Ebbets Field

The History of Ebbets Field

Flatbush Brooklyn hosted the majestic yet cramped Ebbets Field — home to the Brooklyn Dodgers. The ballpark was built by Dodger owner Charlie Ebbets at the cost of $750,000 and until 1929, no press box was present in the stadium. Fans could buy tickets in one of the twelve gilded ticket windows, enter the majestic marble rotunda through one of the twelve turnstiles, and look up and see a chandelier with twelve baseball bat "arms" holding twelve baseball lamps. Home of the Abe Stark sign, host to the 1949 All-Star Game & nine Fall Classics, and the field where Jackie Robinson first stepped upon make Ebbets Field one of the most legendary ballparks in history.

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"Charlie Ebbets, the owner of the Dodgers, was building a magnificent new baseball palace way out in Flatbush, to be named after himself, and slowly acquiring enough good players to climb out of the second-division residence the Dodgers had fallen into ever since 1903, even before Hanlon left." - Leonard Koppett in The Man in the Dugout (2000)

Ebbets Field

Ebbets Field

Major League Occupant(s)

First Game 04-09-1913
FirstNightGame 06-15-1938
Last Game 09-24-1957

Ebbets Field

Ebbets Field

Ballpark Capacity

Capacity Changes
(Yearly Attendance)
1913 18,000
1924 26,000
1926 28,000
1937 35,000
1938 32,000
1940 34,219
1941 34,000
1946 32,000
1952 31,902

Ebbets Field

Ebbets Field

Ballpark Dimensions

Backstop 1942 64'
1954 70½'
1957 72'
Centerfield 1914 450'
1930 466'
1931 447'
1936 399'
1938 402'
1939 400'
1947 399'
1948 384'
1955 393'
Left Center 1932 365'
1948 351'
Left Field 1913 419'
1914 410'
1921 418'
1931 384'
1932 353'
1938 365'
1939 357'
1940 365'
1942 356'
1947 357'
1948 343'
1953 348'
1955 343'
1957 348'
Right Center

1913 352'
Right Field 1913 301'
1914 300'
1922 292'
1926 301'
1938 297'

Ebbets Field

Ebbets Field

Miscellaneous Items of Interest

Demolished On 02-23-1960
Architect Clarence Randall van Buskirk
Construction Castle Brothers, Inc.
Cost $750,000
Owner Brooklyn Dodgers, Inc.
Field Surface 1913-1957 Natural Grass
Highest Attendance 41,209 05-30-1934
Ebbets Field Postcards
Ebbets Field Postcard

Ebbets Field Postcard #1

Ebbets Field Postcard

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Ebbets Field Postcard

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Ebbets Field Postcard

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Ebbets Field Postcard

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Ebbets Field Postcard

Ebbets Field Postcard #6

Ebbets Field
baseball almanac flat baseball

baseball almanac fast facts

"The Fall of Ebbets"

Ebbets Field was a special place
From the excitement of the pennant race

To the agony of losing to the Yankees
But all of Brooklyn cried on their hankies

When the home they called heaven
Was lost in 1957

Before they left, it was all going well
The Dodgers were doing kind of swell

In the fall of '55
The whole city was alive

None had a clue that the home they called heaven
Would be lost in 1957

That year they finally got over that hump
They finally broke out of the slump

They won a championship for the very first time
They all celebrated from sunrise to bedtime

They finally beat the Yankees in a best-of-seven
Two years before 1957

The very next fall, Gil, Campy, and the Duke
Proved that the past year was no fluke

They tasted very little of defeat
They were thinking of repeat

It came down to another game seven
In the place they called heaven

They lost and heaven began to crumble
To third place the Dodgers stumble

Then, broke the sad, sad story
That Ebbets would no longer see glory

Everyone knew that the home they called heaven
Would eventually be lost in 1957

One final game at Ebbets Field
Even then the Dodgers refused to yield

And with that final victory
Brooklyn baseball was history

Every Brooklynite filled heaven
All knowing it would be gone after 1957

Now, it's time to say good-bye
No Brooklynite had a dry eye

The Dodgers had just left town
Leaving Brooklyn with a frown

Brooklyn knew that the home they called heaven
Would soon be no more after 1957

Time for heaven to fall
Look out here comes the wrecking ball

With mighty blows from a steel bubble
Ebbets Field became rubble

No more was the home they called heaven
To the ground it went after 1957.

The first night game at Ebbets Field (June 15, 1938) appears in the Baseball Almanac fabulous feats section, because it was also the second consecutive no-hitter thrown by Johnny Vander Meer.

A stunning eighty foot circular rotunda greeted Ebbets Field fans as they entered the ballpark and it was made of Italian marble with baseball-style "stitching" along with twelve turnstiles, twelve ticket windows, twelve lights shaped like baseballs held up by bat poles and a twenty-seven foot ceiling.