The ghosts of “Dem Bums” nonetheless linger in Brooklyn.
It’s been a long time for the reason that Brooklyn Dodgers left the subways and New York Metropolis for the highways and Chavez Ravine in California — however baseball followers and locals haven’t forgotten the group’s East Coast roots.
As LA was making an attempt to knock out the rival Yankees within the World Collection with a commanding 3-0 lead within the collection Tuesday, baseball followers had been flocking to Flatbush on the website of the Dodgers’ outdated dwelling stadium to step on a “dwelling plate” monument the place Brooklyn legends like Jackie Robinson as soon as stepped into the batter’s field.
“This is without doubt one of the final gadgets on my bucket record,” mentioned retiree and US Air Drive veteran Larry Nelson, 74, who was on the town from Portland, Oregon.
“I got here right here to step on dwelling plate,” he added. “To see the place Ebbets Subject was earlier than it was torn down.”
Ebbets Subject was transformed to housing tasks after the Dodgers performed their remaining dwelling recreation within the borough in 1957, however the monument nonetheless attracts vacationers usually — particularly when the Dodgers are on the town, mentioned Ezra Asket, a 28-year-old upkeep supervisor at Ebbets Subject Flats.
“I give them a bat to allow them to take an image with it on the plate,” Asket mentioned. “You already know, to assist them keep in mind. A few of them might need come right here as children, the older gentleman,”
On Tuesday, forward of the Dodgers and Yankees recreation at Yankee Stadium crowds of two or three folks had been coming each half hour, he mentioned.
Regardless of being native to Wisconsin, Asket has achieved what he can to be taught concerning the grounds historical past, however continues to be blown away by the followers who appear to know all of it.
“I do know the historical past,” he mentioned. “I actually realized it from the individuals who come right here about once they tore the stadium down and once they constructed this, these condominium buildings. The people who find themselves coming right here appear to know all of it.”
Nelson mentioned extra of Ebbets ought to have been preserved.
his bucket record dream by standing on the House-plate of the historic
Ebbets Subject. Paul Martinka
“They need to have left extra for folks to come back and see. Extra of the outdated stadium,” he mentioned.
“However I perceive they needed to construct this, so I’ll be pondering of this place tonight once I go as much as Yankee Stadium.”
Many residents within the Flatbush space have been coming to the sector for many years.
“First sport I ever realized to play was proper right here. Stickball proper right here on the patio. It was the simplest one,” Israel McCrea, a 44-year-old lifelong resident of the Ebbets Subject Flats, mentioned.
McCrea, a proud Baltimore Orioles fan, was planning on rooting for the Yankees regardless of acknowledging that it’s “not trying like they’re going to beat the Dodgers.”
For the residents of the Ebbets Subject Flats, although, whether or not or not the Dodgers got here out victorious was virtually inconsequential.
Within the 67 years for the reason that Dodgers known as Ebbets Subject their very own, most of the authentic followers who keep in mind the group’s time in Flatbush have began to go away. The households nearest to the outdated stomping grounds maintain onto the recollections handed down and stay steadfast of their dedication to protect the legacy of the Brooklyn Dodgers for so long as they’ll.
“This era, it’s extra about basketball and soccer. They’re probably not into baseball like the best way we had been,” Robert Driver, 56, who has lived in Ebbets Subject Flats since he was 7-years outdated, mentioned.
“And quite a lot of these children, they don’t even know what this was,” he went on. “They don’t know the way particular Ebbets Subject was. This youthful era it’s form of misplaced on them, the tales aren’t being handed down as a result of all these older of us are dying off. This can be a landmark place however the tales are beginning to fade. They’re fading with the older era fading away.”
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