History of Ebbets Field
Ebbets Field was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 until 1957 when the team left Brooklyn for Los Angeles. In that capacity, Ebbets Field was the site of dramatic pennant races, World Series triumphs and tragedy and a number of record setting performances. During that period, the ballpark also hosted many other sporting events, including high school, college and professional football, track and field and boxing. Improbably, the facility also hosted outdoor productions of opera.

Named after Dodger President, Charles Ebbets, the facility was part of the great period of ballpark construction during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Beginning in 1909 with the construction of Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and Shibe Park in Philadelphia, the old generation wooden ballparks were largely replaced with new structures of steel and cement. Prior to this time, major league baseball teams played in wooden facilities that had limited seating capacity and were always at great risk of fire. The development of reinforced concrete was the technological breakthrough that enabled teams to construct more durable facilities at a reasonable cost.

In the case of the Dodgers, their wooden home was Washington Park, which had been built in 1898 when Charles Ebbets became the controlling interest in the Dodgers. In addition to the standard disadvantages of such facilities, the ballpark was located in a less desirable industrial section of Brooklyn. The team lost revenue from the limited seating at Washington Park, and the Brooklyn club also suffered from significant competition from the other New York baseball teams.

During the first decade of the twentieth century, the Giants won the National League Pennant twice and were invariably competing for the flag. At a time when ticket sales were the primary source of revenue, the advantages of larger seating capacity and better teams gave the Giants a major financial advantage. Some evidence indicates that during the first half of the decade, the Giants revenue was about three times that of the Dodgers. The period also saw the introduction of American League baseball into New York - while the Yankees were not a good team at this time, the additional competition did nothing to help Charles Ebbets and the Dodgers.
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In setting out to build his ballpark, Charles Ebbets’ first challenge was location, followed by the cost of land acquisition. Operating in deep secrecy, he selected an unattractive area that was unattractively dubbed “Pigtown,” but which had the significant advantage of close proximity to a number of subway and trolley car lines. Understanding full well what would happen to land prices if his plans were known, Ebbets set up a “dummy” corporation to acquire the land without anyone knowing the purpose. Although it took several years and probably cost more than Ebbets wanted, he was able to accomplish his goal by the end of 1911. Ironically some 40 years later, it was the same issue of land acquisition that prevented Walter O’Malley from building a new Brooklyn home for the Dodgers.

With the land in place, Charles Ebbets held a grand dinner on January 2, 1912 to announce his plans to build the new ballpark. The original goal was to complete the facility by August of 1912 and play the first game there on the anniversary of the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Brooklyn, even though the Dodgers were scheduled to be away that day. However, delays and cost overruns slowed down the process so that the Dodgers couldn’t occupy their new home until April of 1913. The cost overruns also forced Ebbets to take on two new partners, the McKeever brothers, Steve and Ed.

Finally, in April of 1913, Ebbets Field hosted its first major league baseball game, an exhibition contest between the Dodgers and the Yankees, which was won by Brooklyn in the last inning. Later that month, the Dodgers lost the first regular season game at their new home, 1-0, to the Philadelphia Phillies. Like most Deadball Era parks, Ebbets Field had seats extending from home plate down each foul line and ending at the beginning of foul territory. Except for the short distance to the right field corner, there was a vast amount of space in left center field. The more intimate park remembered today was the result of the addition of seats in the outfield during the winter of 1931 that encroached into fair territory.

The opening of the new park, accompanied by pennants in 1916 and 1920 and the legalization of Sunday baseball in 1919 gave significant financial returns for the Dodgers and the owners. Unfortunately, the death of Charles Ebbets and Ed McKeever, within one week in 1925 (McKeever caught pneumonia at Ebbets’ funeral), introduced infighting amongst the Dodgers’ owners that almost destroyed the team. Fortunately, new ownership in the 1940s and 50s revitalized the team into the National League powerhouse known affectionately as “The Boys of Summer.”

In addition to 1916 and 1920, Ebbets Field hosted the World Series in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956. Perhaps ironically, the greatest moment and worst moment in Brooklyn Dodger history, the seventh game of the 1955 World Series (greatest) and the third game of the 1951 National League playoff (worst) didn’t take place at Ebbets Field. In fact, only two seventh World Series games took place at Ebbets Field, both losses to the New York Yankees in 1952 and 1956. Some of the greatest Dodger moments at Ebbets Field included Carl Erskine’s record setting strike out performance in the 1953 World Series and Cookie Lavagetto’s breakup of Bill Bevans no-hitter in the 1947 Series. Tragic moments on the Dodger home field have to be topped by Mickey Owen’s dropped third strike in the fourth game of the 1941 fall classic.

No brief history of Ebbets Field would be complete without mentioning that Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers successfully broke the color barrier there on April 15, 1947. Interestingly, Robinson played both his first and last major league games at Ebbets Field. Far less well known is that Rutgers football All-American Paul Robeson played in an early college football game at Ebbets Field, most likely making him one of the first African-Americans to play in an inter-collegiate football game at a neutral site.

By the 1950s, Ebbets Field had become much like its predecessor at Washington Park – a deteriorating physical structure with limited seating capacity. Sadly, unlike Charles Ebbets, Walter O’Malley’s attempts to obtain land for a new facility were unsuccessful. The combination of obstruction (Robert Moses) and ineffectiveness (Robert Wagner and other elected leaders) by New York officials created a situation which ultimately cost the city its two National League teams.

Ebbets Field was ultimately torn down for an apartment complex in 1960 leaving only the memories of what was for so many a sacred space, indeed a secular Cathedral. Yet the memories of both the ballpark and the Dodgers have endured for the past five decades and are certain to continue forevermore.