When the subject of baseball in Brooklyn comes up, the discussion centers around Ebbets Field, the Flatbush venue most famously home to The Boys of Summer. Those legendary 1940s and '50s teams that featured such historic and beloved players as Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges. Ebbets Field hosted its last major league game in 1957 and was torn down during the winter of 1960. But decades earlier, just before World War One, the Dodgers were based in the Park Slope area and played at Washington Park. Once they moved out, the land was occupied by another stadium, which housed a different franchise. The upstart Federal League, which played in the 1914 and '15 seasons, had a Brooklyn team called the TipTops. Owned by a local baking magnate Robert Ward, whose company produced TipTop bread, the club took over the abandoned lot along 3rd Avenue and built a new brick and steel venue. The only no-hitter in the Federal League's two...
With January just half-over and the coldest weather of the season heading towards the East Coast, what setting most symbolizes summer? A day game at Wrigley Field. Mets vs. Cubs, shades of 1969 or 1984. New York visits Chicago. The Big Apple vs. the Second City. The backdrop is the most tradition-laden venue in the game. Sorry, Red Sox fans, Wrigley comes off as friendlier, more intimate, cozy and charming. And when you see the wave of modern-retro parks, many of them echo the ghosts of Ebbets Field, but they all salute the all-time and present-day charm of Wrigley.
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