Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York….and was known mainly for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League, from 1913 to 1957….but it was also home to three National Football League teams in the 1920’s. Ebbets Field was demolished in 1960 and replaced by apartment buildings.
Ebbets Field was one of several historic major league ballparks demolished in the 1960’s….but more mythology and nostalgia surround the stadium….along with its demise than possibly any other defunct ballpark….as a great deal of history happened at Ebbets Field during its 45 years. Of the many teams that uprooted in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the Dodgers have probably had the largest number of public laments over their fans’ heartbreak over losing their team. Several decades later, Roger Kahn’s acclaimed book The Boys of Summer….along with Frank Sinatra’s song “There Used to Be a Ballpark” mourned the loss of places like Ebbets Field….and of the attendant youthful innocence of fans and players alike. The story of Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles were also chronicled by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin….which figured into the plot of the movie Field of Dreams….and were featured in an entire episode of Ken Burns’ public-television documentary Baseball….as well as a 2007 HBO special documentary called Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush…..as Danny Kaye’s 1962 song about the Los Angeles Dodgers contains this line exhorting his team to win….“Come on, you Flatbush refugees!”
