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 Street and built a new brick and steel venue. The only no-hitter in the Federal League's two-year r
Last summer's "road trip" included a game at Baltimore's picturesque Camden Yards. Much like Wrigley, any game there is a pleasure -- heck, years ago, my pal Dennis and I drove down there from New York to catch a last-Sunday-in-March exhibition game. Unfortunately this time, the weather didn't cooperate. Holding batting practice with the cage surrounded by tarp was not a good sign. Nor was the ever-steadier stream of raindrops.
After an hour or so's wait, and the prospects of a smallish crowd to catch the Orioles and Rangers, the game was postponed. Yet the ballpark was shimmering. Was it offering a visual apology? 
Have you ever sat through any especially rainy or stormy games that stick in your mind? Man (and woman) fighting the elements? Two quickly come to mind -- Game 4 of the 1977 National League Championship Series, with Tommy John, working in a steady rain totally mesmerizing the Phillies offense and clinching a Dodgers pennant. And the Yankees' 1996 home opener against the Kansas City Royals. Rain turned to snow, with the cold penetrating coats, sweaters and anything you used for protection. And shoes were no match for slush.
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