Dodgers historian Mark Langill tells us that today is the 100th year anniversary of the very first ballgame played at Ebbet's Field in Brooklyn. It was a exhibition match against the New York Yankees on 4/5/1913. The very first person to hit a home run that afternoon was the then Yankee outfielder and future Dodger coach Casey Stengel. It was an inside-the-park home run. BTW, the Dodgers won 3 to 2.
With this in mind,
Dave Anderson of the NY Times writes of great piece commemorating the old landmarks birthday.
“Call it Ebbets Field, Charlie,” he said. “You put yourself in hock to build it, and it’s your monument.”
And
so the ballpark was baptized. The cost was $750,000 for a solid
concrete foundation with snazzy steel girders supporting the roof above
an upper deck, a palace in that era. And a palace forever to anyone who
walked there from the Prospect Park subway stop on Flatbush Avenue,
crossed Empire Boulevard at the edge of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and
saw Ebbets Field in white block letters high above the awning-shaded
entrance to the ticket booths in, as the longtime ballpark announcer Tex
Rickards often intoned, “the marble rotunda behind home plate.”
The article above also does a little walking tour of where the stadium use to be. It's a great read.
Following this, the NY Times also released some vintage
photos to look at, here.
Of course, this post wouldn't be complete without a video. Below is a great description of the very first game.
Video Link:
