Brooding Over the Brooklyn Bandbox Abandonment

On September 24, 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field against the Milwaukee Braves.  Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley had been angling for years to build a replacement facility for the National League team.  O'Malley proposed a domed stadium in Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards (ironically now where the Barclay's Center stands) but  New York Building Commissioner Robert Moses "would not play ball."  Moses wanted a stadium erected in Flushing Gardens, Queens (where Shea Stadium and Citi Field were built), but  O'Malley insisted: "We are the Brooklyn Dodgers, not the Queens Dodgers!".  To put pressure on New York City officials, O'Malley had "Da Bums" play a few homestands in Jersey City, New Jersey for two years, but to no avail.  O'Malley packed up the Dodgers and left for sunny Los Angeles in 1958.  And Brooklyn was never the same.

Yid With Lid's Jeff Dunetz argued that September 24, 1957 was "the day the Borough of Brooklyn died" as the Dodgers were the glue that kept Brooklyn together.  Being a Brooklyn Dodgers fan was likened to being a "state religion" in Brooklyn.  It was hypothesized that blue collar, ethnic first and second generation Americans identified with "Dem Bums" and were proud that Dodger players were just like them and lived among them.  In fact, Samuel Johnson, an old-time Brooklyn Dodgers fan who lives at the Ebbet Field Apartments, recalled how seeing Jackie Robinson around in the neighborhood with his  pigeon toed walk. 

Brooklyn Dodgers fans have an unusual nostalgic affection for Ebbets Field, which was the Dodgers home for 45 years.  Ebbets Field was built in "Pig Town" in 1912 between Bedford Avenue, Sullivan Place, McKeever Place, and Montgomery Streets from a collection of parcels which included a garbage dump.  When Ebbets Field opened in 1913, the intimate bandbox (a.k.a. cigar box) stadium sported neither a flag pole nor a press box (the latter was not added until 1929).   Ebbets Field had character because of its topography-- the parcel of sloping ground required that the right field corner be above street level.  Ebbets Field could only seat 35,000 fans and had no hopes of expansion.  Fans of "Dem Bums" thought that it had a homey feel.

After O'Malley moved the Dodgers to the Chavez Ravine in "Dodger-town" California, Brooklyn fans were thoroughly bummed about the abandonment of the Brooklyn Bandbox.  Ebbets Field was demolished with great ceremony in February 1960.

The site was turned into the Ebbets Field Apartments.  However that did not destroy the nostalgia for the Ebbets Field and Brooklyn Dodgers among their die-hards.  Frank Sinatra had a song "There Used to Be a Ballpark"  aimed at Ebbets Field.  The facade for Citi Field in Queens architecturally evokes the exterior of Ebbets Field.  And Ebbets Field even managed to be part of the plot in the film Field of Dreams (1989).  People still pay good money for associations with Ebbets Field.  In January 2014, for example, the Ebbets Field street sign which stood at the corner of Montgomery and McKeever sold for nearly $59,000.

Why do people still brood today of the abandonment off the Brooklyn Bandbox.  Native New Yorkers get nostalgic about the prominence of the Big Apple. The Dodgers and the Giants simultaneously skipping out to California was a cognitive blow which inspired incredible animus.  Hence, Judge Motley's quip about the "notorious abandonment" of Brooklyn 35 years later.  The observation about the Dodgers being the sticky stuff which held the borough of Brooklyn together has some merit.  The Dodgers ducking out of Brooklyn may have also marked the end of a certain age of innocence.  Pro sports used to be a pastime which a lucky few like Roy Campanella continued play boyhood games into adulthood during the summer, only to go back to day jobs in the off season.  The Dodgers move to Los Angeles may have underscored that pro sports could become big business. 

Even though the Brooklyn Dodgers may have abandoned the borough, they did manage to keep their trademark.  Brooklyn based restauranters opened "the Brooklyn Dodgers Sports Bar and Restaurant in 1988 arguing that the Dodgers abandoned Brooklyn in 1957, changing the organizations name and had abandoned the trademark.  This might have been a successful trademark challenge, except the L.A. Dodgers started marketing Brooklyn Dodgers merchandise again in 1981.  Major League Properties won the case in 1993 but the entrepreneurs had long since before gone out of business. 

h/t: Yid With Lid

Vin Scully on Baseball

#DOMINoNo Doesn't Deliver Well After the First No Hitter of 2014

Major League Baseball teamed up with Domino's Pizza for a promotion to give away 20,000 two topping medium pizzas to MLB account holders after the first two no hitters this season.

[C] LA Dodger Pitcher Josh Beckett celebrating after throwing no hitter May 24, 2014 

LA Dodgers pitcher Josh Beckett pitched the first no hitter on Sunday in a 6-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.  In the game, Beckett had six strikeout.  Unfortunately, many more people struck out in trying to redeem their free pizza codes.

Tuesday was the day which MLB account holders could petition for their pizza, however response was so heavy that the website crashed and some fans were left pizza-less.  

In this age of social media diplomacy, these disgruntled pizza people took to Twitter to vent via the hashtag #DomiNoNo.  A post which would cut to the quick in the District of Calamity (sic) compared the problematic pizza giveaway to Obamacare sign ups.

Alas, it was not just hungry fans who suffered as a consequence of Beckett's first no hitter.  Dodger catcher A.J. Ellis suffered a sprained ankle celebrating Beckett's achievement when he jumped and landed on fellow catcher Drew Butera.

Ellis was put on the 15 day disabled list.  Fortunately, Butera was not injured in the incident.  It is unclear if Ellis will enjoy pizza while on DL. 

h/t:  Foxsports

Vin Scully's Unshakable Disposition

Vin Scully, the legendary 86 year old Hall of Fame broadcaster of the Dodgers since 1950, is well renowned for his dulcet voice and steady demeanor.  These professional attributes were at the forefront during the bottom of the sixth inning of  Freeway Series Exhibition ballgame  between the l.A. Dodgers and the L.A.Angels of Anaheim when an earthquake shook Dodger Stadium.




This temblor was a shallow quake 1.2 miles beneath Brea, California. This was unlike the 2.2 earthquake coming from raucous cheering from Seattle Seahawks fans in December, 2006

Some say that Scully's laid back attitude toward the shaking was typically LA.  Others may point to Scully's 65 year experience in being a consummate professional.  Both of those points have elements of truth to it.  However, one should not discount Scully's sunny disposition.  Scully's call projects a calm cheerfulness which invites viewers into the action.  This understated announcing would not emphasize the geologic event.

That being said, Vin Scully sounds best when speaking in his own voice.  The Ozzie accent which Scully tongue-in-cheek started the 2014 MLB Season Opening Day in Sydney Australia rubbed some baseball fans the wrong way.

Dodger-ing McCain's Verbal Flak on Poolgate

In anticipation of the Los Angeles Dodgers clinching the NL West Division title, the Arizona Diamondbacks requested that the division champions not celebrate on Chase Field in downtown Phoenix.    The visiting team did technically comply but they expressed their elation  at winning the division title by jumping in the Dodge swimming pool in right field.

This celebration provoked the ire of the senior Senator from Arizona John McCain as was publicized through  his Twitter postings.

While McCain may echo other Arizona Diamondback fan sentiments, his social media sharing should be beneath his office.  This message was not the cute hometown bets between politicians during the playoffs.  Nor was this admiration for a sports team which he has been a long-time fan, like Yankees fans former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NYC) or former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) (sic).  

Maybe McCain was just pandering to his constituents (the voters, not the media but that can be confusing for the Maverick Senator).  But that's not his job.  Maybe for a Phoenix sportscaster, but not for a US Senator, particularly when the world is going to hell in a handbasket (and McCain makes friends with al Qaeda terrorists in the Free Syrian Army).

Then again, McCain has had difficulty doing his job of late.  McCain was so bored with a high level public hearing on the Syria Crisis, when President Obama was still threatening to strike the Levant, yet the senior Senator was caught playing video poker on the Senate floor.

If John McCain wants to engross himself in the minutia of baseball, it seems that Arizona is a fine place to RETIRE, and watch Cactus League baseball.