Ebbets Field, Redux

Superlatives ran amok at last night's opening of the Mets' new ball yard in Queens, but ironic was not among them.

A pity, really, because there is a wonderful, if little known tale that explains a great deal about the new and handsome Citi Field -- how and why it came to be, and why it looks and feels as it does.

The new park has risen in what was the parking lot of the late and barely lamented Shea Stadium, which when it opened in 1964 represented the apex of stadium design: airy and modern and with only the vaguest hint of brick.

Shea is gone, as is the Vet in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh's Three Rivers, Cincinnati's Riverfront, even the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Astrodome. Do I spot a tear? I think not.

In their place, of course, are ballparks that are meant to transport us back to a simpler time, when men wore straw skimmers to the ballpark, and neckties, too. The new parks are smaller than the big bowls they replaced, a downsizing in scale -- though not in ticket price -- designed to create a sense of intimacy, ironic (there it is) in that that was the very quality that places like Shea were built to eradicate.

The Shea-to-Citi connection is juicy stuff from an anthropological point of view. In the beginning -- which is to say, in the early 20th century -- there was Ebbets Field (there was also the Polo Grounds, but it is hard to take seriously a ballpark with a center field so deep that it ended with a ladder that led to the clubhouse). Ebbets Field was small and cramped and it had no parking, and it was these deficits that compelled the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Walter O'Malley, to search for new digs. Preferably in downtown Brooklyn -- yes, Brooklyn sentimalists, the old SOB really wanted to stay; I read the letters; it's no lie -- and failing that, Chavez Ravine.

When O'Malley departed, taking the pliable Horace Stoneham of the crosstown Giants with him to California, New York was left without a National League club. The city fathers, chagrined at losing not one club but two -- ah, what Oscar Wilde would have done with that one -- dispatched an emissary, William Shea, to scour the land for a National League club that might want to relocate.
Shea set out bearing a gift: the promise that the city would build a new ballpark in Queens. Emphasis on the new. Because in the late 1950s new is what people wanted. New homes in new towns built near new highways.

Long story short, Shea found no takers. But he did gain enlightenment. The owners had no intention of moving, or of expanding. Rather than return home empty-handed, Shea sought out the wisest counsel in the land, Branch Rickey, the most forward-looking executive in the history of the game.

Rickey, then in unwelcome retirement after five losing seasons in Pittsburgh, preached boldness. Don't go begging for an extra team or two, he advised. Better to start a whole new league, with clubs in New York and seven cities that had tried and failed to secure membership in the big leagues.

The story of that league -- the Continental -- and how the owners worked feverishly until they killed it, will wait for another day. But suffice it to say that the key to the whole enterprise was New York, and that the key to New York was that new ballpark in Queens. And that the key to the ballpark in Queens was that it look and feel nothing like Ebbets Field.

Yet here we are, 50 years later, and standing hard by the Grand Central Parkway is a ballpark that approximates the look and the feel of -- don't all shout out at once -- Ebbets Field.
Tastes do change. But that misses the point. Fifty years ago the prevailing view was that Americans wanted nothing more than to get away from each other -- a little space, a little green, life looking not out from the stoop, but to the backyard. But in the years that followed, baseball did not blossom in those big new parks.

Indeed, something was lost in the move to places like Shea -- and here is that word again: intimacy. Shea was selling the park that was to bear his name as something altogether different than what had come before: he was not merely selling grand (because, yes, parks like Yankee Stadium were grand). He was selling was selling space and air and distance.

Last night, in an arena where Shea's name fittingly joins the retired numbers of Seaver, Stengel, Hodges and Jackie Robinson, baseball witnessed a return to the past.

We're back where we started, in Ebbets Field, rotunda and all.

Comments

[Lita Smith-Mines - Huffpost Blogger]

Having spent every spring, summer & fall at Shea since 1964, I regarded that stadium as a home away from home. It leaked, it reeked, it rocked, and it held so many of the memories of my team, the NY Mets. Not my parents' beloved Dodgers.

While I appreciate the desire for a new ballpark, and the owner's love of those same Dodgers,Citifield doesn't evoke any nostalgia in me. If I moved from a 40+ year old, four bedroom house where I raised a family to a brand-new, two bedroom empty-nest condo, I guess I'd appreciate the modern amenities and the intimacy of my new digs. But whatever touches the builder put into the condo to resemble his boyhood home would certainly not make me feel instantly comfortable in a place where the only things that look familiar are the jerseys and Jay Horowitz.

I'll get used to it, and may even come to love it. But my "good old days" were spent at the place so many called a dump and wished good riddance.

[RobinSeattle]

The Mets outdrew the Yankees during the 1960's and 1970's, didn't they?

Anaheim Stadium was also new in 1965 and it was relatively more intimate than the multipurpose parks east of the Mississippi. There were no outfield seats until the Rams moved in and ruined the ambiance of what was a pleasant place to see a game.

Getting back to the Dodgers leaving, though, I understand how that happened. It is talked about at length in Fetter's "Taking on the Yankees." To be frank, I think the right decision was ultimately made to deny O'Malley a new park. Of course, it also benefited me, a native Southern California guy.

[Whiterabbitt]

I was a avid Mets fan before they all went on strike several years ago, Since then I have attended no baseball games, bought no Hats, not anything to do with baseball. Not even a steroid or two. And, from the look of attendance records over the last few years I am not the only one who has given up on the great American Game (money of course) I don't miss it at all, they don't need my money to buy steroids, they already make enough, so why do my tax dollars go to build and stadium? Do I have a choice?

[RobinSeattle]

Huh? MLB has set new attendance records the last few years, including another one in 2008. It used to be that seeing in over one million fans in your park was relatively rare,. Now it is commonplace.

[WoodyTanaka]

What are you talking about? Attendence in baseball for the last few years has been astounding.

And if you stopped watching baseball because the players wanted a piece of the revenue they help generate, then you were never really a fan to begin with.

[stonelaw]

I guess his point is attendcence would have been even higher? Hey, cut me a break - I'm just trying to help the guy out here!

[BrooklynDodger58]

I believe If one Walter F O'malley had genuinely wanted to "stay" the dodgers would still be in New York. . Fans in Brooklyn would have been upset if the team had been moved to queens, but let's see.......Queens or La, Hmmm, I think we Brooklyn fans would have accepted Queens, don't you? O'malley moved because he got more, simple. Let's put the right name too it, the dodgers went to the highest bidder. Ok, it's a business, but it's also something more as the Anti-trust exemption supposedly claims it is, is it really? Who was looking out for the Brooklyn fans? The Dogers were profitable too! please.....He could have stayed and now the Mets are worth more than the dodgers, funny that too. Also what's ironic is Ebbets field goes and now there trying to call this new park a "new" Ebbets field, so I guess that wasn't as bad as the propaganda reported at the time either, huh? add more parking, fix the park up a little, Fenway and Wrigley are still here unless I'm mistaken. So really the bottom line is If Walter O'malley had wanted to stay and enjoy the monopoly on National league baseball in New york with the Giants gone. He could have stayed and yes, he could have still called them the Brooklyn Dodgers. He simply ater realizing he wasn't going to get more in New york chose not too, out of greed, come on people, let's get it straight.

[RobinSeattle]

Yeah, Kenny Hahn and the whole west side Democratic political machine in L.A. basically bent over and grabbed their heels for O'Malley. It actually turned into a visionary move for the Dodgers during a time when the population in California was growing by leaps and bounds. The Giants, though, got the booby prize (Candlestick Park).

[WoodyTanaka]

"Who was looking out for the Brooklyn fans?"

Oh, give me a break. Even with the Giants and Dodgers leaving, (which was GREAT for baseball, by the way) baseball fans in NY still had the Yankees; it's not like they took professional baseball away from New York.

Besides, who cares? It was 50 years ago. Stop whining about it and being such a provincial crybaby.

[gevan]

You told that story without mentioning those two essential words: "Robert Moses".

[stonelaw]

I recently read an article here on Huff Post that included a statement that Fenway Park is "the oldest professional baseball stadium in the country." (note: "professional," not "major league"). I planned to comment later - but couldn't find the article. So here is as good a place as any.

Fenway Park is NOT the "oldest professional baseball stadium in the country." That honor, as I know, belongs to Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. I've been there, seen an old Oakland As minor league play there featuring Reggie, Blue Moon, and Catfish (at least I think they were all there at the same time). It was in the 1970's before the Birmingham Barons pulled out of Rickwood and moved to nearby suburb Hoover.

But Rickwood Field remains - with one minor league game played there each year - continuing to make it a professional league stadium. If you're interested, which I hope you are, check out their website. The stadium is a throw-back. The lights are the same as in 1936. It's incredible.

http://www.rickwood.com/

.

[gevan]

One game per year is a lovely idea, but doesn't exactly make it the home field for a professional team.

[stonelaw]

"Home field for a professional team" was not the subject of my comment. Sorry you missed my point. You might try the link - you might be interested and learn more of what I was writing about.

[LeonBNJ]

Don't forget that Shea Stadium was designed for a dual use - football and baseball, as a way to cover the costs of it. Since the mid-1970's, we demand separate stadiums for reasons benefiting both sports. I wish instead of a corporate name with some serious issues, the entire field could have been named for Jackie Robinson. I also wish they realized that many fans need decent seats and concessions for reasonable prices and with the CitiField, they are priced out even further. That will ruin more of their fan bases.

[WoodyTanaka]

Who says, "ball yard" anyway?

[Paul]

Somewhere Walter O'Malley is smiling.

[UnknownSoldier]

Rac-ism is the history of baseball in NYC, Brooklyn was getting to dark. Robert Moses was against O'Malley and his integration and thusly the Dodgers and the Giants left.

[RobinSeattle]

According to what I've read, that really isn't true. The reasons O'Malley left were pretty much economic.

There's no denying the role racism played in decisions by MLB teams. but I don't think it applies as much here. Now if you want to talk Griffiths pulling the Senators out of DC, well, okay.

[Motorinstructor]

It's a shame that this beautiful ballpark was not constructed in Brooklyn. The design of this field screams Brooklyn. A place with character should be surrounded by brownstones, not auto shops and parking lots.

[Emmory]

Oh yeah... It would have WAYYYY cheaper to build in Brooklyn...
Don't we pay enough already for baseball tickets?

[Michael Shapiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Tell me about it. Happy as I am for the good folks of Flushing, I cannot help but feel in my bones that this park should be standing in Flatbush.