Ebbets Field - Legacy

Legacy

Ebbets Field was but one of several historic major league ballparks demolished in the 1960s, but more mythology and nostalgia surrounds the stadium and its demise than possibly any other defunct ballpark.

A great deal of history happened at Ebbets Field during its relatively short 45-year lifespan with the Dodgers. Of the many teams that uprooted in the 1950s and 1960s, the Dodgers have probably had the largest number of public laments over their fans' heartbreak over losing their team. A couple of decades later, Roger Kahn's acclaimed book The Boys of Summer and Frank Sinatra's song "There Used to Be a Ballpark" mourned the loss of places like Ebbets Field, and of the attendant youthful innocence of fans and players alike. The story of Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers' move to Los Angeles were also chronicled by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, figured into the plot of the film Field of Dreams, and were featured in an entire episode of Ken Burns' public-television documentary Baseball, as well as a 2007 HBO documentary called Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush.

As of 2010, the Dodgers have played in Dodger Stadium for more years (49 through the 2010 season) than they played in Ebbets Field (45). Shea Stadium's duration (1964–2008) was the same as that of Ebbets Field.

Ebbets Field has managed to transcend the realm of mere fact to become a kind of icon for what many see as the golden era of the national pastime, and its destruction symbolic of the "lost innocence" of a bygone era. Its influence can be seen in the current ballpark of the New York Mets, Citi Field, which features replicas of Ebbets' exterior façade and entry rotunda, which is named in honor of Jackie Robinson.