Friday, March 26, 2021

Ebbets Field Tears

Well, the Dodgers had abandoned Brooklyn and gone to LA, after the 1957 baseball season.  

That year, in October, I played in Ebbets Field, as part of a Gravesend Youth Center (GYC) program event.  (I can't confirm the date.  But it happened.) 

I was on the Bantam Team.  Ten years old.  We played the GYC Grasshopper team which was, on average, one or two years older than us.  Big difference.  We felt that we were doomed to lose.  And we lost.

During the middle of the game, I was sent out to play centerfield.  I was not a centerfielder, but there I went.  Duke Snider, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle all played there.  And so many others.

When I arrived in center field, the Ebbets Field grass was half-way up to my knees.  I almost cried. Ebbets Field had been neglected.

Someone hit a shot to center.  I did not see the ball until it had risen above the top of the stadium grandstand. When I saw the ball, I could see that it would be way over my head.  A big double.  

Later, when I got up, I grounded out to short.  I hustled hard to first but was out by a stride. 0 for 1.

It was not a good day.  But I got to play in Ebbets Field before they destroyed that "blessed" Brooklyn structure, two years later, in 1960.  

As a kid, I thought I'd be a Brooklyn Dodger one day.  It was a dream that did not manifest.  But I did get to play in Ebbets Field.