HISTORY OF EBBETS FIELD
Location: 55 Sullivan Place, Flatbush section of Brooklyn.
Designed by architect Clarence Randall Van Buskirk. Cost owner Charles Ebbets $750,000.
Capacity: 25,000 (1913); 32,000 (1932, added upper deck).
First Game: April 9, 1913 (Brooklyn Superbas lose to Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0).
Last Dodgers Game: Sept. 24, 1957 (Dodgers defeat Pirates, 2-0).
Demolition Began: Feb. 23, 1960. The same wrecking ball was used four years later to demolish the Polo Grounds.
— No press box until 1929.
— The rotunda was an 80-foot circle enclosed in Italian marble, with a floor tiled with a representation of the stitches of a baseball, and a chandelier with 12 baseball-bat arms holding 12 globes shaped like baseballs.
— Children could watch games from Bedford Avenue through a gap under the gate in right-center.
— Right-field wall (built after 1930) had approximately 289 different angels. The scoreboard jutted 5 feet from the wall at a 45-degree angle.
— The second deck hung over center field.
— Schaefer Beer sign in right-center (added after World War II) notified fans of the official scorer’s decision: the “H” lit up for a hit, the “E” for an error.
— Was site of baseball’s first televised game on Aug. 26, 1939 (Dodgers lose to Reds, 5-2).
— Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier on April 15, 1947.
— Was site of 1949 All-Star Game.


