Results tagged ‘ Ebbets Field ’

Back to Green-Wood Cemetery: “Fathers of Baseball”

There’s a bunch of things I’d like to get done before spring training winds down and the season starts.  I’m in the process of putting together another really nice Trolley Ride for us.  It’s just taking me a little longer than I hoped to recieve the proper permission.  It seems like it’s a go, but I don’t want to be pushy.  Time I hope will be my ally. 

In the mean time I want to go back to GREEN-WOOD Cemetery and finish up a couple of items I wanted to get out earlier.  I was really enjoying the Caribbean Series and this sort of took a back seat.  These are the rest of the pictures I took from our last Trolley Trip here.  So bundle up and let’s go back.

Henry Chadwick
The Father of Baseball
Charles Ebbets(Wikipedia)
owner
Brooklyn Superbas/Brooklyn Dodgers
(mural Flatbush Ave & Empire Blvd.)
builder of Ebbets Field
opened 1912
(today’s right field wall)
(Http://www.ebbets-field.com/)
He sold half the team to the McKeever brothers to finance the park.
McKeever Place, named after the Dodger owner, and Sullivan Place was the intersection where home plate and the entrance to the Ebbets Field Rotunda stood.
Here is where Charles Ebbets rests.  The hilltop with-in Green-Wood where Mr.Ebbets’ stone sits is the highest elevation in Brooklyn.  From here, New York Harbor, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan can all be seen very clearly.
That’s all from Green-Wood Cemetery today.
There are a couple of more sites to visit and things to learn about our National Pastime here.
I’ll be coming back here to bring you as much as I can.
The Baseball Archeologist is punching out.
Hope you enjoyed some more of the baby pictures.
 
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TrolleyRide with a Brooklyn Icon ~ We’re Going to JUNIOR’S!

Oh what a beautiful day in the BloggerHood it was neighbors.  It was in the 40′s under a rich blue unblemished sky.

I’ve been in contact with some pretty exceptional people these last two months.  But before I get on with this post and namely a gentleman named Hasting, who is truely responsible for making today’s post possible, I want to share with you two things I learned at very different times in my life, but which I live by today.

First – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.
Second – The worst question you could ever ask is the one you don’t (ask).

If you take those two things into consideration, add the notion I believe you can say anything to anyone as long as you excersize Tact, you now know three more things about me.

Hasting, is our V.I.P. guest today Trolley Riders.  He is the latest reason reaffirming everything I love about living here.  I honestly don’t have a pitch prepared for unsuspecting people I approach.  I’m just trying to be as straight to the point as I can and get them to understand I have nothing but good intentions.  Has it been weird?  No…not at all.  Talking with the people in your neighborhood is a practice in civility and respect.  Do it well and you will be treated in kind.

My new friend Hasting, is the Manager of a Brooklyn Icon, an institution famous for their specialty, aside from everything great they do, the world over.  Hasting and I just met.  He said we are all welcome, like so many famous people who’ve come here, to warm our bones after I take you on a grand tour. Because this Brooklyn Icon is such a special place, it deserves a proper undercard.

Early 40′s photo courtesy of a resident from 1 Prospect Park West!
…and as it looks today.  See my Trolley?  Let’s go!

C’mon Neighbors….It’s Time to Jump The Trolley Again!!  We’ll start at Grand Army Plaza, where they have a farmer’s street market going on.  Grand Army Plaza is your classic traffic circle where monuments to the Union Soldiers of the Civil War stand.  It is the Northern Entrance Gate to Prospect Park, and the Brooklyn Public Library’s Main Branch sits across the street.  It’s where Prospect Park West, Eastern Parkway and Flabush Avenue all come together.  From Grand Army Plaza we’re heading north, straight up Flatbush Avenue into downtown, just blocks from the Manhattan Bridge, and meet up with our host for the day.

We are meeting up at the weekly farmers market.
  It sits at the gate to Prospect Park, the park is behind me, take a look.
In front of us is the Arch to the Defenders of the Union.
…and these are some of the accompanying statues.
…and this is the Brooklyn Public Library’s Main Branch.
That’s The Arch and Prospect Park behind us now.
Moving north we have to pass what I like to call Neptune’s Fountain.
And this is the view looking straight down Flatbush Avenue.  We are headed down there, deeper, in the middle of all that.
I hope you’re hungry by now, because we have a double treat for you.  Not only does the place we’re going to have some of the best food in all of  Brooklyn, not to mention their WORLD’S FAMOUS CHEESECAKE, JUNIOR’S Restaurant has an extraordinary Brooklyn Dodgers’ collection displayed on their walls; Pure Eye Candy for the Baseball Fan in All of Us!
At the foot of the Manhattan Bridge on Flatbush Avenue at DeKalb Avenue is
the Famous Junior’s Restaurant.
I went to Junior’s knowing of the collections.  The question was would they let me “blog it”.  Did they ever!
These are my most favorite Brooklynites EVER!
I  Love the Honeymooners!!

Folks, today’s pictures, hospitality, and cure for your grumbling hungry stomachs, come courtesy of HASTING STAINROD and JUNIOR’S Most Fabulous Restaurant.  They are Celebrating their 60th year in Brooklyn.  Junior’s continues to be the undisputed KINGS of Cheesecake.  If you’re a local, or if you’re in New Jersey and you’re always ‘jonzing’ for all that great food you used to eat but can’t anymore because you moved away and now you have to come back once a week to get all the stuff you love because Jersey aint got it, or Long Island, or even Connecticut, come in before January 31st and get a free slice of their insanely good, famous cheesecake to compliment your meal.

And now, The Spirit, Essence of the Brooklyn Dodgers for your viewing pleasure:
This is a home made, cardboard model of Ebbets Field.  It’s affixed to the wall and was hard to get a good angle on it.  I think you get the idea though.
These chairs from Ebbets Field made my whole experience.
autographed by the Duke of Flatbush
The Soul of the Brooklyn Dodgers accompanies us on our commutes to work, on our walks down the street, while we take our kids to school, some Grandpa is sporting a Brooklyn Dodger’s cap, hoping, even for a fleeting moment, there was a game at 1:30 that afternoon.  Somehow our children, the young ones know who Pee Wee was, and who The Duke of Flatbush was, and it’s as if Jackie still walked our sidewalks today.  Show me a Yankee jersey.  Show me a Met’s jersey.  I’ll show you as many Brooklyn Dodger shirts and jersies.  I have mine!

I’d like to revisit my encounter with Hasting Stainrod.  Thank you very kindly for a most pleasurable experience.  Your graciousness and hospitality sets the standard.  Junior’s always was and always will continue to be one of my favorite places on Earth.  Folks, they ship anywhere, and this is the cheesecake I eat.  I will not buy anyone elses.  Their’s just can not be beat!!  Fuggedaboudit!!!

I hope you enjoyed today’s TrolleyRide.  It was my pleasure being your conductor.  And thank you goes out to Junior’s Restaurant.  A Brooklyn Heavy Hitter made time for the little Trolley.  I’m humbled.
http://www.juniorscheesecake.com/

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.
Hasting…You’re the man!  Thanks.
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Fingerprints of the Brooklyn Dodgers

I found another little fossil.  The Baseball Archaeologist found a little shell today. Wanna See?

I “found” this wall painting in a “gourmet” foods store at Atlantic Ave and Court Street.  I went in there to buy a banana.  But this is another one of those fingerprints I speak of.   Like I keep on saying….the Spirit, the Essence of the Brooklyn Dodgers lives.

Here it is…a little fossil; Ebbets Field from Atlantic Ave and Court St.
It actually isn’t so little.  The painting is a rather impressive size.

Searching for the Dodgers
BTB
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Montague Street and Court, Where History was Made

Montague and Court, Jackie Robinson Dedication and Ebbets Field Mural

The Mission Statement ~  It’s too easy using readily available pictures of Ebbets Field and the old Brooklyn Dodgers from books and other sites, etc. etc. for purposes of reflection, waxing nostalgic, and driving ourselves crazy.  That’s not what I’m doing.  I’m looking for the footprint in the dried up river bed.  I’m cracking slabs of shale, and breaking slate to find what is left behind.  I’m looking for evidence, underneath layers of urban sediment.  I’m looking for the fingerprints of Baseball left upon Brooklyn.

Here in the Borough of Kings, the soul of the Boys of Summer, Dem Bums, Brooklyn’s beloved Dodgers still lives on.  Whether we wear our Brooklyn Dodger jersies at a Cyclones game in Coney Island,  paying a toll to drive over the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, or walk into any sporting goods store in Brooklyn, the essence of the Dodgers is everywhere.  Somewhere there’s an old season ticket holder on 18th Avenue wearing his Dodger cap carrying a brown bag of fruit or vegetables as part of a daily routine.  I’m telling you as fact, before the sun goes down on the day, that person would have spent at least a couple of seconds thinking about his/her Bums.

Today the Trolley is pulling up to the corner of Montague Street and Court Street, in Downtown Brooklyn.  On this corner stood the building where the Brooklyn Dodger Baseball Club Offices were.  Their offices were not located within Ebbets Field.  The offices and Ebbets were a short distance from each other within 2 miles or so.

Today there is a bank occupying the location.  Outside, on the front of the building, in 1998 a plaque was dedicated honoring the sight, and the history which took place within it’s offices.
Inside the bank itself is a marvelous mural depicting play at Ebbets Field.  If you notice the buildings in the backround behind center field, they are still there on Bedford Avenue.
 
I hope you all enjoyed today’s Trolley Ride to a place where history was made.
Thank you for stopping by.
BTB
 
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The Boys of Summer..at least what’s left anyway.

 This is part of what will be a continuing effort to bring you the glorious baseball past of Brooklyn and greater NYC.  Climb aboard the BrooklynTrolley on my trips to explore baseball archeology.

 

This mural can be found on the side of a building where Ocean Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and Empire Boulevard converge.  It’s painted only 3 blocks from where home plate at Ebbets Field once was, at the corner of McKeever Place and Sullivan Place. 
 
 
The wall with the Ebbets Field lettering is located in the parking lot of the Ebbets Field Apartment complex.  Intended or not, the wall symbolizes where the right field wall once stood along Bedford Avenue.
 
 
 

I’m out to find whatever I can.  It’s easy to understand how whole civilizations get lost.  In any era, it’s not the erosion, weathering, destruction incurred my man or nature, or neglect , abandonment or even apathy that affects us and our institutions most.  You, me and all things are powerless against it.  That “it” is very simply,  TIME.  For every wound Time heals, another is opened.  I’m one of those Brooklynites,  it upsets me Brooklyn lost their beloved BUMS, to L.A. no less.  I still have neighbors and know folks in the neighborhood, who still wax poetic about their Dodgers no-more.  They moved a profitable team.  Sure Robert Moses was unmoving in negotiations for a new park location within the borough and I hold him largely responsible also.  But it was still Mr. O’Malley’s decision to move a very profitable team and take it away from a fanbase that loved, supported, cherrished, suffered and literally died with them.  O’Malley took them away from fans who looked out after the players if they lived on your street.  The block’s kids all played together.  Trust me, nothing was gonna happen to a Brooklyn Dodger if he lived on your block.  And as fact, leaving on their way to the park, several Dodgers took the train to the field and everyone made sure they got to Ebbets safe.  Don’t take my word for it, this is what the people who were there tell me.

As a kid I hated the Dodgers.  I still do.  But back then I had no idea why, I just did.  I remember a game at Shea – A June night, 1976,  Mets vs. Dodgers with my POP, his cousin and my friend.
When my friend and I finished our soda, we poked out the bottom of the wax paper cup and used it as a megaphone.  I couldn’t stomach Steve Garvey.  Every time he’d get up I’d announce through my cup, “Now batting #6  Steve GARBAGE! -  Garbage,  #6.”  When you’re a kid, it’s one of the most hysterical nights ever.  I do believe the Mets won that game.  But I think I was too busy being nine years old.
I guess hating the Dodgers is just in the Brooklynite’s blood.  I didn’t know and didn’t care then why I hated them.  There is no doubt why I can’t stand them today.
**sigh**
 
 

Gil Hodges Way

 


Gil Hodges is the Quiet Man and will forever be loved in Brooklyn.  My 1955 Topps Gil Hodges card is one of my most prized possessions. I’d also like to extend a personal thank you to Mrs. Joan Hodges for coming out to Keyspan Park from time to time, and taking in a Brooklyn Cyclones game. Bedford Avenue runs, what was then behind the right field wall of Ebbets Field. I’m one Brooklynite who wishes one day Bedford Ave leads to the Hall of Fame for “The Quiet Man”. What could the Veteran’s Committee have had against him all this time?  This was a man who at his retirement ranked 10th all-time on the career Home Run List and maintained a .992 fielding percentage.  As a manager, he brought respectability to the Washington Senators and was the pilot of the Miracle Mets of 1969.  A World Championship caliber player in addition to being a Championship caliber manager strikes me as a rather unique Baseball Man; The Quiet Man.

Gil Hodges… Hall of Fame Now!

What say you? Is Gil Hodges a Hall of Famer?

 
Mike  BTB
 
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