Roosevelt Stadium - Jersey City, NJ

[tonypug]

The Brooklyn Dodgers played seven league games and one exhibition game in 1956, and eight league games in 1957, in Jersey City's Roosevelt Stadium. I know a couple of the Brooklyn Dodger Forum members attended games there, maybe they can give us a feel of what that stadium was like. I saw some of the Dodger games from there on TV but never had a chance to go there. If anyone has photos (Jackie 42?) maybe they can share. The stadium is a bit of a mystery, there seems to be very few photos available. I haven't found any from the games the Dodgers played there. According to newspaper reports and player interviews the Dodgers were not treated like the home team. Most of the fans attending the games were New York Giants fans and rooted against the Dodgers. The Giants at one time had a farm team in New Jersey.

[Tim Brent]

How about a seating diagram?

here's a seating diagram of Roosevelt Stadium.

[tonypug]

here's a seating diagram of Roosevelt Stadium.

Thanks Tim.

[JACKIE42]

[JACKIE42]

[JACKIE42]

Roosevelt Stadium Firsts
Jersey City, NJ

Game 04/19/1956 Phillies 4, Dodgers 5 (10 innings)
Umpires Augie Donatelli, Bill Engeln
Vic Delmore, Jocko Conlan
Managers Walter Alston, Dodgers
Mayo Smith, Phillies
Starting Pitchers Carl Erskine, Dodgers
Murry Dickson, Phillies
Ceremonial Pitch Hoboken Mayor John J. Grogan
Attendance 12,214
Batting
Batter Richie Ashburn (groundout)
Hit Pee Wee Reese (single)
Run Junior Gilliam
RBI Gil Hodges
Single Pee Wee Reese
Double Gil Hodges
Triple Dee Fondy (06/25/1956)
Home Run Wally Moon (05/16/1956)
Grand Slam NONE
IPHR NONE
Stolen Base Roy Campanella
Sacrifice Hit Jackie Robinson
Sacrifice Fly Rube Walker
Cycle NONE
Pitching
Win Clem Labine
Loss Murry Dickson
Shutout Don Newcombe (08/07/1956)
Save Clem Labine (05/16/1956)
Hit by Pitch Jim Hearn hit Gino Cimoli (04/22/1957)
Wild Pitch Carl Erskine
Balk NONE
No-Hitter NONE

http://www.retrosheet.org/ballparks/roosevelt_stad.htm

[Chisox73]

Thanks Tim for the seating diagram.I haven't seen one for that place before,and thanks Jackie for the photo.

A couple of questions I would like to find out.What was the seating capacity at Roosevelt Stadium,and is it still standing today?

[tonypug]

Thanks Tim for the seating diagram.I haven't seen one for that place before,and thanks Jackie for the photo.

A couple of questions I would like to find out.What was the seating capacity at Roosevelt Stadium,and is it still standing today?

The 1956 Dodger yearbook lists capacity at 25,000. It is no longer standing, and there are very few pictures available. I still haven't found any Dodger game action photos from Roosevelt Stadium.

[tonypug]

Roosevelt Stadium Firsts
Jersey City, NJ

Game 04/19/1956 Phillies 4, Dodgers 5 (10 innings)
Umpires Augie Donatelli, Bill Engeln
Vic Delmore, Jocko Conlan
Managers Walter Alston, Dodgers
Mayo Smith, Phillies
Starting Pitchers Carl Erskine, Dodgers
Murry Dickson, Phillies
Ceremonial Pitch Hoboken Mayor John J. Grogan
Attendance 12,214
Batting
Batter Richie Ashburn (groundout)
Hit Pee Wee Reese (single)
Run Junior Gilliam
RBI Gil Hodges
Single Pee Wee Reese
Double Gil Hodges
Triple Dee Fondy (06/25/1956)
Home Run Wally Moon (05/16/1956)
Grand Slam NONE
IPHR NONE
Stolen Base Roy Campanella
Sacrifice Hit Jackie Robinson
Sacrifice Fly Rube Walker
Cycle NONE
Pitching
Win Clem Labine
Loss Murry Dickson
Shutout Don Newcombe (08/07/1956)
Save Clem Labine (05/16/1956)
Hit by Pitch Jim Hearn hit Gino Cimoli (04/22/1957)
Wild Pitch Carl Erskine
Balk NONE
No-Hitter NONE

http://www.retrosheet.org/ballparks/roosevelt_stad.htm

I seem to remember a strange play. Willie Jones the Phils 3b spiked himself while trying to catch a popup and had to leave the game.

[Chisox73]

Thanks for the reply guys.

[DODGER DEB]

Roosevelt Stadium was one of the dullest ballparks in which I have ever seen a ML ballgame.

WE went there in the summer of 1956, and it took forever to get there. WE took a train in Penn Station to some place in NJ (I don't remember where), but when WE got off the train WE had to take a bus to get to the Stadium. The area outside the park was not the nicest of places. WE sat behind home plate and in general, just felt so "out of place" there, especially when WE were the home team. The trip home took even longer.

I DO remember that WE called a certain "owner" quite a few names that day.....thinking WHY is HE doing to this to US??? Little did WE realize what HE ultimately had in mind for US!

c.

[tonypug]

Roosevelt Stadium was one of the dullest ballparks in which I have ever seen a ML ballgame.

WE went there in the summer of 1956, and it took forever to get there. WE took a train in Penn Station to some place in NJ (I don't remember where), but when WE got off the train WE had to take a bus to get to the Stadium. The area outside the park was not the nicest of places. WE sat behind home plate and in general, just felt so "out of place" there, especially when WE were the home team. The trip home took even longer.

I DO remember that WE called a certain "owner" quite a few names that day.....thinking WHY is HE doing to this to US??? Little did WE realize what HE ultimately had in mind for US!

c.

Deb, do you remember which game you went to?Was there any advertising on the walls? I am trying to get a mental picture of the place.

[DODGER DEB]

Deb, do you remember which game you went to?Was there any advertising on the walls? I am trying to get a mental picture of the place.

Tony, I honestly don't remember WHICH game it was. As I said, I know it was in the summer, but that's about all I remember. I might I have a scorecard among my many items, and I also think I have a photo of the place (WE never went to ballgames without OUR cameras), but, I would have to look for it among the few thousands photos I have.

I can't say that I remember any advertising on the walls, although there could have been.

Sorry, I can't be of more help!

c.

[cong]

Those images are great and bring back some fond memories.

In the early 70's Lincoln HS in JC used Roosevelt as their home field. Many towns, like mine, went out of their way to play Lincoln. I was an awesome place for a HS game.

There were also some wonderful concerts held there in the late 70's and early 80's.

The Indians had an AA team there in the late 70's I believe as well.

Thanks again for those images!

[Digitalparks]

Hi Everyone!

This is Eric Pastore. My wife and I have been touring North America for the past 5 years, photographing every ballpark that has every been used for professional baseball of any kind, since professional baseball began (in high res digital photography). This is for the inclusion in our baseball stadium museum. The museum has been featured as recently as this past month on CNN and ABC News Nightline, and has links to it from the Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown.

We are trying to capture every ballpark ever used for professional baseball, ever. In all of history.

Of course that leads to one big issue. I cannot capture ballparks that no longer exist, for quite obvious reasons. For those, I have to rely on others.

As tony pug stated in the beginning, Roosevelt Stadium has been an enigma. There are very few photographs of it, and we only have one aerial shot ourselves.

We've been lucky, that many of the early Major League parks, we've been able to "Screen Capture" from some very rare footage off of some new DVD's we've gotten. Because of this technology, and because all of the old news reels of the 50's have been digitized, we have some great never before seen footage of Ebbets Field, Yankee Stadium, Seals Stadium, Polo Grounds, Connie Mack, LA Coliseum. Unfortunately, no footage exists of Minor League Parks.

If anyone wishes to help us out, please let me know. My email address is [email protected].

My musuem www.digitalballparks.com, is seeking ANY photos of "no longer standing" ballparks, preferrably very large so we can crop if we need to.

If anyone has anything to donate, please let us know. Even the 2 photographs that appear above are pretty good. Thanks everyone.