The Lost Ball Parks: Ebbets Field

up next a journey back to Ebbets Field once upon a time in Brooklyn they've existed a love affair between a borough and a ball club the romance blossomed at a place called Evitts field needs to take the train to Prospect Park get off at the Prospect Park station and then walk through toward Botanical Gardens and then make that right turn and there it was Evans field well over to Brooklyn Dodgers the most intimate ballpark in baseball and then go into the rotunda and walk through a series of gangways and suddenly it was like spring in your heart you walk out in this beautiful emerald green diamond and the colorful scoreboard and thirty thousand people max when I went there I perfect felt given my loyalty that I was on holy ground somehow and I walked around the place went and found my seat had a pretty good seat you know I was up in the lodge over first base so I could see everything and then when I think back on it the park was so small that everybody had a good seat well ever sit was a cozy cozy cozy place in five minutes you could mean everybody instead you our fans knew each other because they were there every day the players in those days would always come over to the stands and sign autographs and kit around with the fans Pee Wee Reese the Jackie Robinson Campanella they were not only great players and heroes of yours but there were personal friends they were part of your family and the players were part of this too I remember being on the mound and I could hear the people understand and if they have a bad day in Brooklyn if we did hey they let you know what big-time but when you had the good days let's see nobody could support you're stronger then a good Brooklyn Dodger fan I think the real fan was a Dodger fan you had the less of an elite element and more of a kind of a rowdy noisy neighborhood crowd you had all these great characters it was kind of a fun carnal atmosphere it had the happy Felton's not whole gang and they'd always bring some kids to Ebbets Field who were allowed to come for free they would call the knothole gang because in the old days of baseball people would actually you know make little holes in the wooden fence so they could watch the ballgame through through the people the only thing more colorful than the Brooklyn fans was the advertising that covered the outfield walls well the signs in Ebbets Field were really remarkable there was a sign in right field that said Lana lies your shoes with esquire boot polish and there was a song I'll analyze your shoes with Esquire blue polish and you will look handsome all day old gold cigarettes and of course Schaeffer beer and topped the scoreboard why didn't you wrinkle proof ties I'm 80 years old I have never encountered a wrinkle proof time gym single edged blades and the most famous of signs is one of the smallest under the scoreboard head sign winner suit age star clothiers Pitkin Avenue and all the time I covered the Dodgers and watch the Dodgers as a kid nobody could hit the sign you could not hit that son on a fly first of all you couldn't get a line drive two feet high to go all the way out video yeah and hit that sign that sign was never hit but the sign with the rest of Ebbets Field was soon gone in 1960 two years after the Dodgers did the unthinkable by moving to Los Angeles Abbott's field was demolished while the sights and sounds of Brooklyn's lost a ballpark still ring out for many they are more bitter than sweet why move why teardown Evans field I was raised to think Evans field was like the pyramids that would always be there or at the very least like the Colosseum in Rome the wreckage of Ebbets Field would really beat it people say it's only appalled for Ike Evans field the Coliseum is only a ball park in Rome

Channel: prausch65

Views: 240,412

Rating: 4.8736844 out of 5

Keywords: Brooklyn, Dodgers, Ebbets Field, baseball.

Id: FJMCa-8Teb4

Length: 4min 57sec (297 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 03 2010