More a history of the Dodgers’ stay in
Brooklyn than the story of the team’s famous ballpark, "Ebbets
Field: Brooklyn’s Baseball Shrine" offers readers the chance
– yet again – for a schmaltzy walk down memory lane.
Using his own interviews along with information gathered over
the course of two years from the Brooklyn Historical Society,
the Library of Congress and the "Brooklyn Library,"
author Joseph McCauley – a postal worker from Michigan with a
degree in journalism – hasn’t necessarily given us the definitive
tome on all things Dodgers.
But he has collected some nice, if uncredited, photos.
It all starts on the cover, where Ebbets Field can be seen in
full color from a Mobil gas station across the street. It’s the
typical Ebbets, but pulled back a few hundred feet and taken
from the street, giving a not-so-typical angle.
Inside, black-and-white photos are peppered with some interesting
color shots, mostly taken inside the park and featuring the colorful
signs along the outfield walls.
But my favorites are outside shots taken from McKeever Place
looking toward Bedford Avenue.
One of these shows a wall along Bedford Avenue that featured
a Camel cigarettes sign, while another shows the grandstand from
the corner of the two streets. Both are photos I hadn’t seen
before, and give an interesting perspective for those who were
born after the Dodgers fled for Los Angeles.
"Ebbets Field: Brooklyn’s Baseball Shrine" (Authorhouse,
$19.50) is available at www.authorhouse.com
