Ebbets Field Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball park located in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn , New York , USA , on a city block which is now considered to be part of the Crown Heights neighborhood . It was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League . It was also a venue for professional football . The first National Football League team in New York City , the New York Brickley Giants used the stadium in 1921 , as did the NFL ' s Brooklyn Lions in 1926 . Two different incarnations of a Brooklyn Dodgers football team also used Ebbets Field as their home stadium , as did the Brooklyn Tigers of the second AFL before they moved to Rochester in November 1936 . The field was demolished in 1960 and replaced with apartment buildings . History . Ebbets Field was on the block bound by Bedford Avenue , Sullivan Place , McKeever Place , and Montgomery Street . After locating the prospective new site to build a permanent stadium to replace the old , wooden Washington Park , club owner Charlie Ebbets acquired the property over several years , starting in 1908 , by buying parcels of land until he owned the entire block . This land included the site of a garbage dump called Pigtown , because of the pigs that once ate their fill there and the stench that filled the air . In 1912 , construction began , and a year later , Pigtown had been transformed into Ebbets Field , where some of the game ' s greatest drama would take place . Following an inter - league exhibition game against the New York Yankees on April 5 , 1913 , the park formally opened on April 9 against the Philadelphia Phillies . When the park was opened , it was discovered that the flag , keys to the bleachers , and a press box had all been forgotten . The press box was not added until 1929 . Initially the seating area was a double deck from past third base , around home plate , and all the way down the right side . There was an open , concrete bleacher extending the rest of the way down the left side to the outer wall . There was no seating in left or center . The right field wall was fairly high due to the short foul line ( around 300 feet ) but had no screen or scoreboard at first . The ballpark was built on a sloping piece of ground . The right field wall made up the difference , as the right field corner was above street level . The left field corner was below street level , and there was an incline or " terrace " running along the left field wall . As was the case of Boston ' s Fenway Park and Detroit ' s Tiger Stadium ( two ballparks that opened one year earlier , in 1912 ) , the intimate configuration prompted some baseball writers to refer to Ebbets Field as a " cigar box " or a " bandbox . " Ebbets Field was the scene of some early successes , as the " Robins " ( so - called for long - time manager Wilbert Robinson ) won league championships in 1916 and 1920 . The Ebbets seating area was expanded in the 1920s , a " boom " time for baseball when many ballparks were expanded . The double deck was extended from third base around the left field corner , across left field , and into center field , covering the terrace and allowing right - hand hitters to garner many more home runs . By the 1940s , the big scoreboard had been installed , as well as a screen atop the high wall , which made right field home runs a little harder to come by . However , additional rows of seating across left field reduced that area by about 15 feet , to the delight of the sluggers . After the early successes , though , the team slid into some hard times , which would continue for a couple of decades , until new ownership brought in first promotional wizard Larry MacPhail ( in 1938 ) , then , after MacPhail ' s wartime resignation , player development genius Branch Rickey ( in 1943 ) . In addition to his well - known breaking of the color line by signing Jackie Robinson , Rickey ' s savvy with farm systems ( as with his prior work for the St . Louis Cardinals ) produced results that made the Brooklyn Dodgers " Bums " a perennial contender , which they would continue to be for decades to come . The Dodgers won pennants in 1941 ( under MacPhail ) , 1947 , 1949 , 1952 , 1953 , 1955 and 1956 . They won the 1955 World Series ( the only world title in Brooklyn Dodgers history ) , and were within two games and a playoff heartbreak of winning five NL pennants in a row ( 1949 – 53 ) and matching the cross - town Yankees ' achievement during that stretch . Ebbets also hosted the 1949 Major League Baseball All - Star Game . Demise . But the Dodgers were soon victims of their own success , because only a limited number of eager fans could cram into minuscule Ebbets Field , and it had almost no automobile parking for Dodger fans who had moved east to suburban Long Island , though it was near a subway station . Club owner Walter O ' Malley announced plans for a privately - owned domed stadium for his Dodgers at the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn , where a large market was being torn down , but New York City Building Commissioner Robert Moses wanted the city to build a stadium located in Flushing Meadows in the borough of Queens ( the future site of Shea Stadium and Citi Field ) . O ' Malley refused to consider Moses ' position , and Moses refused O ' Malley ' s . As a result , O ' Malley began to flirt publicly with Los Angeles , using a relocation threat as political leverage to win favor with his desired Brooklyn stadium . Ultimately , O ' Malley and Moses could never come to agreement on a new location for the Dodgers , and the club moved west to Los Angeles . During the last two years in Brooklyn , the Dodgers played several games each year in Jersey City , New Jersey ' s Roosevelt Stadium , as part of O ' Malley ' s additional tactics to force a new stadium to be built . In 1956 , real estate developer Marvin Kratter bought Ebbets Field from O ' Malley . He leased Ebbets Field back to O ' Malley until the team left for Los Angeles after the 1957 season . The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles , California , after the 1957 season , while their long - time crosstown rivals the New York Giants moved to San Francisco , based upon O ' Malley ' s urging to Giants owner Horace Stoneham . That meant lights out for Ebbets Field , which was demolished , beginning on February 23 , 1960 . O ' Malley ' s removal of the franchise from its historic home has been referred to as " one of the most infamous abandonments in the history of sport " by the New York Courts . 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 60s , 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 ' scclaimed 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 " " . Ebbets Field is arguably a more popular venue now than when it actually stood . Some fans who did attend games at the stadium remember it as cramped and decrepit towards the end of its life . The famous rotunda was said to be a bottleneck in the concourse . Baseball historians occasionally point out that although the stadium was no doubt a pleasant place to watch a ballgame , architecturally speaking it was not any more remarkable than several other " lost parks . " 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 . However , 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 . Subsequent use of the former Ebbets Field site . Apartments were built upon the former Ebbets Field site , and were named the Ebbets Field Apartments upon their opening in 1962 and were later renamed the Jackie Robinson Apartments in 1972 , the same year Robinson died . MS 320 , a school across McKeever Place , has been renamed Jackie Robinson Intermediate School . Other sports at Ebbets Field . Though known as a cathedral for baseball , other sports were played at Ebbets Field as well . In addition to the professional football teams that played at the stadium , it was also home to Manhattan College ' s football team from 1932 - 1937 . The stadium also hosted a number of soccer games . On April 11 , 1926 , Ebbets Field hosted the US National Challenge Cup soccer tournament ( now known as the Lamar Hunt U . S . Open Cup ) . Bethlehem Steel F . C . from Pennsylvania of the American Soccer League won its sixth and final National Challenge Cup title , scoring a convincing 7 - 2 victory over Ben Miller F . C . of St . Louis in the final before more than 18 , 000 fans . On June 7 , 1931 , over 10 , 000 fans came out to Ebbets Field to watch Celtic of Scotland crush local side Brooklyn Wanderers 5 - 0 . On June 17 , 1947 , the first known televised soccer game in the US took place at Ebbets Field when Hapoel Tel Aviv lost to the American League Stars 2 - 0 . On June 18 , 1948 , Liverpool of England beat Djurgården of Sweden 3 - 2 in front of 20 , 000 fans at Ebbets Field . On October 17 of that year , the U . S . national team beat the Israel national team team in front of 25 , 000 at Ebbets Field . On May 8 , 1955 , Sunderland of England beat the American league Stars 7 - 2 . On May 17 , Sunderland tied 1 . FC Nuremberg of Germany also at Ebbets . On May 23 , 1958 , Manchester City of England lost to Hearts of Scotland 5 - 2 in front of 20 , 000 patrons at Ebbets Field . On June 28 , 1959 , Napoli of Italy lost to Rapid Vienna of Austria 1 - 0 in front of 18 , 512 . At the rematch , also at Ebbets Field three days later in front of 13 , 000 people , Napoli tied Rapid Vienna 1 - 1 , in one of the last events ever held there . Dimensions . Original ( estimates ) 1932 - 1947 1948 - 1957 References in literature . In Arthur Miller ' s " Death of a Salesman " , Ebbets Field is mentioned by Willy ' s wife , Linda , as the place of Biff ' s game ( 89 in Penguin Plays ed . , 1949 ) . This is immediately mocked by their neighbor , Charley , thereby serving as a symbol of the family ' s downfall at the hands of modernity and self - delusion . The field is also mentioned in " The Zodiacs " by Jay Neugeboren , a story about a team in Brooklyn . In the David Ritz novel " The Man Who Brought The Dodgers Back To Brooklyn " , two childhood friends buy the Dodgers and move them back to Brooklyn to play in a re - built Ebbets Field . The only time I ever saw him excited — - outside of what happened with him and our team — - was when our fathers would take the two of us to games at Ebbets Field . In " The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay " , by Michael Chabon , the novel ' s two protagonists attend a Brooklyn Dodgers football game at Ebbets Field . References in movies . In the movie " Heist " , Gene Hackman remarks that with enough preparation , one could steal Ebbets Field . Danny DeVito notes that this is impossible since the field has been gone for years . Hackman believes this proves his point . In 1988 ' s " Field of Dreams " , author Terrence Mann ( James Earl Jones ) was quoted in an interview discovered by Ray Kinsella ( Kevin Costner ) saying that his childhood dream was to have played baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field , but the team moved to Los Angeles and the field was torn down , and his dream never did come true . The film " Blue in the Face " is in itself a celebration of Brooklyn , and particular attention is given to the Dodgers and Ebbets Field , showing footage from its demolition . Harvey Keitel ' s character Auggie makes a comparison between the Dodgers ' moving to Los Angeles and the destruction of Ebbets Field for apartment buildings , and his boss selling the by then traditional cigar store he works in to a health food company . In , Rogers wakes up in a ' 40s style ' recovery room ' in New York , City , where he hears the archive remains of a previous game from May 1941 on an old - fashioned radio , and knows because he was there . References on television . On the television series , " McHale ' s Navy " , Torpedoman Lester Gruber ( Carl Ballantine ) often makes mention of his life growing up in Brooklyn . He talks about Bensonhurst and , especially about the Dodgers and Ebbets Field . In an episode entitled , " The Day the War Stood Still " , he even says , " Forward all my mail to Ebbets Field . " In an episode entitled , " Reunion for PT - 73 " , McHale ( Ernest Borgnine ) and the crew are trying to convince Captain Binghampton ( Joe Flynn ) that he is in New York City in 1950 . Gruber holds up a newspaper and exclaims , " Those Brooklyn Bums blew another one . . . maybe we ' ll win the pennant next year . . . in ' 51 ! " In the " Fringe ( TV series ) " episode " " , a radio broadcast of the Dodgers versus the Expos at Ebbets Field can be heard in the alternate universe .