Built by Dodger owner Charlie Ebbets, fans entered through one of twelve turnstiles to find themselves standing in a grand marble rotunda and would look up only to see a chandelier with twleve baseball bat "arms" holding twelve baseball lamps. After finding their seats fans could follow the official scorer's decision by turning to look at the Schaefer Beer sign in right centerfield where the "h" lit up for a hit and the "e" lit up for an error.

 

Ebbets was the field that not only hosted the 1949 All-Star Game and nine Fall Classics, but was also the very field that Jackie Robinson first stepped upon as the first African American Major League Baseball player.  Sadly for fans, on September 24, 1957 the Brooklyn Dodgers played their final game at Ebbets Field defeating the Pirates.

 

 

"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.

 

Written By: Ridzky A. Riyadi

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/stadium/stadiume.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

It was seventy years ago today that Major League Baseball made it's television debut.  On August 26, 1939, NBC television aired the first game on W2XBS, an experimental network broadcasting out of New York.  The game took place at Ebbets Field between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.  It was a doubleheader, but only the first game, which the Reds won 5 - 2, was televised.

The announcer for the game was Red Barber. Barber was the play by play man for the Dodgers at the time.  He worked the game alone and handled all of the ads by holding up the products, discussing their virtues, putting them down and going back to play by play.  There were two cameras used for the game, one on the ground and one in the upper deck.

Since were only approximately 500 television sets in use at the time and because the signal only reached within a 50 mile radius, very few people actually saw the first braoadcast.

Red Barber continued on as the Dodgers broadcaster until 1953.  He moved to the Yankees and retired from broadcasting baseball in 1966.  NBC continued to air Major League Baseball games periodically from the 1940's through 2000.

 

Red Barber interviewing Leo Durocher after the game