Results tagged ‘ Brooklyn ’

Three Hands Down, 24 to go; Vintage Baseball Returns to Brooklyn

 
 
Back in Brooklyn; Where Baseball Grew-Up…
 
 
 

The gentlemen from the Vintage Base Ball Association came back to Washington Park this year for a doubleheader featuring the New York Gothams Baseball Club and the Flemington Neshanock Baseball Club.

 

 

If you remember last year (2009), The New York Gothams participated in a three team round-robin along with the Brooklyn Atlantics and Newark Eurekas.  And while Brad “Brooklyn” Shaw was on hand representing the Flemington Neshanock BBC, the team itself did not play.  The Flemington Club made their way to Brooklyn this time for a two game match against the returning Gothams.

 

On the left is Gotham’s Rafael “Wickets” Garcia
and on the right is Flemington’s 3rd baseman Jon”Hammer” Hepner
 

That would be Brad “Brooklyn” Shaw on the left.
There’s no smiling allowed, remember?
 
The Neshanock Club was kind enough to pose for a team picture.
 
The Gotham’s John “Stacks” Hyslop on the left;
Matt “Monk” Gebhart on the right….. 
 
 
They were absent from last year’s team pic. (2009)

 

Once again these ”Jolly-Young” skilled gamesmen graced us with their displays of vintage athletics; being steady at bat, accurate and strong with arm, resolved, quick and swift of feet in the field of play and ever the Gentlemen.

 

 
 
 
Game Action.
 
 
“Wickets” at the bat
 
 
A developing play at home.
 
 
 
Game Action
 
 
 
 
 
In this video please take notice to the fine hand work by the Catcher.  His hands were like magnets.  Think about this/his smoothness without a glove, then take some time to envision how good players were and how excellent the brand of Ball would have been, back 150+ years ago.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Game Action
 
 
“Stacks” reminded everyone why third base is referred to as
the Hot Corner.
 
 
Closing Ceremonies, Appreciation for those in attendance and a Gentleman’s Salute.
 
 
 
 
http://vbba.org/
 
And now I’d like to introduce to you the Official of today’s match, former Vintage Player and co-author of the vast amount of research done concerning Baseball History
and particularly with regards to Brooklyn’s Baseball History;
One of the men behind,
http://brooklynballparks.com/
 
Mr. David Dyte
 
 
 
It’s some-what of a sacrifice for these gentlemen to play here in the modern version of Washington Park.  It is after all, a public city park, with a newly installed artificial surface.  These players are accustomed to playing on real dirt and grass surfaces with more conducive dimensions and conditions than this location can afford.
So for my part, I thank you sincerely, as a Baseball Fan and a native Brooklynite passionate about his Borough’s role in the game’s history…, for coming out and sharing this brand of Baseball, your enthusiasm, not to mention all your hospitality and affable personalities; again I thank you.
It is my sincerest hope not only to take in a tournament next season, but that you fine gentlemen return to Brooklyn and continue these “Manly Displays” of Base Ball.
“Any Un-Manly Behavior will be made to pay a fine to The House”
No Rounders !
No Rounders !
 
 
Catch up on last year’s posting to learn more about the
History of Washington Park, The Federal League and the Brooklyn Tip Tops,
concerns about preserving historical baseball sights in the Borough and plenty of pictures from last year’s action during the Vintage Base Ball Association’s time in Brooklyn; 2009.
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/02/whats-at-3rd-ave-and-1st-street-a-trolleyride-thats-what.html
 
 
 
Mike
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.blogspot.com/
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/
 
 
 
 
 

An Heirloom of Kings

Transcendental;
Born of a by-gone era and passed down through generations
like a family heirloom ~
I speak, quite possibly, of something wholly foreign to anyone living outside the NYC limits,
and still then, there are the unlearned amongst us right here.
But to those who’ve lived, and know; or resided on the block between
Memory Lane and Remember Ave;
To those who cling on to the best in our lives; to those who wear our memories and future dreams on our chests like Cub Scout Badges or ribbons if you were a Brownie,
To those of us who proudly call the Borough of Kings home ~
A TOAST
TO MY DEAR FRIENDS
This picture watered the eyes of a Dreamy Doll this afternoon.   
But this picture also gave her a snapshot of life as a member of
THE EGG CREAM SOCIETY*;
as a denizen of Brooklyn.
The $2.18 elixir of goodness is always money well spent for my part,  but I think someone else
made a connection with memories that are priceless.
 
If there’s something more you want from life sometimes it helps if you remember where you came from.  If you’re in the neighborhood, take a time out from the 21st Century and spend some time in a place where it’s still cool to look at pictures in black and white.
All Hail the EGG CREAM!
For over 60 Years..
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
5th Avenue off 86th Street
 
 
 
Trying to start up a new week of voting for
HOVVG
There’s one problem ~ Need More E-MAILS!!!!
I have one from Randy.
Send in a candidate post haste to
tripletoright@yahoo.com
 
 
 
 
Mike
http://TheBrooklynTrolleyBlogger.blogspot.com/
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/
 
 
 

Pennant Fever in Coney Island

2010

NEW YORK PENN LEAGUE

McNAMARA DIVISION CHAMPS

BROOKLYN CYCLONES

2001 ~ 2003 ~ 2004 ~ 2007 ~ 2010

Our Baby Bums “doo’d it” again for the fifth time; We captured a division pennant.  Now the Cyclones will set out to chase, and perhaps tie the Club’s record for most wins in a season.  The record for most wins by the Cyclones was set by the original 2001 Cyclone team.  That team fashioned a 52-24 mark on their way to a NYPL Championship.  The 2010 Brooklyn Cyclones currently sport a 44-21 record.

Last night’s final was a 10-0 shutout road victory over the Connecticut Tigers.  Yohan Almonte (BKN) pitched the league’s first complete game shut-out of the NYPL season, surrendering only 6 hits on the night.  Almonte improved his season record to 8-4 and lowered his ERA to 2.00 with the effort.  The Baby Bums will return to Coney Island for a Tuesday game versus Vermont.  Including this Sunday afternoon’s game the Cyclones have eight games remaining on the schedule before the playoffs.  As the team currently with the best record in the league, the Cyclones will face the Wild Card team in the first round of playoffs.

I will be at the game Tuesday night to welcome our Boyz back, congratulate them Lil Bumz for the division pennant and root them on to another regular season victory against the

Vermont Lake Monsters.

The Cyclones have been an offensive juggernaut this season in terms of NYPL expected production levels.  Brooklyn has ridden a Core of Five that Drive this team.  Wally Backman has showed no hesitation using a set line-up and riding it.  That is a debatable strategy when organizational development is called into to question.  But the fact is, this is Brooklyn and the fan base demands just a little bit more from this team, than do perhaps our competition and their towns; to include Staten Island..  It’s a little bit of a delicate balance the team and the parent club have to balance.  But this team showed some very early promise and as they progressed through the schedule they showed no signs of slowing down.  I’d offer when a baseball team shows early indications of something special, and nothing transpires to blur that vision, you ride the wave.

The Brooklyn Cyclones have ridden that wave since the second week of the season all the way to the famous seashores off Coney Island and a post season birth in what’s proving to be one of the club’s finest seasons ever.

Darrell CECILIANI has been by far this team’s MVP if you’re asking me.  Maybe by the time I go through a little synopsis of the Five that Drive you’ll debate me.  That’s all good.

Darrell Ceciliani is hitting .351 after 65 games played in 262 at-bats with 92 hits.  He has 54 runs scored; 18 doubles; 11 triples; 34 RBI and 138 Total Bases while getting things started for the Cyclones at the top of the line-up.

In last night’s game the Cyclones tied their club record for most home runs in a season set, again, by the original 2001 team.  There are three primary reasons for that; 

Cory Vaughn (Greg Vaughn’s),  Rylan Sandoval and Jeff Flagg.

*Cory Vaughn ~ .305 batting avg. ~ 63 games, 236 at-bats ~ 39 runs ~

12 HOME RUNS ~ 46 RBI

*Rylan Sandoval ~ *.330 batting avg. ~ 47 games

9 HOME RUNS ~ 29 RBI

*Jeff Flagg ~ .258 batting avg. ~ 65 games

8 HOME RUNS ~ 45 RBI

The fifth player deserved of mention as part of my self-described

“the Five that Drive” this team is infielder Joe Bonfe.

.322 batting avg. ~ 63 games ~ 33 runs ~ 13 doubles

4 home runs ~ 27 RBI

 

This has been a very dominant buncha Baby Bumz. 

The league standings and statistic boards prove that out.

 

In my next Cyclone’s post I’ll review the pitchers who had a special season in their own right. 

 

Wally Backman has benefited from the parent organization getting most of their amateur players signed after the draft and in uniform in time for the start of the 2010 A Class-Short Season.  Wally has handled the players smartly, comported himself with professionalism, respect for the game and Brooklyn, and delivered fine baseball to the Borough of Kings.

 

This team is not a low-level minor league off the highway operation in my view.  This team is a very BIG deal to me and a MAJOR part of my life now as it has been since day one.  I watched everyday, girder by steal beam, as the home of my future Baby Bumz was being built.  I was in attendance for their first game.  I’ve experienced highs and lows with this team that rival the emotions I have for the Mets and MLB as a whole.  I plan summer around my Cyclones tickets purchase every year and work everything else around that.  What does that tell you?

 

I LOVE THIS TEAM!

 

My all-time ManCrush!

Picture if you will ~ Friday evenings, mid-summer, a Nathan’s Hot Dog, Baseball, home town team, fireworks night, lemonade, a cool ocean breeze coming of the beach at Coney Island, neighborhood friends, old Brooklyn Dodger fans, new young Cyclones fans, a stroll on the boardwalk after a victory, taking a ride on NYC LandMarks ~ Cyclone Rollercoaster or the Wonder Wheel, then a ten minute drive home with no traffic.  What’s better than that?

 

 

A relic of Coney Island’s glorious past….

 

…and an instance where the past came alive again with Coney Island’s

new LUNA PARK.  Luna Park was one of the four original main parks

comprising Coney Island in it’s famed heyday of 100 years ago and like the others,

burnt down multiple times, and after the last time, never restored again.

The new Luna Park replaces the AstroLand lot and is directly across the street from it’s original home.

This is just but a small taste of what we lost with the closing of

ASTROLAND PARK

..A cool little train ride through Hell.  Yippeee!

 

But after some…

and a few…

…we all learn how to keep marching forward….

Just like these two guys who used to hang out in Brooklyn once..

Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson

..From Coney Island,

Let’s Go Cyclones!!!

Mike.BTB

http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.blogspot.com/

http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/

 

THIS is Your HoVVG!

It never dawned on me to make the HoVVG a real place (in a virtual sort of way).  But Jane over at http://janeheller.mlblogs.com/ ~ Confessions of a SheFan inspired this post;  or should I say she unwittingly supplied me with an epiphany that will kill three birds with one stone.  She commented on the post I was running this morning.  It was a simple picture gallery for our first 20 elected members of our HoVVG.  This was her comment this morning:

“Where will the HOVVG be housed? In Brooklyn, I would assume?”

I responded to her through an e-mail this morning from my phone.  Before I even sent the message I knew exactly what I was going to do.  I deleted that post and offer you this. Without further delay, join me as I kill those three birds Jane inspired me to take out this morning with one stone.

This Is Your

HALL

of

VERY VERY GOOD!

 

There it is.  Our HoVVG.

Ain’t she a Beauty?

Yes!  Yes everyone, the HoVVG will be HQ’d in

BROOKLYN, N.Y.

Jane, you assumed correctly.

 

Bird One ~ we found a physical home for our HoVVG.

Bird Two ~ This impromptu TROLLEY RIDE was inspired, like I said,

By our delectable, Jane a.k.a ~ SheFan.

You know the routine folks, jump the Trolley and hang off the side.

I’ll have youz all speakin Brooklynese by th’time I’m dun witch’yuz.

We’re going to the cradle of something we hold dear like family;

The Ball Park.

HoVVG now symbolically resides on hallowed ground.

Let it be Written; Let it be Done.

Our HoVVG is bordered by four streets

in one of the earliest nurseries of our National Pastime;

Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Marcy Avenue ~ Rutledge Street ~ Harrison Avenue ~ Lynch Street

is where once stood Brooklyn’s

UNION GROUNDS

1862 ~ 1882

In 1883 ~ The Baseball grounds met their end.  The site became a

New York State Armory and still remains home to New York’s National Guard.

Why this place?

This was the first fully enclosed ball park in America.  Sir William Cammeyer, proprietor, enclosed the playing field with a fence.  He now required an admittance fee to watch Baseball games; the first admission charged to a ball game.  Union Grounds was the first ball field to offer concessions for it’s patrons.  Those same patrons were sitting in the first fixed seating area for the purposes of viewing Baseball; the first stands/bleachers ~ your preference.

Union Grounds grew with and beyond Baseball’s original amateurism. 

Union Grounds played host to teams from the first Professional Baseball League;

The National Association of Professional BaseBall Players; est. 1871.

Union Grounds also played host to a team in the first year of operations

for what we still know today as the

NATIONAL LEAGUE of BASEBALL ~ est. 1876

Teams which called Union Grounds home at various times:

New York Mutuals ~ N.A. and N.L.

Brooklyn Eckfords ~ N.A.

*BROOKLYN ATLANTICS ~ N.A. ~ My favorites!

Hartfords of Brooklyn ~ N.L.

 

Union Grounds is the backdrop for this Baseball Fashion picture.

The site is only one time removed from it’s original purpose

serving as the place where our little game of Baseball grew up.

I ask you all ~ Is this not an appropriate location for our

HoVVG ?

 

And lastly there’s the matter of that third pigeon I’m aiming for.

The site continues to remain unrecognized by…ANYONE.

MLB’s offices on Park Ave.,  just across the river within shouting distance of Williamsburg, make no efforts to recognize the site.  The City of New York, Dept. of Parks and the Office of Public Affairs seem terribly uninterested in speaking with me over the phone.  In the land of Schizophrenia inducing Bureaucracy I am forcedback into the Matrix with one of these:

The evil standard request form!

 

 

 

There are some of you who really have the gift of Gab. 

Some of you are incredible Wordologists; more-so than I.

 

You know what I’m getting at.  Drop me an e-mail with some suggestive wording for my formal request to have a marker; a plaque; SOMETHING!…designating this location as a site very important to Baseball’s History.  A plaque would be nice. 

Does anyone want to start a petition?

Does anyone want to gather names (potentially)…do we conduct a grass roots effort to get this site some recognition?  Those are all periphery issues and food for thought.  But if you do have suggestions for the standard request form…e-mail me at TRIPLETORIGHT@yahoo.com

 

I’d like to go through a couple of drafts while the season winds down and mail this out some time in the fall.  I’d like to spend a some more time doing a little more research and perfecting a statement the city will find hard to ignore.

 

There! This Trolley just killed three birds.  Sue me.

It was nice to go on another Trolley Ride…wasn’t it?

The unplanned ones are the mostest funnest for me.

  

 

Here are your first 20

ELECTED MEMBERS

of the

HALL OF VERY VERY GOOD

 

But first..

Thank you all very much for your participation.  I hope it’s been fun for all.  It has been loads of fun for me.The comments are classic.  I think this HoVVG keeps us, the game and different time periods all connected in a loose and entertaining way. 

You all made it much better than I thought it could be.  Don’t forget send in an e-mail anytime with a candidate so we can put him up to a vote.  I hope the next 20 players provide as much fun as the first group of 20.

 

 

Current holder of the title:

“Main Man in Charge of the Hall”

 

with a 100% approval and the highest vote total

Dave Parker

 

 

 

The REST of the 100% CLUB:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*******************************************

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

That’s it folks. 

Take a deep breath and get back to your lives.

 

 

Mike.BTB

http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/

http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.blogspot.com/

 

Babies, Bums and Freaks, Oh My!

June 19, 2010
CONEY ISLAND

Our iconic Parachute Jump; a relic of Coney’s glorious past.
Brooklyn
Today is a special day in Brooklyn.  This day represents two things for it’s denizens.
Coney Island plays host to two Brooklyn institutions:
The Mermaid Parade
and
OPENING DAY
for
The Brooklyn Cyclones Baseball Club (A)
How I would love to take you into the glorious past of this strip of Brooklyn’s beach front.  We think of it as an extension of our backyards.  It’s really a place just like the rest of our neighborhoods.  There’s no gate; entry fee; hand stamp; open time; close time, structure, organization or central authority.  It doesn’t even have a sign saying “Welcome to Coney Island” per say.  It’s just somewhere we live our normal lives but with rides, food, baseball, freaks, bums and a beach.  You know, the normal stuff.
It’s not corporate and sterile.  We know the owners of the various attractions like I know the owner of the world famous Cyclone Roller Coaster for years.  Coney Island is an evolution of good, crazy, wacky and down right stupid ideas for the servicing of human curiosity, tickling their psyche, old fashioned entertainment; and a little bit of shock value but harmless fun for your senses.  There is no other place like Coney Island nor will there ever be.  At present the once Capital of the East Coast (100 years ago) is in a major state of flux.  Part of the uniqueness to Coney was the multitudes of individual ownership of the various parts of the area.  Coney Island was never and should never be a centrally controlled, homogenized entity.  The great varied minds who delved into entrepreneurship in Coney and the evolution of the park over the decades is what made Coney great.  Presently, there’s a land grab under way by groups looking to detract from Coney’s uniqueness and incorporate more traditional aspect to the area like Condos and attractions to make the place a more year-round destination.  As it stands, Coney Island’s attractions are seasonal.  But the place is never really closed.
Condos?
PLEASE with that NOISE!!
Get that BUM outta here!!

For me it’s a few stops on the train.  Stop signs and traffic lights make it an excruciating eight minute drive for me.  There is no denying the breeze off the beach and the screams coming from the NYC Landmark Cyclone Roller Coaster; the background anthem of the Side Show performers championing their talents and cries for “Shoot the Freak” on the boardwalk all make for an experience you will only get here; in my backyard.

Steeplechase Park; Current location of MCU Park, Home of the Brooklyn Cyclones
Then and Now
The Wonder Wheel and The Cyclone are both NYC Landmarks.
Both are well into their 80′s and still thrill us today.
THIRSTY?
FREAKS?
Today’s KING and QUEEN of the MERMAID PARADE
And yes, today is the Mermaid Parade.
Our much beloved Pagan Festival starts at 2:30pm.
I will heading over there in about an hour from now and get my day at Coney started with a good ol’ Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog;
sight of the Hot Dog Eating Contest coming on the 4th of July.
I’ll be there too!!

The Brooklyn Cyclones game time is 6pm.  I’ll be in attendance for
OPENING DAY.
New York – Penn League ~ Class A

BROOKLYN CYCLONES
vs
STATEN ISLAND YANKEES

“Battle of the Boroughs”
“The Ferry Series”

In 2001 our BABY BUMZ were born.

Let’s Go Cyclones!!!

Mike ~ BTB


*************************************************************

This is the last day to vote for this week’s candidates for the
HOVVG
Hall of Very Very Good.
Check the link-bubble to the right, read up and participate.

Mike Lieberthal NEEDS HELP!!!
His election is in limbo with 5 vote FOR and 5 AGAINST.

Where will the last minute help come from?
Will there be a Lieberthal push?

Remember…ties lose out.

E-Mail me candidates for next week’s election process.
I have two in the box.  Gimmie more!
at
tripletoright@yahoo.com

This week’s results will be posted tomorrow with great delight!

BTB

 

Hot Pastrami, Baseball and Peace? It’s a TrolleyRide.

Brooklyn; BTB -   Hot Pastrami, Baseball and…Peace?

Do you need mood management? ..An attitude adjustment? ..A reality check?  Or do you just need to learn how to play and get along better with others? What ever your social dysfunctions or the civic diseases afflicting you, come to Brooklyn. We’ll fix it. We have 2.5 million qualified attitude adjusters with experience in diagnosing and treating your neighborly malfunctions. You got a problem? We’ll take a whack at it!

Brooklyn IS the most diverse place in this great country of ours.  I dare say it is the most diverse 70 square miles on the planet.  So if anyone can add something constructive to the Tolerance Debate, it’s us.
We live it. 

That’s right.  You want to bring peace to groups that have been in conflict for my entire lifetime and longer?  Bring ‘em to Brooklyn.

Unrest, distress, mistrust and violence in the Middle East have been among the longest continuous memory-streams of my lifetime; as long as my stream of consciousness for Baseball is.  And violence over what?  Both sides have made their case.  There are valid questions and complicated answers.  That is not for this post.  But the following blog entry is proof, Peace, is not out of the question.

So what does it take?  Hot Pastrami!  …And Baseball!  …And a Brooklyn frame of mind.

Climb aboard the Tolley folks; 1930′s here we come.

That’s when Esther and Paul ADELMAN opened their original Kosher Deli in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Boro Park, B’klyn.  The deli was sold and subsequently closed by 1981.  While Esther and Paul were still owners they had an employee, an Italian gentleman named Anthony Papeo.  Anthony entered into a partnership and in 1979 opened up a second ADELMAN’s Kosher Deli on King’s Highway in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, which is also a predominantly Jewish neighborhood adjoining Boro Park.  By 1986 Anthony was the sole owner of Adelman’s.  In 1986, Anthony hired a new employee; Mohamed Salem who was an immigrant Muslim from Egypt.  Twenty years later in 2006, Mohamed Salem became owner of ADELMAN’s Kosher Deli and Restaurant.

I invite you to read a neat and engaging article from the NY Post archives that covered the transfer of ownership; some of his reflections into the conflict between two traditional rivals and about the relationship he shares with his patrons.

If you read the article, that, in a nutshell, is Brooklyn. 
To call yourself a real Brooklynite means refusing to be ignorant of the differences in culture,
heritage or nationalities….and respecting them OR at the very least;  exercising tolerance.
But world peace is something much bigger than this blog can tackle. 
I’m just your friendly neighborhood TrolleyBlogger. 
Today I bring you a favorite staple of any red-blooded Brooklynite;
the Kosher Deli.

We’re pulling up to:
ADELMAN’s KOSHER DELI and Restaurant
1906 King’s Highway, off Ocean Avenue,
Midwood, Brooklyn

 
http://adelmanskosherdeli.com/
 

 
Me?  I’m nuts for this place and so is my wife!  It’s a mere two neighborhoods over from home.
Hot pastrami, corned beef, hot dogs, knishes, soups…Fugheddaboudit!!

 
They got it all and then some. 
One of my all-time favorites are the potato pancakes with apple sauce. 
WHAT!?
Did I mention the salad bar was free?  Yea!  sick…I know!

It’s not just the food either.  Sitting here is like sitting in the cafeteria at the Hall of Fame.  All the cover-able wall space is adorned with sports memorabilia; most of it autographed.  There’s something for all sports fans on their walls.  Sure, the items are mostly NYC centric, but there is a lot more to satisfy all fans while taking in an excellent brunch, lunch or dinner.

The Brooklyn Dodgers are alive and well in Adelman’s; like all the other places I’ve taken you to.
That team is still here and very real to us.  If you come here looking for them,
you’re not going to find ‘em.
You wouldn’t know how to detect it.  But when you learn how to tap into it, it’s marvelous how the team surrounds us.  Do you want to know why the old NY Giants
don’t get as much speak around this town?
Simple…They weren’t from this side of the East River.

1957
1949
Here’s the rest of Adelman’s Baseball Collection.
On behalf of us baseball fans, We Thank You.

 

1986
There is more memorabilia of Football, Hockey and Boxing.
These are just a few offerings.

Super Bowl XXI
1994 Stanley Cup
And finally something I think made everyone feel good if you were around to see it.
1980 Olympic Hockey Team
Katz might be the most famous Jewish Deli in NYC,
but the one we got here in Brooklyn is the best!

And their name is ADELMAN’s!
Oy!  Fugheddaboudit.
If Baseball,
a good Knish and a hot dog with mustard and onions
 can’t get people to chill out,
What Will?
I hope you enjoyed the TrolleyRide everyone; courtesy of Mohamed Salem;
a true Brooklynite, my neighbor and owner of
ADELMAN’s KOSHER DELI

This very old clock says it’s time to go.

Happy Pastrami, Baseball and hopefully Peace everyone.
Mike
BTB

You know I always like to incorporate different parts of Brooklyn on these Trolley Rides.
As the extra add-on I thought I’d take you to a little sleepy water front neighborhood
on the south side called
RED HOOK.

Al Capone was baptized here.

BTB
 
Don’t forget to VOTE on the
Hall of Very Very Good.
Send in your E-Mails for next week’s nominations
to
 
mike
 
 

Green-Wood Cemetery III

Like I always say, all this research has been done already.  I am just showing you around.  So.., anyone care for another trip back to Green-Wood? 

( View from a Green Wood hill top. Click…Empire St. Bldg is center mass of  pic)

I’ve found myself talking out loud to the stones.  I can’t help but express aloud what we all feel when I’ve visited these sights; “Thank You Sir!  Thank You for this great game of Baseball.”  Two pats and a rub of the stone has become my new custom when I leave them and they return to their eternal slumbers.

Before there was a Cooperstown HOF, there was Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Today we visit Duncan Curry, the first President of the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York.
The Knickerbockers of the early 1840′s were already formed into a local athletic club participating in and promoting outdoor athletics on Manhattan’s east side Murray Hill neighborhood.  But in 1846, Duncan Curry said in response to a debate as to whether he or Henry Chadwick was the ”Father of Baseball”, -  “Thomas Fiddlesticks.[Chadwick] had no more to do with the original rules (of Baseball) than you had.  William Wheaton, William H. Tucker and I drew up the first set of rules and the game was developed by the people who played it and were connected with it.”

The rules Duncan Curry speaks of are those so famously drafted in the east side Knickerbocker Club House 164 years ago and define our Pastime today.  They are the rules that accompanied the team to Hoboken and the Elysian Fields of play.  It was in Hoboken, N.J. where the first organized game of baseball was played by the first officially chartered Baseball team ever formed* under rules of  “the New York Game”.  That’s the way we understand it…right folks?

Duncan Curry served as club President in 1845 and 1846.  He remained with the club as a player and later followed other baseball related endeavours as well.

Both Henry Chadwick and Duncan Curry are deserving of respect for inspiring the game and fathering Baseball.  There are others however.  We all have an understanding Baseball was more a creation of evolution than just one man’s invention.  Town Ball and Rounders were contemporaries of our game.  Many people and circumstances contributed to the resilient game that won our hearts.  Let us pay respects to one of those individuals.  Ladies and gentlemen, one of the Fathers of Baseball, Duncan Curry.

 
I simply call this:  The Book
 
Be First or be The Best
BTB
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.blogspot.com/
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/

Today’s Trolley Ride: the Bensonhurst Local

Just speaking to the daily adventures of completing a typical day in the big city, one of the biggest assets one can have here in Gotham is no doubt a solid core of friends and a good network of contacts.  But if you truly want piece of mind in this big city, happiness comes with having good neighbors.  Neighbors are everything here.  If you have bad neighbors, your neighborhood existence can be a rather aggravating one.  At it’s most annoying it creates a condition of no rest for the wiry.  If you have good, solid, considerate, community minded neighbors, this urban jungle can be paradise.

Me?  I have great neighbors.  I know not everyone can say that.  But my ties to the neighborhood make my little piece of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, like an extended family.  Through childhood and growing up, to those who presently live on my block; - the parents I came to know while our children were in school and all the kids around the neighborhood that I was Baseball Coach to over the years with some now in their early twenties still yelling ”S’up COACH” when I walk the neighborhood; - It’s Sweet!

It’s not just about those personal relationships you develop over years.  Not to make light, but it’s about the Butcher, the Baker and the Candlestick Maker also.  It’s about where I buy my newspaper everyday; where I grab a coffee in the morning; my loyalties to my dry cleaners and grocery store.  It’s about the encounters I’ve had with my new friends at Dee SteakHouse and Junior’s Cafe and the warm neighborly treatment I received from them.

I made a request from another neighbor of mine located very close to home for permission to photograph their impressive baseball display.  One of the biggest anchor stores of the neighborhood came through for us in a really big way.  Before we head over there I thought we’d stop for some REAL pizza.  I don’t know what you good folks around the country qualify as pizza, but I’m gonna take you to another good neighbor of mine where we’re gonna get the real deal.  Bring some spending cash because after having the BEST pizza in Brooklyn we’re going to gear-up with all our favorite team jersey(s), caps and t-shirts in preparation for Opening Day.  Then we’re gonna walk off that lunch while we parade all our new shirts, caps, jerseys and fan gear on the Shore Parkway Promenade.  Today’s ride is local; very local.  You know the routine folks…..Time to Jump-the-Trolley.  You’re coming to my side of town today.  You’re Trolley Ridin’ through Bensonhurst.

First things first; I’m hungry! And Nuthin’ screams Brooklyn like Pizza. 
First stop today on the Bensonhurst Local:

 LA CASA BELLA Ristorante and Gourmet Pizzeria

26th Avenue and Cropsey Avenue, Bensonhurst

Look!  I’ve eaten pizza from all over this Borough.  I’ve had Italian food from more places than I can count.  When the family and I are home?…and we want Italian?   pffff..,  Fugheddaboudit!
If I’m in the neighborhood or on the way home, and I want pizza? – I come here.

 

This is the TROLLEYBLOGGER’s favorite pizza in Brooklyn.  Nuf Ced!

Rose and Michael, a wonderful couple, my neighbors 5 blocks away and owners of Casa Bella provide a really authentic, classic AND classy Brooklyn/Italian setting outdone only by their specialty pizzas and a menu that would make Caesar’s mouth water. 

They’ve been letting me order off-menu combinations (and of course on-menu) for over 17 years now and I love them for it!  There’s something that makes food taste better when you know who is doin the cookin!  My vocabulary is inadequate in trying to explain how good I think their food really is.  They strike the perfect balance between fine dining and still serving as a traditional pizzeria. Wine, espresso, soda or an iced tea..- It’s all being served with amazing class here.  I plan on being a customer for another 20 years…at least.

Thank you Rose…Thank you Mike.  See you soon.
 
Now it’s time to introduce you to Jaime.  He is my neighbor 6 blocks in the other direction.  Jaime is the General Manager of a sporting goods store/chain here at the end of Bay Parkway.  The store is located in an outdoor mall right on the waters edge (entrance to New York Harbor) where we’ll take a walk later.
The store?  I’m a regular customer; - have been all my life.  I have a wife and 19yr old son as crazed with baseball as I am.  So we spend a fair share of our fan dollars there.  They have as part of their main floor decor, what I am calling the “largest” (both literally and figuratively) Brooklyn Dodgers displays in all the Borough featuring jerseys and enlarged player pictures, with close-up views scanning the crowds of Ebbets Field as a backdrop throughout.  The store(chain) incorporated their name into a replica of the scoreboard from Ebbets.  Blasphemy!?  No!  When you see it.., it’s a natural fit.  And after you hear about what good neighbors they were to me, I think Ol’ Brooklyn Dodger fans will give them their blessings.  The display/decor is not new.  It’s been like this for years (Thank Goodness!!).  But this was the first time I went there as the BTB.

This is when I met Jaime.  I introduced myself.  We shook as he reciprocated kindly.  I told him who I was, what I was up to and that I respectfully requested permission to photograph the collection.  As patient as he was hearing me out, ultimately he had to deny my request as a matter of policy (my words). 
I understood 100%.  He also confirmed what I suspected the whole time, that I wasn’t the first one to make such a request.  Sure…, I could tell you how deflated I was feeling. 
I’m just not sure how much of my deflation was showing on the outside.  So?  So What? 
After a slight pause I deduced it was time to go home.  I thanked Jaime very much for his time and patience and started making my way to the exit.  It could have all ended then.  But it didn’t.

Like I said, Jaime could have ended my pursuit right then.  Instead, he offered me help.  This is what I’m thinking, – Jaime said I was just one of a number to make such a request so he’s been through this before.  If what I’m thinking is true or even if it’s just self-imagined, Jaime is the true unsung hero of this post.  Jaime, your discretion and role in this will not go under appreciated.
He offered a number to call in the company’s main office to see if I could get anywhere with them.  I asked if people have requested the number to ask in the past.  He said yes.  I asked if anyone ever received permission before.  He said he didn’t believe anyone really ever followed through, so the short answer was No.

REALLY?!?
Trolley Power restored. 
You’d have to ask Jaime, but I’m sure I lit up like a Christmas Tree.
Having said all that, it’s time to go to MODELL’S.

MODELL’s SPORTING GOODS
founded 1889
by Morris Modell

Mr. Modell opened his first store in NYC on Cortlandt Street.  One hundred twenty one years later, the Company is still private and family owned through four generations with over 130 locations in the Northeastern U.S.

This stop on the Bensonhurst Local: Modell’s Bay Parkway location in Brooklyn.

Jaime put me in touch with my next point of contact; Rich.  Rich is a decision maker in the Marketing Dept.  I made my unprepared, unrehearsed pitch and folks, never once did I sense any resistance on Rich’s part.  I was amazed and quite elated I was being received so well.  We had a few conversations covering details and some other topics.  Rich gave the stamp of approval and set things up with Jaime for me to come in the store and take the photo-shoot.
If you’ve been following my blog, you know I’ve always referenced neighbors and how important they are.  You know I always glow about my fellow Brooklynites who get it, and who keep the links in this chain strong.  In my conversations with Rich, he was telling me how the company, in a pro-active measure was re-dedicating itself to being more of a Hometown store with a respectful and responsive local connection.
Rich, actions speak louder than words.  This Blog-Page has always believed in, and maintained faith in good neighbors.  I say that to help explain that this post is not an exercise in embellishment or hyperbole.  If Modell’s mission statement is to be a good neighbor, re-establish, sustain and create new local connections, let this post serve as evidence Modell’s Sporting Goods practices what they preach.  Rich and Jaime, you not only have met the standards your Company set forth, in my humble opinion, you’ve raised the bar.
Thank you both.  Thank you Modell’s Sporting Goods.  Thank you Neighbor.
 
OK everybody…Opening Day is right around the corner.  It’s time to gear-up!  You can find me in the Met’s section.  No doubt some of you will make your way into the Yankee’s section. 
But Modell’s has something for every fan. 

http://www.modells.com/

While you shop yourselves silly I want to thank Rich again for letting me photograph this Brooklyn Dodgers collection and by doing so, showing everyone again how the Brooklyn Dodgers are still alive and well.  If we keep them on our minds and in our hearts, they’ll live forever.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers “of Bensonhurst”, courtesy-MODELL’s
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I can not thank Jaime, Rich and everyone at Modell’s enough for allowing the Brooklyn Trolley Blogger the opportunity to photograph this marvelous collection of Brooklyn’s glorious Baseball past. 
I’m very grateful to you all.
Now, let’s don our new baseball stuff and walk off the rest of that fine Italian food.  We are right at the water’s edge here and this park hugs the water and around the bend for four miles.  It’s a great place for a stroll or whatever your fancy.  You can catch me here most Saturday mornings. 
This view of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is in my opinion one of the best views in all the city.
 
I hope you enjoyed today’s ride through my neighborhood for a change. 
And thank you to my neighbors for making today’s post possible.
 

 
Happy Opening Day Everyone!!
BTB
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.blogspot.com/
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/
 
 

I interupt this blog…

BROOKLYN Goes PRO…AGAIN!!

 

Let it be known throughout the land, BROOKLYN is a professional sports city AGAIN!  On March 11th, 2010 the NBA Nets, currently owned by the Borough’s own Bruce Ratner, broke ground in downtown to begin construction in earnest, on the Atlantic Yards project and Barclays Center where the Brooklyn Nets will call home.  Yes Brooklyn! – We’re going Pro….Again!

Brooklyn has not been home to a major professional sports team since the last out was recorded on that fateful day in September 1957 when the Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field.  Walter O’Malley crushed the hearts of Brooklynites taking the team west.  The Borough was never the same again.  On the very site Mr. O’Malley lobbied the city to acquire in order to build a new home for the Bums stands a stark and rather insulting reminder to the narrow minded, shortsighted, aristocratic aloofness that was Robert Moses and this city administration’s impotence in the face of Moses’ centralized power.  There is a shopping mall at that particular sight today.  It is not my intention to minimize or mock the complex itself.  No, rather, the mall is a welcome and necessary addition to the neighborhood.  I have no issues with what exists there today in the absence of a Dodger park and the Bums playing in it.  My only matter of discontent is the subtle exterior design of the mall which hints and suggests baseball type architecture and design.  For those who suffer from “awareness”,  it is a little insulting.  Maybe that’s just me.

But hear me now!  While all is NOT forgiven for loosing the Dodgers to the Left Coast,  bringing the NBA’s New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn is perhaps the single most best way to correct that horrible mistake born of arrogance 52 years ago, outside of bringing an MLB team back here to play.  Across the street from the parcel the Dodgers desperately wanted, the mistake is corrected more than five decades later. 

The birth of the Brooklyn Cyclones was a very special day to me and that team is now inter-woven into the fabric of my life.  However minor those boys may be, they will always be treated like family.  I believe, from one Brooklynite to another, we’ll agree the Cyclones have enriched our lives.  Not just by giving us all a common rooting interest again, but by bringing us all together as Brooklynites, family, friends, neighbors and lovers of our Borough in a manner not experienced around here since the Dodgers left.  Indeed, the Cyclones have not only brought baseball back to Brooklyn, they gave us all a little pride back too.

Now Brooklyn, we get out Respect back.  We’re in the National mix.  We are part of the conversation.  We may officially begin counting down days till OUR CLOUT makes it’s way over the Bayonne Bridge into Staten Island, over the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn, and parks in front of Barclays Center at Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush.  Yes Brooklyn, we are PRO, again!  Say it again and again.
 

WE DO’D IT BOYZ!!  Fugheddaboudit!!

Head up, back straight, eyes wide with smiles gleaming – Walk tall and be proud Brooklyn.
There’s a way for us Bums to represent ourselves. 
From Canarsie to Cobble Hill; Bed-Stuy to Bensonhurst; Marine Park to Myrtle Avenue;
from Fulton to Flatlands or Bushwick to Bay Ridge…
Denizens of the Borough of Kings - WE are NETS!
Very soon there will be 5 players on a basketball court, be it here or on the road,  representing US, wearing jerseys with the name of our hometown, BROOKLYN, across the front, for ALL across TV’s landscape and arenas across America to witness and recognize.
This is an event which, beyond the conventional and obvious good it will bring to the community, brings along with it, Gravitas, Sizzle, National Identity (not that a Brooklynite has ever suffered from lack of such a thing), Cachet….  Name It!
In spite of the team’s current record, what I am about to say is not
an exercise in stupidity nor is it dealing in hyperbole;
The Brooklyn Nets Brand
could become the most recognizable, marketable and powerful brand in the NBA and challenge for such title in the Four Big Sports moving forward in this still young new century. 
I stress, in THIS century.  I know my history.  I’m no fool.
There isn’t a guy from Brooklyn in every old war movie for nuthin!
Brooklyn is on the precipice of taking it’s rightful place, again, as a capital of this Nation;
beckoning a day from a century ago.  It may not be a field of green but Brooklyn, we’re getting our
Court of Dreams!

To my neighbors in New Jersey.  I’m not really sure what to say.  The Nets have ping-ponged between us before.  By “US” the truth would be to say Long Island, and all due respect to youz guyz out there.  But here we are none-the-less.  Long Island cheered Dr. J and some great ABA Championships!  You New Jersey, more home to them than anyone thus far, should remain proud despite the move.  As a matter of fact, I applaud the efforts of N.J..  I hope we continue to build upon your efforts. 

C’Mon!  Darryl Dawkins,  Otis Birdsong, Buck Williams, Drazen Petrovic, Kenyon Martin, J-Kidd,
Back-to-back NBA FINALS appearances, - everyone I didn’t mention and too many great games against the New York Knicks…PFFF!   Long Island?  New Jersey?  Consider us the middle.  We aren’t stealing anything our neighbors in Long Island started, nor anything you in New Jersey did caring for them while they grew up.  They will just be living here as adults.  My sentiment is, Commack, Teaneck, the Armory or the Meadowlands, they our still OURS; Brooklyn, Long Island and New Jersey.
I am a Knicks fan; – Have been since 1975.  I do not yet understand what the implications of being a Knicks fan and the Nets move to Brooklyn represents for me.  In the city of bridges, I’ll cross that one when I get to it.  My personal conflict is a dilemma for another day.  March 11, 2010 represents so much more for me though.  Today is for my hometown of BROOKLYN and for anyone from here who wanted to root for a hometown team….again.
Ground-Breaking Day
Atlantic Yards and Barclays Center

Early morning views of the sight on Ground-Breaking Day
Ceremonies will take place in the white tent.
Beyonce recieved her usual camera time upon arrival.
    
 
We waited this long, so a few more moments didn’t hurt.
 Things finally got underway and Bruce Ratner stood at the podium triumphantly
 after a six year Odyssey through…, well, what developers go through; Hell.
Nets’ CEO Brett Yormark and part owner of the Nets, Jay-Z,
look on as developer and Nets majority owner Bruce Ratner thanks the list of people and efforts by them to make this day possible.
Then, it was time to shovel some dirt.
Here it is…the Big Photo Op!!
Bruce Ratner
Mayor Bloomberg
Gov. Paterson
B’klyn Borough President Markowitz
and Jay-Z
While this post is more of a celebration and less about details, I want to inform you the idea is to sell 80% of the team and arena to Mikhail Prokhorov (pending League approval).  In turn, Ratner can afford to build the Atlantic Yards Complex.  Jay-Z will retain his interest in the team.  The Nets get a passionate basketball minded billionare owner, Ratner gets his project and financing and Brooklyn gets it’s team.  I love it when a plan comes together.

Back inside the Q & A was under way.
Bruce Ratner was the Man of the Hour today

But it was Jay-Z who was stealing the show.
As he pondered listening to this next question,
I think he was really looking to blow out of there.
Which is fine by me as long as this 60 year old hole in downtown Brooklyn
is transformed into a new home for our
BROOKLYN NETS.
Say it again Brooklyn.
…home of OUR BROOKLYN NETS!!
How Sweet It Is!!
(jersey: Junior’s Cafe)
No!  Thank You!
(newspaper clips: NY Daily News, NY Post, NY Newsday)
(Prohkorov pic: AP)
(barclayscenter.com)
(site pictures BTB)
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What’s at 3rd Ave and 1st Street? A TrolleyRide, that’s what!

Today’s TrolleyRide takes us to South Slope, as it’s beginning to be called. 
Normally it’s called the Gowanas section, and before they built a highway through the neighborhood way back when, the neighborhood was still considered part of Red Hook.
We’re pulling up to
WASHINGTON PARK
3rd Ave & 1st Street,  4th Ave & 4th Street,
Brooklyn
(pic – 150 Years of Baseball, Beekman House)
Home of the Brooklyn Dodgers before  Ebbets Field was built;
Now, Then and the Debate
In 1898 the Dodgers played their first game here, in a newly constructed version of Washington Park.  The previous one was done-in by fire.  There are a lot of details I will be leaving out for the purposes of this post.  But you should know there were 3 versions of Washington Park at two locations diagonal from each other; hence the two different intersections I stated above.  The Dodgers played here till their last game in 1912 when they moved in to Ebbets Field.  But this isn’t about the Dodgers; not this time.  This is about teams that precede even the Dodgers….kinda.
Back on September 13, 2009 I attended 3 Baseball Games at today’s NYC Washington Park (public park).
It was a 3 game round robin involving the Brooklyn Atlantics, Newark Eurekas and
the New York Gothams.

click the pamphlets,  check out these rules.
Not these BROOKLYN ATLANTICS;
(pics-Brooklyn Dodgers by Mark Rucker)
Baseball’s first true dynasty, the Brooklyn Atlantics Baseball Club 
Champions of the United States in 1864, 1865, 1866, 1868 and 1870
(as THEY claim)-(some of it is debatable)
..and not these NEW YORK GOTHAMS,
a team founded in 1852 playing out of Manhattan
NO, I’m talking about these Brooklyn Atlantics
..and these New York Gothams of 2009.
I’m talking about
the VBBA
the VINTAGE BASE BALL ASSOCIATION

(VBBA.ORG)
Member of the Flemington BBC
These guys are regular me and you(s) who have a passion for baseball played the way it was played in the 1860′s and 1870′s.  They adhere to the day’s rules and don’t use gloves.  One of the rules worth mentioning is if you field a batted ball on one bounce, the batter is out.  The pitcher still pitched underhanded back then.  One of the greatest tools of the pitcher was being allowed to fake the runner and quick pitch the batter.  He was able to slow or fast pitch as he chose as long as it was an underhanded delivery.  I can’t explain my joy watching these games play themselves out and witnessing the differences with today’s game.
It was pure enjoyment but not just because of the game.  These were a collection of some very fine individuals.  They made so much time for me to just ask questions and photograph them.  There was a moment when I asked 4 players to come together for a pic.  One guy scattered, another whistled in the direction of the dugout and I turned around to see the whole team coming towards me with bats in hand for a complete team photo (the one you see above). No smiles!  No one smiled in photos in the late 1800′s.  These guys had all the details covered. They really were such personable fellows too.  I am sorry that at this point I’m having trouble putting a name to the face in some of these pictures.  These pictures and file have been sitting in my computer in a zipped-file since November.  I’m sorry for that because I enjoyed the day so much.  I am terrified to death by The Blue Screen of Death and can not muster enough courage to go on Downloads.com or something like that to download WinZip Software.  Is there anyone who can help me get over this anxiety?  I’m fearful of anything going wrong with my laptop after having been through the nightmares of crashing before.  Heck, that’s why I bought this lap top in the first place.  I was lucky even to recover this file.  But they are zipped and I’m pissed about it.  How did I get around that you may ask?  I took pictures of the pictures on my screen with my camera.  I lost something in quality.   But they didn’t come out too bad, did they?
The Atlantics get in some practice.
The house in the backround is
The Old Stone House.
It has been re-assembled here at Washington Park from it’s original location, using the same exact materials.
This was Goerge Washington’s headquarters during the Battles of Brooklyn. 
Hence, Washington Park.
The game is about to start.
Atlantics vs. Gothams
the Gotham Nine and the Atlantic Nine
(Shakespeare on the left)
But I have no doubt about the Atlantic’s 3rd baseman, Frank “Shakespeare” Van Zant.  I was sitting along 3rd base and was chatting it up with him all day long.  If I remember correctly he is an English professor.  Frank, please accept this belated expression of gratitude and can you share the sentiment with the team for me?  Ed “Pigtail” Elmore was the pitcher for the Atlantics this day.  Thank you all for “…one of the finest displays of skill and gamesmanship, in a gentlemanly manner of play.”
PigTail makes a pitch.
The contest is over and they shake hands like gentlemen.
I kept score of the game based on an improvised system to accomodate the rule differences.  I don’t expect you to understand it, but this is what it looked like.   This is the Atlantics side of the book.
Everything they do for the love of this game is an out of pocket expense.  Road trips and even the baseball they have specially made come out of their pockets.  I asked Shakespeare if I could have a ball.  He educated me how they operate and offered a ball for $25 to cover their expense.  Fugheddaboutdit!!…You kiddin’ me?!  It is one of my prized possessions today and the best $25 bucks I EVER spent!  Thanks again Frank!
One of my new prized possessions, an 1860′s replica baseball marked
as the Atlantics Base Ball Club marked all their balls.
The Newark Eurekas salute the Gothams before their game.
An unfortunate reality about the modern park may limit their appearances in Brooklyn.  These guys are taking real hacks and usually play on regular sized fields.  This day’s contests were played in a modern city park where the right fielder and first baseman could whisper to each other. 
We’ll see.  I would love to have them back.
Be well fellas! 
I hope to drive out to Smithtown, Long Island this summer to take in another game of Vintage Baseball.
Thanks for all your friendliness.
Now let’s take a few minutes to talk about Washington Park itself.  The park had been in use since the early 1880′s.  The Dodgers, like I said didn’t move in till 1898.  On December 31, 2009, an article appeared in the N.Y. Daily News that revisited an age long debate.  There is only one portion of wall that remains from Washinton Park of the past.  It’s the wall on 3rd Avenue, from 1st Street to 3rd Street.  The wall was definitely in place by 1914. 

The debate has always centered whether or not that wall existed when the Dodgers played there.  That would have to have the wall in place in 1912 or before.  If it is indeed proven this wall was in place prior to the Dodgers moving to Ebbets, obviously it raises concerns about it’s preservation.  A few years back, the present owner of the lot, Con-Edison, raised eyebrows when they announced plans to demolish the wall.  Brooklyn baseball fans freaked out and Con-Ed has since been committed to it’s preservation.  Naturally, I have the same interest level whether this wall can be dated to the Dodgers as any other
Brooklyn Dodger enthusiast. 
But the wall is preservation worthy regardless as it was home to Brooklyn’s Federal League team; the Brook-Feds, or as they became more commonly refered to as the Tip Tops.

(150 Years of Baseball.Beekman House)

(BrooklynBallparks.com)

The owner of the team was owner of the Brooklyn Tip Top Bread Company. 
If you didn’t know, and I assume you do,

the Federal League was a rival to MLB and played the 1914-1915 seasons. 
Wrigley Field is a remnant of that League. 
It was built to house the Chicago team of the Federal League.

This is what the Brooklyn Tip Tops looked like.  I took this picture at Yankee Stadium in 2008 when I  spotted this guy wearing a Tip Top Jersey.  I asked him if I could snap a pic of it.  I’ve never seen anyone with one before.  I’m not making insinuations about the guy but he didn’t realize what the jersey represented.  He thought it was another Dodger jersey.  I informed him otherwise.

The following pictures show the wall in the backround during these Federal League festivites. There is a lot of significance to this site and I’d like for the city to get around to placing a commemoration of sort in honor of Washington Park, of which there currently is none.  What history that is being clinged on to you can credit NYC Parks & Rec, and staff at The Old Stone House.  It’s inexcusable the city isn’t doing more.
Getting back to the wall, some cases are being made for the pre-1912 existence.  Most, to include the self-proclaimed Brooklyn resident historians, claim otherwise.  They don’t believe it is so.
(Opening Day Festivities 1914)
This is the the interior view of the wall pictured at 3rd Ave and 1st Street.
All the cap stones are still in place making the wall very recognizable when you compare these pictures with today’s remaining structure.
(brooklynballparks.com)
..And that concludes today’s TROLLEY RIDE to
Washington Park, Brooklyn
I hope everyone enjoyed the ride.
http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/
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