A guide to Brooklyn Dodgers history in NYC

A guide to Brooklyn Dodgers history in NYC

 

 

As the New York Yankees prepare to face off against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night, it’s clear that one team represents the Big Apple.

 

But long before the Yankees were formed in 1903, there was another New York City team: The Dodgers were Brooklyn’s darlings until 1958, when they moved to Los Angeles.

 

My 91-year-old grandfather, Kenny Frishberg, is still upset about losing “Dem Bums,” as the team was once fondly nicknamed.

 

“My love for the Brooklyn Dodgers started, I’m going to guess, in 1939 when I was 6 years old,” he told me recently. When they left, “I felt betrayed. Heartbroken.”

 

But nearly 70 years after Dem Bums last played in New York, relics and tributes to their time here still remain — if you know where to look.

 

The Brooklyn Dodgers’ legendary final home was completed in 1913 and demolished in 1960, shortly after the team went west and broke the borough’s heart.

 

 

 

Before the Dodgers were even the Dodgers, this Brooklyn landmark in Washington Park in Park Slope served as their original clubhouse. At the very beginning of the team’s history in the late 19th century, the “Brooklyn Baseball Club” (as they were then known) were based out of the original 1699-built Old Stone House. It was destroyed in 1897, and the current replica of it was built in 1933. Starting in 1883, the Dodgers played in the adjacent Washington Baseball Park.

 

April 15, 1947 is a historic day for the Brooklyn Dodgers and American history: It’s the day Jackie Robinson first played on Ebbets Field and broke the color line in Major League Baseball.

 

That, among Robinson’s many other superlative achievements, is commemorated at a Downtown Manhattan museum dedicated to his legacy, including his years as a Brooklyn Dodger. Opened in 2022, the Jackie Robinson Museum is located at 75 Varick St. It’s open Thursday through Sunday, and tickets start at $15. Children 5 and under can get in for free.

 

From the 1930s until they defected to California, the Brooklyn Dodgers had an office at 215 Montague St.’s Mechanics Bank building in Brooklyn Heights. The building was demolished in 1958, shortly after the Dodgers played their first game in Los Angeles. The Brooklyn Savings Bank was erected in its place in 1962, and a plaque acknowledging the address’s historic importance was added in the late 1990s. (It reads: “Where The Dodgers Made Baseball History And Jackie Robinson Changed America.”) The plaque was removed in 2019, but was later reinstalled after the Brooklyn Heights Association was alerted to the fact, Brownstoner reported.