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
Since 1948, the Dodgers have prepared for the season in quiet Vero Beach, Florida at the unique campus known as Dodgertown. No bank, bakery or beverage-maker sponsorship, just a team and a tradition. Spring training before it became a cornerstone of the state's tourist industry. 2008 marks the final time the Dodgers will call it their home.
Unlike Florida's newer complexes, there aren't dugouts, just chairs and benches set against the stands. You might not sit this close at your local high school field. And a pre- or post-game walk around the campus offers charming glimpses of the names synonymous with Dodger blue.
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