Yankee Stadium and tearing down the old one. He said he got to a game at the new Yankee Stadium in 2011 and he liked the new Yankee Stadium better than the one they just tore down. I said something about the old Yankee stadium having all that history back to the 1920’s and he said no it didn’t have that history because the real first Yankee Stadium was torn down in the 70’s. He said he remembered going to his first game after the renovation. He had come home for summer from college and it made him upset that they got rid of the real Yankee Stadium and replaced it with this new modern thing. When they built the new one a decade and a half ago, he said it was nice that they weren’t going to try to kid people that this new Yankee Stadium is the same thing as the old one.
But, the old Yankee stadium was effectively torn down in 1974. WHat was played in between 1976 and 2008, bore little resemblance to what Ruth, Dimaggio and Mantle played in.
@@crowtservo The remodeled YS never really worked, It was an awkward hybrid of the original park and Shea. But the memories of the games played there were great.
@@howie9751 He didn’t think that YS2 (the 1976-2008 version) didn’t have history, he thought it was a new stadium, had less history than people said and that trying to say it was the same as the 1923-73 version was wrong.
1956: Walter O'Malley wants to build Dodger Stadium over Flatbush Av RR Terminal. 1957: City to O'Malley: It's Dodger Stadium at the old World's Fairgrounds(later called Shea Stadium for obvious reasons), take it or leave it. 1958: "I'll leave it." 2008: Misha Prokhorov wants to build Nets Arena(Barclay's Centre) over Flatbush Av RR Terminal. 2009: City to Prokhorov: "How quick can you build it?"
The Brooklyn Dodgers opened Ebbets Field about 10 years before the old Yankee Stadium opened, but unfortunately in 1957 or 58 they headed out west to play in a bigger stadium in the city of Los Angeles, they could’ve stayed in Brooklyn but they couldn’t afford the land and the landlords wanted to build a new apartment building in it’s place. For many of you youngsters that never have seen the greatest games in the 20th century well you just missed it, but so did I since I was born about 29 years later in 1986, if you youngsters ever get off the subway at the Botanic Garden station and make a right you’ll see an apartment building and it may look like no baseball stadium had been there at all but if you look at that sign it did show proof that Ebbets Field was indeed there, one of the best players on the Dodgers who died a long time ago and had his number retired nationally that played until 1957 was Jackie Robinson, and unfortunately yes he was segregated by racism from very racist opponents when he was in Montreal and in Brooklyn, he was called a very racial slur which can be heard in his movie “42” which came out about 11 years ago to show Jackie’s career during the time black people were still being segregated and discriminated, he was the best player in Dodgers history, but the best scene in the movie was when he hit that home run out of Ebbets Field and crowds around the city of New York celebrated in victory especially my grand uncle Jack or Jack Corrigan, he is still a huge Dodgers fan even if they’re in LA he will still consider them as the Brooklyn Dodgers, he always went to all games at Ebbets Field, unfortunately Jack Corrigan (my grand uncle) has been diagnosed with dementia and cancer he’s in his mid 80s and being the best Dodgers fan he is he won’t even tolerate any bat flipping at Dodger Stadium especially at Citi Field or even at Yankee Stadium, in his mind it’s so inappropriate and dangerous and he’s got that right.
To Mr. Ladz-I'm a Chicago White Sox fan myself, but I also happen to the old Brooklyn Bums & likewise wish I could go back in time to watch a game @ Ebbets Field, particularly against the New York Giants. Just think, seeing a matchup of Jackie Robinson against Willie May's. I"m sure the Dodgers would have stayed in Brooklyn had it not been for Robert Moses refusal to let Walter O'Malley build the ballpark where the Barclay's Center is now. Who knows if the Giants would have stayed in Manhattan had the Dodgers stayed? The fans were moving to the suburbs; the Polo Grounds was falling apart, no longer fit for baseball.
Both actually, although the Dodgers were slightly more popular for their exploits and charisma. I doubt in the market today, that the City would support three major league teams in one place. One of them would have been moved west in those days of expansion.
I played against Wheaton Warrenville South in Illinois in high school, and their fucking center field fence was 475 feet. High school, 475 fucking feet, lol....it was ridiuclous
Well Missourians, look on the bright side, at least Kansas City still has Kauffman Stadium. Home of the Kansas City Royals. If you go west on I-70, going towards Stadium drive going into Kansas City, and if you look to your left, there it is: Kauffman Stadium.
@@JamesDavidWalley yeah, I know it's not as old as Fenway Park, or Wrigley Field. But, they do say that it's one of the vest ballparks to go to watch a game.
It was generally thought of as a hitters park. Baseball-reference states "Ebbets Field was known for its extraordinarily short dimensions in its later years. Not a single dimension exceeded 390 feet" and baseball-statistics says "The park was a terrific hitter's park, thriving because of it's small size and boosting both runs and home runs dramatically after the renovations in 1948 brought the left field and center field walls in by 14 feet"
One question about Ebbets Field that must remained unanswered. It was in the early World War 1 era when Ebbets was built and the "lively" ball era with home runs galore had not come in until about 1920. If the ball had been "dead" during the entire existence of Ebbets Field, would it had lasted at least another couple of decades before it reached its end?
I would say no to that, only because by the time the mid 50's , one of baseball's early profiteering businessman Walter o' Malley was looking for more profit, and saw the west as a opportunity for it.
I'm not even a baseball fan, but I wish they preserved Ebbets Field. It could've been home to a collegate team or a minor league team. It's an iconic landmark in not only sports history, but history in general because of Jackie Robinson's legacy. They should've at least preserved the field like the what other demolitions of classic ballparks did.
I grew up in Chicago and still remember the Brooklyn Dodgers. My favorite team is always the Cubs, the Dodgers always my second favorite. One of the biggest and most stupid blunders of baseball was to move the Dodgers (and Giants) to the west coast.
The Brooklyn Dodgers team name actually made sense because it fit perfectly fine.
A crying shame !! These landmark ballparks should NEVER have been torn down. They represented a precious part of our culture which ought to have been preserved FOREVER.
They need to make Fenway Park and Wrigley Field National Historical Landmarks.
+rockvilleraven they did it for Fenway Park
Wrigley should be next. Butler University's Hinckle Fieldhouse which was featured in the movie Hoosiers is also on the list.
Fenway Park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The current ownership is committed to operating it until at least 2060.
Funny, nobody mourned when they tore down Foxboro Stadium.
My first game at age 7 was the Brooks against the Cubs, June 19,1952. My dad walked me up the darkened concourse where we climbed a concrete ramp into the sudden sunshine where I glimpsed a miracle: baseball in color! The manicured, crayon-green grass, the red-brown clay infield, the dazzling colored outfield signs, and the towering -- to me at a tiny 7 -- black grandstands against the backdrop of a high blue sky. And I will never forget the peanut-popcorn-hotdog breeze wafting through the stands, and Gladys Gooding's light-hearted carnival organ music, and the thrilling moment when the Dodgers, in their milk white uniforms took the field, spurred on by the rousing fight song, "Follow the Dodgers." A game at Ebbets -- which felt like a game in your neighborhood -- was a symphony for the senses. That first game was historic too; it was Carl "Oisk" Erskine's first no hitter. When they tore down Ebbets in February '60, they tore down my kid's heart. I lived in Chicago for 20 years later in life and felt a "Dem Bums" kinship with the "Loveable Losers" Cubbies and their bandbox ballpark that felt a lot like being in Ebbets ... But baseball never felt the same again after they took away my Gorgeous Cozy Ebbets. (Alan Steinberg).
Beautifully written, Alan. I share your feelings completely, even though I never had the honor of seeing Ebbets. I lived near Chicago during the last years of baseball's golden age, and remember fondly the grand atmospheres of Old Comiskey and Wrigley. Times have changed. Now, a season ticket to Wrigley's bleachers will dock you more than 34 hundred bucks. In 1965, a season in those bleachers cost $81. Even with inflation, that was a bargain price! Players made about 50 grand at the most back then. Now, some of them make about a million just for throwing one pitch (if you do some fuzzy math, you'll see what I mean).
Alan Steinberg It looks a lot like Crowley Field in Cincinnati. Wish that it could have been saved. Office buildings there now.
Oh, by the way, Wrigley gets a bum rap as a bandbox park, but it's 355 down the left field line, as I recall, and something like 353 to right. Power alleys are 368, and center is 400. That's not really that small. It's the wind that makes it seem smaller.
@@cumulus1234 It's CROSLEY Field, not Crowley.
Kevin Miller When you try to type too fast misspelling happens.
Those Brooklyn fans were the best baseball fans ever. Italians, Jews, Irish, Poles, Norwegians, Blacks, etc. all united in their love of the Dodgers, men as well as women, boys as well as girls. And the Dodgers were named after Brooklyn pedestrians of the 1890's who had to dodge street trolleys.
Dennis Middlebrooks you have to wonder how many times kids cut class at Lincoln High School to take in a mid-spring Summer-like day to walk or take the train to Ebbetts Field, then head to Coney Island Beach...
@Craig F. Thompson Yep!
Blacks made the neighborhood unsafe
@@dakruise1 But now it has been largely gentrified, especially Eastern Parkway.
@Jimmy Perkins Thanks, you too.
I grew up as a Los Angeles Dodger fan and even I'm pissed that they left Brooklyn after watching this. Really wish I could travel back in time and watch a game there.
I wonder if Ebbett's Field were still up today if fans would say it's a dump and they need a new park.
Na bro I feel for Brooklyn people but Dodgers coming to LA is the best thing LA could have ever asked for
At least you can do the next best thing :
Listen to a 1957 Dodgers radio broadcast, and soak up the old time atmosphere!
ua-cam.com/video/9w7Kt1vo-3Y/v-deo.html
Craig F. Thompson wow that's crazy bro Dodgers don't play in Compton
South Side Comptown everyone knows that bitch he's thinking LA is shit like Compton and Downtown but there's nice areas
If the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, I would be a fan.
Brooklyn Dodger moves west for a better life
@@lloydkline1518 LOL 😆 no.
Call me sentimental, call me a wimp. Hearing from friends, relatives of the old parks, it brings me to tears....the lost memories, the new buildings replacing the old stadiums. It sucks.
As someone whose lived his entire life in Brooklyn, I can only imagine how the Dodgers brought the borough together. It looked like a really fun stadium and its a shame O'Malley and Moses couldn't work something out.
The City of Los Angeles stole the Dodgers from the County of Kings. A thief never acquires good title because the thing that is stolen always remains the property of its rightful owner. The Dodgers were born, bred and are of Brooklyn. O’Malley had the legal right to move but the “Dodgers” should have remained in Brooklyn, just like that fink Modell was not allowed to take the Browns to Baltimore.
Moses offered the corona/flushing queens site near the salvage yards. O'Malley wanted the Brooklyn yards location that wasn't available to be developed till the Barkley center. I grew up in queens 1 mile from Shea stadium. I'm a lifelong Mets fan who would have been a Dodgers fan. People should be greatful they had that neighborhood-home town relationship with the Dodgers while it lasted. I never had that with the Mets.
Moses the Cuomo of his day ...unyielding powerful man
TheLeftFieldMikeShow-Moses didn't WANT to work anything out. So when O'Malley couldn't get his desired location (where the Barclay's Center is now), he took the offer Los Angeles provided, and pulled up stakes after the 1957 season, taking the Giants with him, thus preserving the Dodgers/Giants rivalry.
@@kevinmiller6380 I think O'Malley had been scouting LA for years and always intended to move there.
I lived on one side of Ebbets Field (160 or 190 Fenimore St) and my grandmother lived on the other side. Prospect Park and Ebbets Field were our life. We were Dodgers fans, through and through!
Hi Carolyn! I'm doing a story about the community that lived around Ebbets Field and in the apartments that replaced the field. Any chance you'd be willing to talk for a brief interview?
Hey Carol! Answer her!
I grew up as a die hard Yankees fan because of my father. We had to move away when I was seven. But he had tears in his eyes when Ebbets Field was torn down. Those New York ball fields were special places for the all the fans.
Same here, but there was a reason those parks are gone.
I was a kid in Brooklyn and like my father and uncle, was a Dodgers fan. My first visit to Ebbets Field was through the center entrance and as I got to sunlight, the green was jaw dropping. It was home to us kids and our adults. I remember the Dodgers Symphoney and the fans. My favorite players were Jackie Robinson, Peewee Reese, and Duke Snider. When Jackie got on base, everybody stood up. He was amazing and played like nobody else, driving pitchers nuts. If someone yelled at a player, they could hear him or her and would sometimes answer because the distance from home plate to the stands was short. When I got into my teens, I remember winning the WS and the noise in the streets.
I had the same feelings in Chicago in those days, and was heartsick when they tore down Old Comiskey Park. Such a shame so many of the grand baseball palaces are gone. They had fantastic atmosphere. Now, here's something to think about: the closest upper deck seat to home plate (directly behind home plate) at Guaranteed Rate Field is farther away from the plate than the farthest one in the old park. Talk about lost intimacy. And I haven't checked lately, but the players probably want big bucks for autographs now, while in 1965 at Wrigley Field, I watched Mr. Cub Ernie Banks putting one foot slowly around the other as he side-stepped his way all around the back-of-the-plate screen, signing autographs on the scorecards kids had rolled up and stuck between the wires. Didn't see money exchanged, and Ernie spent about 20 minutes signing. Those were the twilight days of baseball's golden age. Gone but not forgotten. Oh, and my dad told me he sat directly above Satchel Page as that legendary pitcher warmed up in the Fenway bullpen in the early 1950's. You can still sit there now, I think. Thank God some shrines still exist!
I saw two games at Comiskey Park. It was a rickety old place and I was afraid to buy anything at the concession stands in the Upper Deck. But boy did I love watching a game there. You were so close to the field in the upper deck you could hear the SS curse when he made an error anywhere in the park. Haven't been to the new park yet but it's not calling me.
At least the Chi Sox stayed in the same neighborhood. The Dodgers left the confines of Ebbets field for the LA Coliseum and later a symmetrical modern stadium in Dodger Stadium. It is nice , but it isn't Brooklyn.
Teams losing the old park most of us can come to terms with....but leaving a loyal and thriving fan base....ya...not cool
Most people do not know the real story. O’Malley was not the villain, Robert Moses and Mayor Robert Wagner were. O’Malley wanted a new, bigger stadium. He would build at his expense. Wanted approval for site and Moses - Wagner denied. Moses wanted it built where Shea later was. LA and Minneapolis then offered O’Malley basically anything he wanted. One of the most financially profitable franchise moves ever.
Reminds me on the first time I came up the walkway at Fenway Park for the first time as a kid in the 80s. Amazed. Got the chills. Excitement. I’ll Never forget. Now it’s too expensive to go. $125 for shit seats
There are some places in Fenway where you can't see the batters circle and you miss most of the game. And some of those seats are expensive box seats. But if you have a good seat the place is magic.
what I would give to see a game there.Love the old Ballparks.
Long live the Brooklyn Dodgers
My ancestor Clarance Randall VanBuskirk was the architect of Ebbets Field.
My grandfather who is almost 90 grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. He still sports his Dodger cap with the B on it. He is salty to this day about the move to L.A. Gets him all riled up when he talks about it haha.
@Craig F. Thompson Nope. And I wasn't even born until 1966.
If only I had a time machine.....
I'd abuse it to watch every baseball game ever played lol
@James Williams aww what did uncle joe do to you, starve a relative of yours? Lol
I hear ya. 👂
I was only born in 1985, but even to me, the LA Dodgers just seems strange and outa place. Brooklyn Dodgers sounds sounds so much better.
Even the name date back to the era when Brooklyn had a lot of trolley cars that pedestrians had to dodge. Thus, the dodgers.
They had a number of names over the years. These include the Atlantics, Grays, Bridegrooms, Grooms, Superbas, Robins, and Dodgers. They became the Dodgers permanently in 1932 and they also were the Dodgers 1911-1912. They were the Robins 1914-1931 after their manager Wilbert Robinson.
The LA Dodgers have an excellent history of their own, (5 World Series wins, Koufax and a number of other great players), but the Brooklyn Dodgers were very special and should never have been moved.
And actually the name LA Dodgers is like the LA Lakers, is LA known for it's lakes? No, but Minneapolis where they moved from is.
@@sdgakatbk Correct, but even after they were officially called the Dodgers, they were still many times referred to as the "Flock" in reference to Robins. Newspapers would use the name because it had less characters in it and they could run a bigger headline.
@@Brooklyn3955 Wow, didn't know that Brooklyn!
@@sdgakatbk Also dem bums.
I was a die hard Giants fan and a bunch of my friends would often sit in the far right field corner at Ebbets Field when the Giants were in town. We'd heckle Furillo mercilessly and he came to know us. We coul'ndnt stand the Bum but at the same time we loved him because he was our villian. Furillo understood that and he'd always stop to sign autographs after the game. There was no greater rivaly. We hated the Dodgers and loved them at the same time.
I grew up in LA and my family were long time Brooklyn fans. I was delighted when my heroes moved to LA and was sad too. At age 9, 1957, I understood my heroes would not be the same after the move. The Brooklyn fans were the heart of the Dodgers and I was sad for them losing a team that was core to who they were. No more 'Boys of Summer." The Dodgers were a different team with new heroes. I missed the old Dodgers even as I cheered the new ones. Ebbits should have survived as a shrine.
Amazingly, Ebbets Field was built in the middle of nowhere. The location was a city dump known as "Pigtown." After Ebbets Field was built, a neighborhood sprung up around it.
There are a few iconic ballparks that deserve to be recreated. Even if the fan base and ballpark size couldn’t support a MLB team there should be a new Ebbet’s field and call it a AAA Brooklyn Dodgers again. Recreate the feel of that classic experience
Brooklyn already has a minor league team now, the Mets single A Brooklyn Cyclones who play at Maimonides Park right on the boardwalk at Coney Island.
my dad, who's a real old school tough guy and not prone to public displays of emotion, can barely talk about this place w/o his eyes welling up and his voice cracking. i love baseball, love my yankees and love/miss the old stadium but i must admit, this place (ebbet's field) must've been something else.
What's up with the new Yankee Stadium? It seems (and I have not personally been there) that the place is missing something. The bells and whistles of the old Stadium have not transferred to the House That Jeter Built.
That's because baseball...especially in New York...has always been a Working Class sport: the kind of thing that common factory workers could talk about over a beer. But the "new" Yankee Stadium is so insanely expensive, a Working Class fan can't afford it. Red Sox-Yankees used to be the toughest ticket in sports. Not anymore. Nobody can blow $2000.00 on a seat, snacks and souvenirs.
***** I've been there and its fine as far as a facility goes but as David Lafleche correctly states, the Yankees have created a class society in this new building. In the old building you could get general admission seats for under $10 but if you wanted to show up early enough you could go down the the rail next to the dugout and watch BP, chat w/players, get stuff autographed, etc. It was nice, it made you feel connected to the game, the players and the stadium. In the new park this area is off limits to anyone w/o a $2,000 ticket no matter how early you get there or whether the seats are empty during the game (which they often are). The people sitting there get waitress service for their food and drinks and it becomes very clear once you're there that the "VIPs" who can afford these box seats don't want to be bothered with, or mingle amongst, the "common folk" who can't afford these seats. To me and any others, this is not the Yankee stadium we grew up in and came to love. Baseball, at least there, was always a game for the masses. No matter your income, occupation or education level we all had one thing in common. This is no longer the case at the new yankee stadium
Thank you for your comments, David Lafleche and THEJMSESQ. It is unfortunate there was sort of a culture shift that occurred when the new Yankee Stadium was created. I was originally distressed in 2008 for the simple fact that so much tradition would be lost when the old stadium was torn down but now I see that there are more ramifications than I originally foresaw.
Nothing lasts forever. Even Yankee Stadium could be renovated only so many times before it had to be replaced. But that didn't mean it had to become a formal, black-tie affair.
I can see that there are limitations on how many times renovations can be made to an old ball park, but if they're going to knock them down, they can preserve a portion of the old structure and make it into some sort of museum.
You forget that apartment complexes are more profitable then museums (which is why ebbets field is now an apartment complex).
@@trolljones4386
Except they're not profitable. Subsidized by taxpayers.
I grew up near Ebbets Field, 14 years after they left. As kids we felt the tragedy. Older folks told us that they could hear the homeruns during the rabbi's sermon at the synagogue a few blocks away; the yeshiva students would jump on the Bedford Avenue trolley for 2 minutes to catch the last innings of ballgames etc. The neighborhood collapsed and descended into a crime-ridden ghetto after the Dodgers left. Had they stayed, our childhood would have been different.
Die Hard Red Sox fan here. I was born in '68 so Ebbets wasn't around when I was born but I watch these old films and I think how great it would of been to have seen a game there. I don't think I'll ever understand how a team that has dedicated and loyal fan support like they did can just pick up and move on to another city. It just ain't right I tell ya!
It's called greed. I see so many similarities between Fenway and Ebbets Field. So many similarities between the loyal Sawx fans and the Brooklyn Dodgers fans. What a thrill it would have been to have seen the Dodgers stay in Brooklyn and then years later maybe a Red Sox vs Brooklyn World Series.
I'm an LA dodger fan but I always felt bad about them leaving behind all these people who had fond memories growing up there with the Dodgers and the old ballpark. I wouldn't mind if they moved back, I'd still be a fan
@South Side Comptown Any more than the Giants would return to Upper Manhattan, what with the Mets being there.
@South Side Comptown Actually I meant the Mets are in The Queens section of New York City, not Manhattan.
@South Side Comptown you can give back the lakers TOO while you're at it! everybody knows there's no lakes in L.A.!
@South Side Comptown Guess what? The Dodgers, Lakers and Rams were ALL SUCCESSFUL teams where they were originally. That's why L.A. poached them in the first place.
@South Side Comptown You couldn't afford to live there now.
My great uncle was a Dodger/ Robin, he still holds most of the franchise records.
What a great video. I have those same feelings about the Old Arlington stadium where the Texas Rangers played. Yes, it was not the most appealing stadium but as a kid it was a Temple to me.... Seeing Nolan Ryan run the warning track before he pitched.... Those are memories I'll never forget
A few years ago I visited the site. You're first impression was how did they fit a ball park in such a small space. Then you imagine what it must have been like.
At that time nothing was preserved. Old was bad. In 1963 we lost old Penn Station and 1964 The Polo Grounds. In 1968 MSG III.
Steven Hamburg so
Yeah it’s a shame. Back then, they really didn’t think about preserving for posterity then. The mindset was “Pay extra money to save some junk? No way.”
The destruction of Penn Station was a crime against public architecture FFS! Unbelievably beautiful, used for only a few decades, and most of the chunks dumped into the Jersey meadowlands as landfill.
@@chasbodaniels1744 I only got to see Penn Station once. The station under MSG now is a disgrace.
Walter O’Malley wanted to stay in Brooklyn. He was willing to build his own domed Stadium where the Barclay Center is today. Robert Moses wanted the new stadium to be where Shea stadium would eventually be built...
I don't think nearly as many people in the New York area cared about the Giants leaving. Back in the '50's more folks in New York were Dodgers fans than Giants fans.
I'm obsessed with this era, even though it ended a few years before I was born. I like to play the "what if" game. Could the dangers have stayed after the Giants left for San Francisco? Would they have become the NY Dodgers, and relocated to Flushing?
It's hard to imagine. Maybe the Dodgers could have only stayed if the Giants also stayed, and Stoneham was broke and not drawing in the Polo Grounds.
It’s very sad all the memories and how special that time must have been.
Abe Stark went on to become the borough president of Brooklyn and was twice elected to the NYC Council. He died in 1972, three months before Jackie Robinson.
An ice skating rink and an elementary school in Brooklyn are named after him.
Went to many games at Met Stadium in Bloomington Mn. Hated to see it go, great memories from my childhood.
Was at the Metrodome once. Looked like a giant field house, couldn't believe major league baseball was being played there. How's the new Target Center?
The LA Dodgers should build an exact duplicate replica of Ebbets Field for their spring traing camp in Florida.
Their spring training camp is in Arizona; they moved there 7 years ago
That's actually a great idea. Like a miniature ebbets field
no, they should move back to brooklyn where they belong.
Yeah,who's paying for it.
There already is an exact replica...Citi Field. You can have it!!
Wow. For the fans, celebrities, and even for everyone who was born in the post-war, baby boomers and Gen X, they all remember the time that Ebbets Field became a ball Park in Central Brooklyn (Crown Heights/ Prospect Park) since 1913. : )
Life in Central Brooklyn, New York became a history for everyone to know that Ebbets Field (a ballpark) now become an apartment place for everyone to live in. Man, days go by.
The reason why they tore them down is that the classic ball park needed time after it was torn down for people to get nostalgic. If you visited one of them, I went to Connie Mack Stadium and the Polo Grounds several times, the atmosphere of a 50 or 60 year old ball park pulled the franchise down, not up. You would get confronted with the reality of a crummy team in a crummy venue. The next to last year that Connie Mack Stadium was in use they drew 519,000 fans for the entire season. The last two years of the Polo Grounds, the Giants drew 600,000 each year. The Dodgers also suffered because their fans had a reputation for being very rowdy. The suburban families were turned off by the thought of going to a place like that. Driving over miles of city streets from Long Island or New Jersey, then being worried about your car parked in such a lousy neighborhood, then paying good money to see a team play in a run down, joint like Ebetts Field. So the Dodgers tried to make Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City work for them and then bet the franchise that football oriented Los Angeles would support a baseball team after two minor league teams had gone broke there.
Sounds like Tiger Stadium in Detroit in the 90s. The team was dreadful, the Corktown area although a historic neighborhood was kinda dead (it's much more lively now) and there was no parking garage.
Everyone was moving to the suburbs. The neighborhoods changed. The parking was bad. The ball parks were outdated and needed repairs. NYC didn't want to build the teams new stadiums. Attendance was dropping. LA & SF were giving out big hand outs and had an untapped potential fan base. All this leads to the Dodgers and Giants moving to the West Coast.
@therealjoebloggs A true lesson learned, but we are replicating what L.A. did to New York baseball, moving a team from another state. The Dodgers were a true New York team, and all efforts should have been made to retain them.
The life and times of Ebbetts field and those that became part of it's daunting magic know words are not adaquate to describe what it was. A friday night with Musial and the cards in 1953 with the cigar smoke waffing ,mixed with the garlic of mustard, and the raucus sound of mocking instuments numbing a boy's senses, Yes it was stimulation overload that can only be experienced but not descibed. today those memories resonate even louder against today's backdrop of modern sterility.
Yes indeed, Ebbets Field had a style and identity that no other venue could replicate, its a baseball experience that must have been quite the time.
Hey, wasn't it the Brooklyn fan who named the Bucs Paul and Lloyd Waner Big and Little Poison? Poison was was really person in Brooklyn.
Notice the Abe Stark sign at the start of the video on the right field wall. Stark owned a large suit store in Brooklyn. The sign read "Hit Sign, Win Suit." Any player who hit the sign with a batted ball won a free suit. And any player who did so showed up to get his new suit! This was when major league players were not very well paid. Now the money the first base coach makes could have bought out Abe Stark's entire stock.
I'm not old enough to remember the Brooklyn Dodgers. They've always been the L.A. Dodgers to me, and Dodger Stadium has always been a monument to baseball.
That said... I agree with the guy at the end. Why tear down Ebbets Field? I can understand converting it and re-purposing it into the apartments that are there now, but they could've left a good portion of that stadium there. Heck, they could've left enough of the field there that kids could've played on it, and someone like me could've went.
Robert Moses the Master Builder of NYC hated baseball and actually did not even understand it's appeal. He wanted the land Ebbets Field and The Polo Grounds were on to build his high rise public housing complexes. Such an awful time in New York City. Ebbets Field, The Polo Grounds and the Original Penn Station all torn down.
great video, nice to see some color footage of Ebbets Field. If the Dodgers had stayed in Brooklyn, maybe the stadium would have been preserved similar to Fenway Park (they likely would have expanded capacity over time)
Craig F. Thompson dodgers have done better in LA then Brooklyn. 1 ring in Brooklyn in 60 years. 5 rings in LA
LA proved to be a gold mine and you can get twice the number of fans into the park. Plus better parking.
The only way the Dodgers would have stayed in Brooklyn was in a new ballpark. It was the city's refusal to enable it that forced them to move. Either way, Ebbets Field, unfortunately, had no future.
Born, and grew up in Pasadena(Mr.Robinson'sneighborhood). Have bled the blue all my life..would've loved to be in Brooklyn and see that team, at that ballpark..had a colleague, about 12 years my senior, who grew up in Jersey a Giants fan..he'd have my back hairs standing up talking about watching games at Ebbets and the Polo Grounds
Lost icons of a golden age in NY; The old Penn Station, Ebbetts Field and the Polo Grounds. Imagine if the Giants and the Dodgers played here still. The vacuum that O'Malley created, and the Mets couldn't fill was dominated by the Yankees. The baseball conversation in NYC would have been totally different.
I was at Ebbets Field once and don't remember it well, but I do remember the Polo Grounds and it wasn't much of a park.
Most ballparks will get replaced sooner or later...That Pac Bell Park in SF that the fans love, someday, maybe 100 years from now will be replaced, like Candlestick was. The fans hated Candlestick but now they all have their fond memories of it
It was a terribly built park but the Giants made it fun to go to a game. But it needed replacing.
My Grandpa used to be a Brooklyn Dodgers fan back In those days.
Pee-Wee Reese was his favorite player
Boy that's heart breaking but one fans misery is another one's joy, thank you Brooklyn for my Dodgers
It's a shame that such unique and storied parks have to be torn down. I remember how terrible I felt when Memorial Stadium was torn down.
Man, now that was a beautiful Art Deco design. Right smack in a residential neighborhood, and there it was. Quite a park.
If you mean Baltimore, I loved going to a game there once and wondered why they wanted to build a new park. But Oriole Park at Camden Yards may be the best all around park in the majors. Simple, attractive and feels like a baseball park and not an amusement center. But I still remember the picnickers on the grass outside the parking lot of Memorial Stadium without a fence surrounding it and enjoying themselves before a game.
Tex Rickard, the Ebbets Field PA announce, wearing the "Dodgers Announcer" shirt at the very end fade out.
My Mom grew up in Brooklyn and was a huge fan. She stopped following baseball when the Dodgers left town.
The 60's and 70's was kind of a sad time for baseball stadiums. Many classic stadiums like this one, Forbes Field, Griffith Stadium, and the Polo Grounds were demolished for those hideous cookie cutter Astro turf stadiums. Luckily though after Camden Yards, that classic style has started to come back.
+Jamie Tattersall It was a bad time for architecture in general! It saw the destruction of many beautiful, historic buildings for hideous, functional concrete ones to be put in their place. Pennsylvania Station case in point!
not sure i would've included the polo grounds in that group. plenty of history, yes, but as a baseball stadium it was pretty awful.
The "concrete doughnuts" that got built (Shea Stadium, RFK Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, Riverfront Stadium, Busch Stadium, Astrodome, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Kingdome, HHH Metrodome, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum) were true dumps that didn't work for both football and baseball are now mostly gone. Oakland remains but for how long?
Only 2 baseball only stadiums were built between 1960-1991. Dodger Stadium in L.A. and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
Polo Grounds may have had history but it was hardly the last word in 20th century stadium design.
I've never seen Dodger Stadium but i always thought it was a carbon copy of Shea Stadium (or vice-versa)?
Dodger Stadium opened in '62. Shea opened in '64. Dodger Stadium is specifically a baseball stadium. Shea was a cookie cutter that was made for baseball and football. Other than hosting baseball teams in the summer they have nothing in common.
Man, what a great place that must have been.
I guess they called the city on their bluff and the city lost
It wasn't a bluff. The Dodgers' owner would have turned the wrecking ball on Ebbets Field himself. He wanted an alternative site nearby, to be given him by the city through a misbegotten interpretation of an urban renewal program. The city turned him down, correctly. In the meantime, Dodger attendance was plummeting as the fan base gravitated to the suburbs.
@@naftush Unfortunately for us Brooklyn kids, it turned out to be the right move. LA is a gold mine.
Shea Stadium was supposed to be built for a Continental League team, that league folded before the first pitch when the Major Leagues expanded in the early 60s.
Also, NYC offered the Dodgers the land where Shea/Citifield is to build a new stadium. Walter O'Malley turned it down saying we are the Brooklyn Dodgers not the Queens Dodgers. Instead he wanted the land that is now the Barclays Center. NYC said no because of traffic concerns.
@@df5295 At the time the city was right. A lot of good businesses would have been lost then. By the time the Barclays Center was built the businesses were declining.
What's the story on Tom Brokaw offering memories of Ebbets Field? Brokaw was born in South Dakota in 1940 and graduated from University of South Dakota in 1964. According to Wiki, he DID visit New York as a high schooler once, and that would have pre-dated the demolition of the stadium, 1960, but there was no more baseball there after Sept. 1957. Brokaw was in NYC on a school-related junket with the South Dakota governor for a game show appearance but when was that exactly?! Guess they got out to the stadium? Maybe once? Brokaw was 16 or 17? Tom talks like he knew the place intimately, which is highly doubtful.
Great video, thanks.
I grew up not far from Ebbets Field and have never forgiven the Dodgers for moving to LA. But the reality is that O'Malley struck gold on the West Coast and it was probably the right move.
Give it another 30 or 40 years and every single Brooklyn Dodgers fan will be gone and so will their memories. Most of the old Brooklyn Dodgers players have passed away.
Give in another 30 or 40 years. LA will have entirely imploded.
My Aunt and Uncle followed the Dodgers out to California, when they moved their upholstery supply business. My Aunt, rest her soul, bled Dodger Blue
My dad’s favorite team as a kid
Oh, this is so fantastic! As a AA ex ball player myself (in the mid to late '70s), I truly appreciate this. Was Larry King, the founder of Ebbets Field?
Yes. And Ebbets founded Kings Park.
How come the show 2020 MLB does not have this stadium in their classic stadiums list
thanks for this film...if I had a time machine i would be sitting in Ebbets field. where pretty girls actually kept score. I don't think you could find a girl even a woman in her 40s who can keep score.
Come to Oakland, there are some in the bleachers
You'd have to take the 4 or 2 to get there now. I dunno if those subway stops existed then. I can't imagine how craptacular it was to park there.
It was a walk of six or seven small blocks from the subway. Not much more than at Fenway.
They have the home plate from Ebbets Field on display in Cooperstown
My Godfather told me great stories about the Brooklyn Dodgers
I heard part of Braves Field is still used by BU and part of Forbes Field is on Pittsburgh University campus.
You are correct about Braves Field in Boston. The right field pavilion is still standing as part of BU's Nickerson Field. BU has 3 large dormitories built in the footprint of the grandstand of Braves Field and their indoor sports complex is built where the left field pavilion used to be.
I saw the actual Left Field Wall (w/ ivy covering) of old Forbes Field. The exact spot where Maz hit the HR that one the '60 series. Simply beautiful. ALSO inside the University is the actual home plate (under protective glass) from Forbes Field exactly where it stood for so many years.
Walter O'Malley put the
dollar ahead of the fans.
He saw an opportunity
to control the West Coast
of MLB and he took it.
He showed, once again,
that Baseball is a busi -
ness disquised as a
sport. I learned at an
early age ... growing up
in Brooklyn ... that being
loyal to a professional
sports team just doesn't
pay. It's entertainment
and you're just a custom-
er ! Nothing more.
😩⚾
Indeed,he is narrating.
Well remember, Moses didnt want to build a new ball park over flatbush because he sought after building transit ways with roads and railways. And he didnt see any reason to build a new ballpark in Brooklyn.
It’s surprising that old Yankee stadium wasn’t torn down during the time when people didn’t care about the old and only wanted new, as a Met fan, I’m upset they tore down Yankee stadium because the history that stadium was apart of was breathtaking, playing a game or even watching a game in that stadium is something we will never be able to replicate, it’s sad that the polo grounds and beets came to that fate though, upsetting
A friend of mine, his dad grew up a Yankees fan in NYC back in the 50’s and 60’s. In 2014 he came to my uncle’s wake and when I asked him about what he thought of the new Yankee Stadium and tearing down the old one. He said he got to a game at the new Yankee Stadium in 2011 and he liked the new Yankee Stadium better than the one they just tore down. I said something about the old Yankee stadium having all that history back to the 1920’s and he said no it didn’t have that history because the real first Yankee Stadium was torn down in the 70’s. He said he remembered going to his first game after the renovation. He had come home for summer from college and it made him upset that they got rid of the real Yankee Stadium and replaced it with this new modern thing. When they built the new one a decade and a half ago, he said it was nice that they weren’t going to try to kid people that this new Yankee Stadium is the same thing as the old one.
But, the old Yankee stadium was effectively torn down in 1974. WHat was played in between 1976 and 2008, bore little resemblance to what Ruth, Dimaggio and Mantle played in.
@@crowtservo The remodeled YS never really worked, It was an awkward hybrid of the original park and Shea. But the memories of the games played there were great.
@@jonburrows8602 Never felt right.
@@howie9751 He didn’t think that YS2 (the 1976-2008 version) didn’t have history, he thought it was a new stadium, had less history than people said and that trying to say it was the same as the 1923-73 version was wrong.
Hundreds of thousands of people are still around who saw the Dodgers at Ebbets Field but how many saw them at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City?
1956: Walter O'Malley wants to build Dodger Stadium over Flatbush Av RR Terminal. 1957: City to O'Malley: It's Dodger Stadium at the old World's Fairgrounds(later called Shea Stadium for obvious reasons), take it or leave it. 1958: "I'll leave it." 2008: Misha Prokhorov wants to build Nets Arena(Barclay's Centre) over Flatbush Av RR Terminal. 2009: City to Prokhorov: "How quick can you build it?"
Robert Moses!
The Brooklyn Dodgers opened Ebbets Field about 10 years before the old Yankee Stadium opened, but unfortunately in 1957 or 58 they headed out west to play in a bigger stadium in the city of Los Angeles, they could’ve stayed in Brooklyn but they couldn’t afford the land and the landlords wanted to build a new apartment building in it’s place. For many of you youngsters that never have seen the greatest games in the 20th century well you just missed it, but so did I since I was born about 29 years later in 1986, if you youngsters ever get off the subway at the Botanic Garden station and make a right you’ll see an apartment building and it may look like no baseball stadium had been there at all but if you look at that sign it did show proof that Ebbets Field was indeed there, one of the best players on the Dodgers who died a long time ago and had his number retired nationally that played until 1957 was Jackie Robinson, and unfortunately yes he was segregated by racism from very racist opponents when he was in Montreal and in Brooklyn, he was called a very racial slur which can be heard in his movie “42” which came out about 11 years ago to show Jackie’s career during the time black people were still being segregated and discriminated, he was the best player in Dodgers history, but the best scene in the movie was when he hit that home run out of Ebbets Field and crowds around the city of New York celebrated in victory especially my grand uncle Jack or Jack Corrigan, he is still a huge Dodgers fan even if they’re in LA he will still consider them as the Brooklyn Dodgers, he always went to all games at Ebbets Field, unfortunately Jack Corrigan (my grand uncle) has been diagnosed with dementia and cancer he’s in his mid 80s and being the best Dodgers fan he is he won’t even tolerate any bat flipping at Dodger Stadium especially at Citi Field or even at Yankee Stadium, in his mind it’s so inappropriate and dangerous and he’s got that right.
To Mr. Ladz-I'm a Chicago White Sox fan myself, but I also happen to the old Brooklyn Bums & likewise wish I could go back in time to watch a game @ Ebbets Field, particularly against the New York Giants. Just think, seeing a matchup of Jackie Robinson against Willie May's. I"m sure the Dodgers would have stayed in Brooklyn had it not been for Robert Moses refusal to let Walter O'Malley build the ballpark where the Barclay's Center is now. Who knows if the Giants would have stayed in Manhattan had the Dodgers stayed? The fans were moving to the suburbs; the Polo Grounds was falling apart, no longer fit for baseball.
Now I see why Brooklyn felt betrayed by the Dodgers.
Interesting history.
Same thing happened with Victoria Park and Collingwood in the AFL.
Both actually, although the Dodgers were slightly more popular for their exploits and charisma. I doubt in the market today, that the City would support three major league teams in one place. One of them would have been moved west in those days of expansion.
I played against Wheaton Warrenville South in Illinois in high school, and their fucking center field fence was 475 feet. High school, 475 fucking feet, lol....it was ridiuclous
Well Missourians, look on the bright side, at least Kansas City still has Kauffman Stadium. Home of the Kansas City Royals. If you go west on I-70, going towards Stadium drive going into Kansas City, and if you look to your left, there it is: Kauffman Stadium.
ThePoreproductions WTH ?
Kauffman is nice, but it certainly isn’t an "old classic ballpark" - it practically screams "1970s" as much as disco and polyester pantsuits.
@@JamesDavidWalley yeah, I know it's not as old as Fenway Park, or Wrigley Field. But, they do say that it's one of the vest ballparks to go to watch a game.
@@ThePoreproductions The upper deck is a long ways from the field.
Not a dodgers fan,but if i could this would b my first choice to see.was it a hitters or pitchers park?
It was generally thought of as a hitters park. Baseball-reference states "Ebbets Field was known for its extraordinarily short dimensions in its later years. Not a single dimension exceeded 390 feet" and baseball-statistics says "The park was a terrific hitter's park, thriving because of it's small size and boosting both runs and home runs dramatically after the renovations in 1948 brought the left field and center field walls in by 14 feet"
@divisioneight Indeed, with more foresight and interest, these lost icons could have been spared, excellent comment division eight.
Ebbets Field was a famous park since it was where Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier
Old timer is SO right: “Well it’s just a ballpark... The Coliseum is a ballpark of Rome!” Such a shame that they had to tear it down
One question about Ebbets Field that must remained unanswered. It was in the early World War 1 era when Ebbets was built and the "lively" ball era with home runs galore had not come in until about 1920. If the ball had been "dead" during the entire existence of Ebbets Field, would it had lasted at least another couple of decades before it reached its end?
I would say no to that, only because by the time the mid 50's , one of baseball's early profiteering businessman Walter o' Malley was looking for more profit, and saw the west as a opportunity for it.
I'm not even a baseball fan, but I wish they preserved Ebbets Field. It could've been home to a collegate team or a minor league team. It's an iconic landmark in not only sports history, but history in general because of Jackie Robinson's legacy. They should've at least preserved the field like the what other demolitions of classic ballparks did.
If you want to see a good documentry on the Brooklyn Dodgers, watch The Ghosts of Flatbush.
I miss baseball.
They all idolize the place now, but the whole reason for them moving was that people stopped coming to the games.
Fuck it.. I'm building a time machine! Who's with me?!
They should bring back those baggy unies at least for a couple of games a yr
Sadly there are no more Dodgers. The term was synonymous with Brooklyn. They should have been renamed The Los Angeles Smog Chokers.
I like the Brooklyn dodgers
What's the name of the show this clip was taken from?????
I think it was from The Ghosts of Flatbush
I grew up in Chicago and still remember the Brooklyn Dodgers. My favorite team is always the Cubs, the Dodgers always my second favorite. One of the biggest and most stupid blunders of baseball was to move the Dodgers (and Giants) to the west coast.
Blunder? The West Coast turned out to be gold mine!