Ebbets Field, the Best Ballpark There Ever Was

You might not even realize it, but if you live in Flatbush, you have an Ebbets Field–sized hole in your heart. The home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 to 1957, it was considered the soul of Flatbush for 45 years — and then disappeared practically overnight.

Most everything I know about Ebbets Field I learned from baseball historian Eric Enders. I worked on several books with him, including Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, where he states that Ebbets Field is “arguably the most beloved ballpark in baseball history.”

It all began in 1908. One day (as the story goes) Ebbets was walking through a part of Flatbush known as “Pigtown”...yeah, it wasn’t nice. Located near Prospect Park just north of Empire Blvd, it’s now considered part of Crown Heights on the Prospect Lefferts Gardens border, but back then, Flatbush had a much larger spread.

Ebbets realized that he could buy up a tract of Pigtown land along Bedford Ave pretty cheap — and it would be near NINE train lines, perfect for spectators. (Many of these lines were trolleys, and others ran out of what’s now the Prospect Park subway station.) There was no claiming imminent domain for stadium construction in 1908, so over a period of more than 3 years, Ebbets patiently purchased the land parcel by parcel while he toured the US with architect Clarence R. Van Buskirk, peeping other “baseball palaces” that were popping up.

Ebbets Field opened in 1913, the year after Ebbets himself bought a home in the Fiske Terrace section of Flatbush (on Glenwood Road where it dead-ends at the subway). The first three decades they were at Ebbets, the Dodgers were terrible — but the fans didn’t care. They spilled out of nearby bars, cheering, playing instruments, and using the game as an excuse to party. Many of the team members lived in the neighborhood themselves, and were known to the local bartenders and shop owners.

“More so than any other sports franchise in America, the Brooklyn Dodgers were deeply intertwined with their community. The players mostly lived in the neighborhood; it wasn’t unusual to run into a Dodger while you were out grocery shopping or pumping gas,” Enders writes in Ballparks. “Brooklyn fans were louder, rowdier, and—most of the time—more supportive than any other fans in baseball.” 

Ultimately, as ball clubs do, the Dodgers got good, signing a bunch of amazing players whose names you’ll recognize even if only follow baseball on a Field of Dreams-type level: Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider aka “The Duke of Flatbush” — and of course, Jackie Robinson. Robinson lived in Bed Stuy and was known to ride what’s now the Franklin Ave shuttle to work. 

In addition to bringing big-name stars into Flatbush, Ebbets Field also introduced Flatbush to the world —the Dodgers were one of the first teams to start broadcasting home games on TV. People from Flatbush were seen as “everyday Americans” who were fun but also down to Earth — think Bugs Bunny, who was created in 1940 and has a Flatbush accent. 

Historically, Flatbush hasn’t always been a place where people of different races have been peaceful toward each other. But in Ebbets Field, they cheered together. After a day’s work, the people of Flatbush would go to the field—whether they were paying to go inside or just hanging around out back hoping to catch a homer—or put the game on the radio. Either way, they’d listen to the friendly voice of announcer Red Barber, who was known to say the bases were “FOB” (“full of Brooklyns”) when loaded. “If the words on the Statue of Liberty meant anything at all, they applied to Brooklyn in the old days,” Barber later said. “You had Blacks, Jews, Italians, Irish, Polish and others working hard to make a living, and they all cared passionately about their ball club.”

That made it all the more crushing when the Dodgers left Brooklyn for LA in 1957. Why? Well, it’s kind of like the Civil War. The cause of the Civil War was our nation’s dependence on slave labor. There was also some other stuff involved. The cause of the Dodgers moving to LA was their owner, Walter O’Malley wanting to make money. But there was also some other stuff involved.

Today, the sacred ground once known as Ebbets Field is a giant apartment complex that many of you have visited and even lived in. There’s a plaque in the sidewalk next to the parking lot that indicates the location of the Ebbets home plate, and I like to think that, despite the complex’s problems, good karma still emanates from the point. Many Brooklyn Dodgers fans are now Mets fans, and Citi Field was built to resemble Ebbets. 

When I wonder what the neighborhood would be like if Ebbets Field was still standing, I look to Wrigleyville in Chicago, an entire neighborhood that defines itself around Wrigley Field (and its gay community. and some other stuff.) When I visit Chicago, I’m always surprised at how essential Wrigley Field is to my friends who live in Wrigleyville, even the ones who I don’t consider sporty. It’s more than a game, it’s a way of life. Spring is seen as the time they get to all come together as a community, in the ballpark. We have Prospect Park of course, and the beach…and we still have plenty of bars…but it’s a damn shame we no longer have a ballpark. Slay in Peace, Ebbets Field.

I plan to write more articles about the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field in the future, including about some of the (in)famous fans and the players on the field. If you have your own memories of Ebbets, please leave them in the comment section below all these glorious photos!

A view from the stands of Ebbets Field during the last year the Dodgers played there, 1957. The buildings you see straight ahead in the distance were most likely on Sullivan Pl, or perhaps Empire Blvd. Bedford Ave is behind the scoreboard. (Photo: Old NY Photos.)

Hot dogs were just as important to the ballpark experience back then as they are today. A woman sells a variety of sausages near the stadium circa 1915–1920. In the background, you can see that the neighborhood (a section of Flatbush known as Pigtown) looks way different than anywhere you’d find a major league ballpark today. (Photo: Library of Congress.)

More hot dogs! This time right in front of Ebbets. Is the attractive man in front of the pole staring at you, or is it just me? (Photo: Library of Congress.)

Fans milling around outside Ebbets circa 1920, at the corner of Sullivan and McKeever Places. McKeever Place was originally known as Cedar Place, but was renamed in 1932 after one of the contractors who helped build Ebbets Field. In 2006, the street was given the honorific name Zenita Thompson Place, which shows up on Google maps even though I don’t think anyone actually calls it that in real life. In 2014, the New York Times tried to track down who Zenita Thompson is and was relatively unsuccessful. Anyone have any clues? (photo: Library of Congress).

As the photo editor for Ballparks, I looked through dozens (sometimes hundreds) of photos from every major league ballpark that has ever existed in the US. One thing that separated out Ebbets from parks in places like DC, Chicago, and Pittsburgh was the number of photos of women in the stands so early on. For a while, Ebbets even had a “ladies section” for women who didn’t want their ears accosted by the filthy language from the men in the stands. During the last two seasons at Ebbets, women got in free at every Saturday home game. Here, Genevieve Ebbets, the daughter of Charles Ebbets, throws out the first ball from the stands. (Photo: Library of Congress)

Two women, Mrs. Anna Meyers and Mrs. Cheney, cheer on their Dodger-player husbands in this 1916 photo. They would have been considered casually attired back then — most women dressed up to go to the ballpark, wearing giant hats and elaborate corsages. Meyers’ husband Jack Meyers was notable not only for being a great player but for being Native American. Many Native Americans found their way onto teams long before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, and most were nicknamed called “Chief” because white people are ridiculous. (Photo: Library of Congress)

This aerial photo shows where Ebbets Park stood, on the border of what’s now Crown Heights and Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Prospect Park is in the background — you can even see the lake. The main thoroughfare in the foreground in Bedford Ave and the street leading to the park is Empire Blvd. (Photo source unknown)

The term “knot hole gang” is often used for baseball-related events with lots of kid spectators, like special stadium days and ticket packages. It originated with literal knot holes, which gangs of kids would take turns looking through to watch a game from outside for free. By this time in stadium construction, few knot holes remained, but Brooklyn kids made it work. (Photo: Old NYC Photos.)

Dodger fans waiting in line for bleacher tickets share a pot of (spiked?) coffee in this photo snapped by the Brooklyn Eagle before Game 4 of the 1949 World Series. “Another banner crowd in the old Flatbush ballyard will be out to root the Dodgers back into a tie,” the Eagle reported (they did not — the Dodgers lost). Fans would often hang out all night outside waiting for tickets — check out this photo of them playing cards. (photo: Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection)

In this photo of the Ebbets scoreboard (and a player really going for it), you can see the deep outlines around the h and e in the Schaefer beer sign. They lit up when there was a hit (h) or error (e). (Photo: found on Flickr)

The 1952 World Series in Flatbush. Even if you don’t want to watch the whole thing (called by Red Barber!), at least take a look at the beginning, which has good shots of the grandstand and dugout, and a very sensible message about how only you can prevent forest fires.

This was the view of Ebbets Field from the edge of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 1916. Flatbush Ave is in the foreground, and that lil’ house is a fire department signaling station. (Photo: Old NYC Photos)

This photo of Dodgers fans outside the stadium in the 1920s shows how enthusiastic the fans were, how awesome hats are, and that there were still patches of random grass in Flatbush. (Photo: Library of Congress)

The parking lot at Ebbets Field in 1916. According to the aerial photo shown above, it appears that the parking lot was behind the stadium at the current site of Medgar Evers College. (Photo: Library of Congress.)

As hard as it is to imagine today, Ebbets Field was part of the fabric of Flatbush for 40 years — even the traffic. This photo shows cars driving down Bedford Ave. toward Sullivan Pl. with Ebbets Field in the distance (photo: the depths of the internet via Flickr.)

The front of Ebbets Field — from the point of view of Empire Blvd., approximately the current site of the McDonald’s today. If you’ve heard ANY Brooklyn trivia EVER, you know that the Dodgers were originally called “the Trolley Dodgers.” This was kind of a sweeping nickname for loser suburbanites at the time, from people in Manhattan who had moved on from the trolley era. (photo: Old NY Photos)

Fans cutting across a Mobil station) heading toward Ebbets Field sometime in the late 50s.

Believe it or not, one of the ways Ebbets Field was used between when the Dodgers moved to LA and when it was demolished two years later was as a site for a demolition derby. The sacrilege!

The Oct 10. 1955 edition of Life magazine featured a story about Ebbets and the World Series by the one and only Joe DiMaggio. Three weeks later he would divorce Marilyn Monroe — no, that’s not relevant but c’mon, he was married to Marilyn Monroe! Click thru for a clearer version.

Ebbets Field during a 1939 night game, as seen from across Bedford Ave. From this angle today, you’d be looking right at the ugly-ass “Ebbets Field” apartments sign in front of the complex. Doesn’t it break your heart a little, even if you’re not a baseball fan? (photo: Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection)

Iconic view of the outside of Ebbets Field, shortly after its opening (photo: Wikimedia commons)

Citi Field, the best ballpark in New York City today (yep I said it), is modeled after Ebbets Field. (photo: me)

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