Ebbets Field opened April 9, 1913. The now demolished baseball park was home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913-1957. In honor of its birthday we’ve put together some quotes about the park to help you remember the good old days, when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn.
“The field was even greener than my boy’s mind had pictured it. In later years, friends of ours visited Ireland and said the grass there was plenty green all right, but that not even the Emerald Isle itself was as green as the grass that grew in Ebbets Field.”– Dodger Duke Snider aka “The Duke of Flatbush”
“In Brooklyn, it was as though you were in your own little bubble. You were all part of one big, but very close family, and the Dodgers were the main topic of everybody’s conversations and you could sense the affection people had for you. I don’t know that such a thing exists anymore.” – Dodger Don Drysdale
“Brooklyn was the most wonderful city a man could play in, and the fans there were the most loyal there were.” – Dodger Pee Wee Reese
“It seemed like I always did some great hitting in Brooklyn. The field there was close to the stands. Every time I started walking to the plate, I could hear the fans say, ‘Here comes that man again. Here comes that man.’” – Cardinal Stan Musial
“The catch off Bobby Morgan (a backhanded grab of the Brooklyn Dodger’s line drive in September 1951 at Ebbets Field) in Brooklyn was the best catch I ever made. Jackie Robinson and (Giants manager) Leo Durocher were the first people I saw when I opened my eyes” – Giant Willie Mays “The Say Hey Kid”
“It was a terrible psychic blow… Ebbets Field was replaced by a housing project. How could a father tell his son where Duke Snider used to hit one? Point out Apartment 5Q?” – Actor Joe Flaherty
“We wept, Brooklyn was a lovely place to hit. If you got a ball in the air, you had a chance to get it out. When they tore down Ebbets Field, they tore down a little piece of me.” – Duke Snider
“I’ve taken my boys to the house I grew up in. Taken them to the site of Ebbets Field, where the Dodgers used to play. They go to all the Dodger games, and they play Little League ball. I have infused them with New York spirit.” – Television host Larry King
“For years, I have been harboring memories of my first major league game at a place named Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.” – Author George Vecsey
What’s your favorite memory about Ebbets Field and the Dodgers? Let us know in the comments and see its location on our Best of Brooklyn Tour.
