Saturday, April 06, 2013

Vin Scully Commemorates Ebbets Field's 100th Anniversary

Vin Scully, from last night's telecast:

It is exactly one hundred years ago today that Ebbets Field opened up in Brooklyn. Charles Ebbets built a ballpark in an area that was called Pigtown, and the real estate was pretty cheap, so he built the ballpark and the first game ever was played there a hundred years ago today.

Among other things, Casey Stengel, yes, the great manager, Casey Stengel played in that first game and not only hit a home run, but hit a home run inside the park.

And do you like music? To me, one of the saddest baseball songs I have ever heard — you like Frank Sinatra. Well Frank Sinatra recorded a song called "There Used to Be a Ballpark." And it was all about Ebbets Field. Wow. What a combination, Sinatra and Ebbets Field.

And with that, lets go back to this one.

Ah yes, there used to be a ballpark. But nothing is forever, that's for darn sure.

I was interviewed over the phone, and a writer was asking about Ebbets Field disappearing, and I told him a true story. I grew up in an area of New York called Washington Heights. Washington Heights, when I was growing up, a little boy, was probably ninety-five percent Jewish. Mostly Jewish refugees escaping Hitler.

Barmes a strike, oh and one.

Today, that same area is heavily Hispanic, and it has produced some terrific players, like Manny Ramirez.

That's foul down the line.

And in that neighborhood, believe it or not, as a little kid, maybe — it was all apartment houses, except about five blocks from where I lived, there was a castle. You say, What do you mean a castle? I mean a castle.

It was made of pure white Carrara marble and it was unbelievable. It looked out across the Hudson River at New Jersey, and on a summer's night, when the moon hit that castle, you just couldn't believe it.

However, the owner, Doctor Paterno, passed away. His sister sold it. Today there's maybe six or seven tall, towering apartment houses called Castle Village.

We bring that up because Ebbets Field is no longer and there are apartment houses where Ebbets Field stood.

Nothing is forever.

Two and two the count to Clint Barmes....

2 comments:

Dusty Baker said...

VS Repository bound, right?

Orel said...

Done and done!