Echoes of OUR Ebbets Field in Queens!

[DODGER DEB]

The NY Daily News is reporting today that it looks like Fred Wilpon, Chairman/CEO of the NY Mets, will finally get his Ebbets Field of Dreams!

The design for the Mets new $600 million stadium will evoke "the look and feel" of OUR beloved Ebbets Field, home of OUR BROOKLYN DODGERS. It will even include a "360 Rotunda", similar to OUR Rotunda. Read more...

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/391875p-332277c.html

c.

[theAmazingMet]

Yeah, I red this in today's paper. Such good news, but who knows how long it will take to build. Another good side-point to this stadium getting built is the city's plans to revitalize Willets Point and clear out all the scrapyards, so people will have things to do before, and after the game in the immediate area. Newsday had an article about this during the summer, and it included pics of what the stadium should look like. While the outside will resemble Ebbets Field the inside looked too utalitarian, and impersonal. Hopefully that look changes. Anything is better than Shea however. I just hope they continue to honor Bill Shea (whose efforts to force the NL to give back a NY franchise MUST NEVER be forgotten!) by naming the new stadium after him, and not naming it "Sell-out Stadium" or "7-11 Field" or any other stupid corporate name. Remember it was NL president Warren Giles who said "We don't need New York". Thankfully Bill Shea was smarter and more determined than those who tore the heart out of the city by allowing not one but two storied franchises to leave in the name of the almighty buck.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

I don't want to spoil your party...
But IMO this is just another retro ballpark.

I guess the Brooklyn Dogers fans can give an answer to my question. Do you really think that this new ballpark will have the same athmosphere as Ebbets Field? When I read your posts, when I see the pictures of Ebbets Field, I get the feeling that Ebbets Field was unique in every way. I think no clone can represent that.

Just my two cents.

[DODGER DEB]

I don't want to spoil your party...
But IMO this is just another retro ballpark.

I guess the Brooklyn Dogers fans can give an answer to my question. Do you really think that this new ballpark will have the same athmosphere as Ebbets Field? When I read your posts, when I see the pictures of Ebbets Field, I get the feeling that Ebbets Field was unique in every way. I think no clone can represent that.

Just my two cents.

The answer to your question, yr....NO!!!

Nothing will ever bring back that wonderful feeling WE felt each time WE entered!

OUR EBBETS FIELD was ONE of a KIND.....and will remain just that!

c.

[Mattingly]

The answer to your question, yr....NO!!!

Nothing will ever bring back that wonderful feeling WE felt each time WE entered!

OUR EBBETS FIELD was ONE of a KIND.....and will remain just that!

c.

In that case, let me ask this very person question re Ebbets Field:

Do you think it's a good or a bad idea that the Mets are trying to recreate that kind of atmosphere?

[The Real McCoy]

This is akin to someone other than Tony Bennett singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." This is like those ersatz "'50s" diners in the 1980s that were all gleam and glitter and recalled absolutely nothing about eating sausage and eggs and homefries at 4:30 AM on a Saturday morning. There's only one first love, one first drink (probably Seven and seven), one first big league game and there certainly was, is, and will forever be, only one Ebbets Field.

What we'll get here is some lackluster attempt at recreating a time, a field and an aura of a team and a borough that it is impossible, under any circumstances, to recreate. It was a time and place that is better left to our memories and this sure-to-be-a-botch job of what for many of us are inviolate experiences is simply another bureaucratic disaster waiting to happen. And it's in Queens, for God's sakes.

Give the Mets their stadium. Let them keep Dodger Blue as part of their colors, but don't mess with saints and shrines. And if and when it happens, as it probably will, make sure they get Wayne Newton to sing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

[DODGER DEB]

In that case, let me ask this very person question re Ebbets Field:

Do you think it's a good or a bad idea that the Mets are trying to recreate that kind of atmosphere?

While I don't think it is a completely bad idea, I don't see it as a good one either. Here it is nearly 50 years since they took OUR DODGERS from US, and 46 years since they felt the need to flatten OUR Home, and still people cling to having a piece of OUR proud history. To me, that is truly amazing!

Fred Wilpon was one of US back then. He loved OUR DODGERS as much as WE did. Now that he is the sole decision maker, I think he is living out his fantasy...and that isn't all bad! I only wish I could live out mine! Though it may "look like" OUR Ebbets Field, they will never be able to recreate the atmosphere and "smell" of OUR home. All of that when down with the bulldozer.

There will always and forever be only one EBBETS FIELD! It was all OURS...and WE are the very proud ones, and the only ones, that can make that statement.

c.

[Mattingly]

While I don't think it is a completely bad idea, I don't see it as a good one either. Here it is nearly 50 years since they took OUR DODGERS from US, and 46 years since they felt the need to flatten OUR Home, and still people cling to having a piece of OUR proud history. To me, that is truly amazing!

Fred Wilpon was one of US back then. He loved OUR DODGERS as much as WE did. Now that he is the sole decision maker, I think he is living out his fantasy...and that isn't all bad! I only wish I could live out mine! Though it may "look like" OUR Ebbets Field, they will never be able to recreate the atmosphere and "smell" of OUR home. All of that when down with the bulldozer.

There will always and forever be only one EBBETS FIELD! It was all OURS...and WE are the very proud ones, and the only ones, that can make that statement.

Very strong words, and ones which I greatly cherish and admire!

BTW, I'd meant "personal" re baseball, not "person". My bad.

Anyway, if at least the new stadium (presuming it's even built, with the way zoning requirements, community board approval, taxpayer dollars, etc in NYC goes, if say this were magically built and looked very much like Ebbets Field (sans the trollies and 1950s cars), do you think you could go there and have a hot dog? Peanuts? Get used to it, and dare I say, even enjoy it?

I hope I'm not being rude, but I just wanted to know just how much would you allow yourself to actually like this place, if it at least made a decent appeal to resemble Ebbets Field in a way.

Thanks again for your honesty, your time.

[Elvis]

I'm assuming it will pretty much resemble the already released drawings, except that the Olympic Stadium add-on obviously won't be done. I like the idea of the extended-canopy roof (seen on the third-base and RF stands) that I'm assuming is an ode to the older ballparks with longer roofs than modern ballparks. I wonder if the grandstands will come around in left field all the way to center, and if the RF wall and scoreboard will be like Ebbets Field too, or if they're just going to mimic the exterior design and have a completely different interior design. I'm looking forward to the release of the "final" concept.

[strummer]

NO! A THOUSAND TIMES, NO!! This will never be the same as Ebbets Field, but only those of us who were there will know that, and there are fewer and fewer of us each year. This is a great attempt to keep the image and legend of Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers alive and "touchable" for all those baseball fans who never saw the real thing, and the many who come afterward.

[Mattingly]

NO! A THOUSAND TIMES, NO!! This will never be the same as Ebbets Field, but only those of us who were there will know that, and there are fewer and fewer of us each year. This is a great attempt to keep the image and legend of Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers alive and "touchable" for all those baseball fans who never saw the real thing, and the many who come afterward.

I'm curious, are you replying to a specific forumer who's posted here? Are you saying that Ebbets Field will never be replaced? I'd definitely believe you if that's the point you're making.

Are you saying that making a stadium--if built--look somewhat like Ebbets Field, that would be a good or bad idea?

[Elvis]

I'm curious, are you replying to a specific forumer who's posted here? Are you saying that Ebbets Field will never be replaced? I'd definitely believe you if that's the point you're making.

Are you saying that making a stadium--if built--look somewhat like Ebbets Field, that would be a good or bad idea?

I believe it's in response to Yankees rule's question:

"""Do you really think that this new ballpark will have the same athmosphere as Ebbets Field?"""

[strummer]

OK Let me clarify. I do not believe that whatever is built will in any way replace the Ebbets Field of our memories, at least for those of us who were there. You cannot replace with something new, that is not an exact replic, the pictures imbedded in our minds of what we saw 50 years ago. That being said, I feel it is a good idea to try to do something similar to Ebbets Field (and to say so) because that continues the story and allows those who have never experienced the thrill of seeing a game in Ebbets Field to come that much closer to the experience. It also will continue the stories of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field as those attending games played in the new structure are reminded each time they go there that this structure was built with the image of Ebbets Field in mind, and that's the place where those bums, the Brooklyn Dodgers, played many years ago.

[jaykay]

As several of you have stated or implied, it was the "atmosphere" that made Ebbets Field unique - and that can never be recovered, even if a franchise rebuilt Ebbets Field, adding 10,000 seats, using state-of-the-art materials, installing a team called the Dodgers (LA or expansion, your choice), and setting the whole thing down gently in.....Brooklyn. You would have a semblance of surface appeal, and little or nothing else. You would not have MacPhail, Durocher, Red Barber, Rickey, Reese, Robinson.....I could go on and on.....You would not have Brooklyn of the 1940s and 1950s, which was also special in its way - not only for the ballclub that won consistently, but for the neighborhoods in which we (the complainers, the agonizers) were young and coming of age, places that perhaps we now pine for more each day, as those days dwindle down to a precious few. When we talk about "Ebbets Field" we mean a way of life that seemed to have been good for most of us, with the Dodgers contributing prominently. The ballpark itself was kind of makeshift and claptrap from the earliest time we knew it. The teams of the 1920s and 1930s were generally woeful, and you did not hear those who were adult during that time yearning for the Dodgers of old, or for Brooklyn of old. We were just the right age to know Brooklyn at its best, and the Dodgers at their best.
So, by my reckoning, you can make a ballpark that looks like the old one, you can build it anywhere, you can even call it Ebbets Field - but it misses by a mile. What's missing? Brooklyn - let's say 1938-1957 - and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

As several of you have stated or implied, it was the "atmosphere" that made Ebbets Field unique - and that can never be recovered, even if a franchise rebuilt Ebbets Field, adding 10,000 seats, using state-of-the-art materials, installing a team called the Dodgers (LA or expansion, your choice), and setting the whole thing down gently in.....Brooklyn. You would have a semblance of surface appeal, and little or nothing else. You would not have MacPhail, Durocher, Red Barber, Rickey, Reese, Robinson.....I could go on and on.....You would not have Brooklyn of the 1940s and 1950s, which was also special in its way - not only for the ballclub that won consistently, but for the neighborhoods in which we (the complainers, the agonizers) were young and coming of age, places that perhaps we now pine for more each day, as those days dwindle down to a precious few. When we talk about "Ebbets Field" we mean a way of life that seemed to have been good for most of us, with the Dodgers contributing prominently. The ballpark itself was kind of makeshift and claptrap from the earliest time we knew it. The teams of the 1920s and 1930s were generally woeful, and you did not hear those who were adult during that time yearning for the Dodgers of old, or for Brooklyn of old. We were just the right age to know Brooklyn at its best, and the Dodgers at their best.
So, by my reckoning, you can make a ballpark that looks like the old one, you can build it anywhere, you can even call it Ebbets Field - but it misses by a mile. What's missing? Brooklyn - let's say 1938-1957 - and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Even if you would get the Dodgers back from LA, they would not be the same Dodgers anymore.

For the rest of your post: You're absolutely right.