First Sunday Game Played at Ebbets Field, 1919!

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First Sunday Game at Ebbets Field!

Today is the 106^th anniversary of the first major league game played on a Sunday at Ebbets Field. The game was played on May 4, 1919, as the Dodgers – or Robins as they were called then – beat the Braves 6-2.

This gives me the opportunity to post one of my favorite Ebbets Field photos (see featured photo above, which gives meaning to the term, “Trolley Dodgers!”) and to say a few words about one of the great ballparks in baseball history.

• The first game was an exhibition game against the New York Yankees on April 5, 1913, with 30,000 fans in attendance.
•  The first major league game was played on April 9 against the Phillies, with Brooklyn losing 1-0.
• The ballpark was built on a sloping piece of ground, raised above street level in right field, which resulted in short foul line there of just 301 feet.
• Fenway Park and Tiger Stadium had opened just one year earlier. All three were referred to as “cigar boxes” or “bandboxes” due to their intimate configuration.
• The first night game was played on June 15, 1938, the game in which Johnny VanderMeer of the Reds pitched his second consecutive no-hitter.
• In 1938, Hilda Chester, one of the first sports “superfans,” became a regular attendee at Ebbets Field after Dodgers president Larry MacPhail brought Ladies Day to Ebbets Field, welcoming women for only ten cents.
• After pennants in 1916 and 1920, the team slid into hard times for two decades until the arrival of MacPail in 1938.
• Branch Rickey’s arrival in 1943 resulted in his historic signing of Jackie Robinson, who played his first game on April 15, 1947.
• Rickey’s baseball savvy produced results that made the Brooklyn Dodgers “Bums” a perennial contender through their exit to California after the 1957 season.
• In addition to pennants in 1916 and 1920, the Dodgers won pennants in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956. They won the 1955 World Series, their only World Series at Ebbets Field.

We’d love to hear what you think about this or any other related baseball history topic…please leave comments below.

Gary Livacari 

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Information: Excerpts edited from Ebbets Field Wikipedia page.

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