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Acrowd of just over 25,000 filed into Ebbets Field in Brooklyn for Game Three of the 1920 World Series. Others piled onto the rooftops of nearby houses along Bedford Avenue and Montgomery Street.1 “The fans turned out in droves,” wrote the New York Times, “and long after the game started thousands were left outside the […]

Fans in Brooklyn lined up outside Ebbets Field for tickets to the World Series on Monday, October 4, 1920. For $1 or $2 they could get a ticket to see their hometown heroes the Dodgers, Brooklyns, Superbas, or Robins play in the World Series against the Cleveland Indians. It didn’t matter which nickname a fan […]

Jeff Pfeffer was a rugged right-hander who anchored Uncle Robby’s pitching staff at the end of the Deadball Era. In parts of nine seasons (1913-1921) with Brooklyn, he went 113-80, including 25 wins in 1916 and 23 in 1914. (Photo: Library of Congress)   Brooklyn’s Jeff Pfeffer (not to be confused with his brother, Big […]

Exterior view of Ebbets Field’s iconic brick and arches, circa 1918. Outfield bleachers were constructed in 1926. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   Dan Griner‘s last major-league win was his best one: he came within one out of pitching a no-hitter. The son of a Confederate soldier, Griner joined the St. Louis Cardinals in August 1912, his […]

On a sultry Wednesday afternoon at Ebbets Field, the Robins and Pirates played for 4 hours and 15 minutes in the first game of a doubleheader.1 A “paltry 1,500 ‘bushers’ were on hand to appreciate” the longest game in the 41-year history of the National League.2 A Brooklyn newspaper account noted that “forty-seven safeties, one […]

With a Game Three win under their belts, the Brooklyn Robins were “bubbling over with enthusiasm” and insisted a second straight victory would give them so much “pep” going into Game Five that the Red Sox wouldn’t recognize them.1 Boston manager Bill Carrigan’s hunch to start left-hander Dutch Leonard under better conditions came to fruition […]

Hall of Famer Zack Wheat played for Brooklyn for 18 years (1909-1926) and more than a century later still held Dodgers career records for most hits (2,804), total bases (4,003), doubles (464), and triples (171). (Photo: Library of Congress)   After one-run wins against the Brooklyn Robins in Games One and Two of the 1916 […]

Proximate geographies, shared histories, and personal relations drive great sporting rivalries. The race for the 1916 National League crown had all three of these essential elements. The neighboring boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan make up part of New York City. Wilbert Robinson and John McGraw spent years together on the Baltimore Orioles and New York […]

“Of all the skills wrapped up in the complex game of big league baseball, none is practiced with more ingenuity and less publicity than the fine art of diamond larceny.” – Martin Abramson1 A wiring system sending signals to an in-ground junction box and a vibrating device or maybe a telescopic sight from a World […]

The Dodgers and Pirates broke off what New York Daily News sportswriter Dick Young called their “weird affair”1 at just before midnight on June 24, 1950. Brooklyn led, 19-12. A report from the Associated Press boasted, “The crowd of 22,010 was treated to one of the wildest games in Ebbets Field history.”2 And it wasn’t […]