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“This Sabbath soiree was a great and festive occasion for the baseball fans of Flatbush.”1 Indeed! The Chicago Cubs came to town for the first Sunday doubleheader at Ebbets Field since September 15, 1946. The Dodgers hosted the Cubs in that one, too, and split the two games. The growth and eventual decline of Sunday […]

When one thinks of home-run hitters and the Milwaukee Braves, Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews immediately come to mind. However, Joe Adcock, the hulking 6-foot-4-inch former basketball player at Louisiana State University, had the reputation of smashing some of the longest home runs ever witnessed. Although measuring the distance home runs travel has historically been […]

“Ebbets Field just isn’t the same.” – Roscoe McGowen1 Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field was a special place for baseball fans of all ages. Baseball’s literature tells the story of the National League’s Brooklyn Superbas, Robins, and Dodgers – over 3,400 games in 45 seasons (1913-1957) and 28 World Series games in nine different postseasons.2 Ask any […]

It’s never been duplicated in the majors or minors and might be baseball’s most unbeatable record. In just his 21st big-league start, the Reds Johnny Vander Meer recorded his second consecutive no-hitter, holding the Dodgers hitless in the first major-league night game at Ebbets Field.1 New York sportswriter Hy Turkin hailed the accomplishment as the […]

With a little more than a month left in the 1921 regular season, the Pittsburgh Pirates “were determined to break the sustained slump which has threatened their possession of first place.”1 Before a three-game series with the Brooklyn Robins, the Pirates had lost six straight games and had seen their lead over the New York […]

Ebbets Field has been gone for more than half a century, but the place still has a remarkable grip on our consciousness. At least three books have been devoted to the lovable old ballpark in Crown Heights.1 Yet even these in-depth works don’t shine much light on what happened after the Dodgers left Brooklyn. They […]

This article was originally published in Ebbets Field: Great, Historic, and Memorable Games in Brooklyn’s Lost Ballpark (SABR, 2023), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.   The Brooklyn Eagle, beginning in 1946, staged its “Brooklyn Against the World” competition at Ebbets Field. The main forces behind the game were Branch Rickey of the Dodgers and Lou […]

The years immediately following World War II were a golden age for baseball attendance. In 1945, the Major Leagues drew more than 10.8 million, breaking a 15-year old record. The next year, they eclipsed that total by more than 70 percent, attracting more than 18.5 million paying fans. The 1947 season was even better, producing […]