Eastern Park was a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

in the Brownsville neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

in the 1890s. It was bounded by

Eastern Parkway Eastern Parkway is a major east–west boulevard in the borough (New York City), New York City borough of Brooklyn. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it was built between 1870 and 1874 and has been credited as the world's fir ...

—later renamed Pitkin Avenue when Eastern Parkway was diverted—to the north (home plate); the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a Rail transport, railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County on Long Islan ...

's Bay Ridge Branch and Vesta Avenue (later renamed Van Sinderen Avenue) to the east (left field); Sutter Avenue to the south (center field); and Powell Street to the west (right field). The ballpark held 12,000 people. It was originally the home of the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders of the

Players' League The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (PL), was a short-lived but star-studded American professional baseball league of the 19th century. The PL was formed by the Brotherhood of Pr ...

in 1890. After the one-year Players' League experiment, the park became the part-time home of the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brook ...

in 1891 and then full-time during 1892–1897, between their stints at the two versions of Washington Park. It was here that the nickname "Trolley Dodgers", later shortened to "Dodgers", first arose. Some sources erroneously say that it was due to the need for fans to cross various trolley lines to reach the ballpark. Although the Dodgers played at Eastern Park in 1895 when the name "Trolley Dodgers" was first used, the name was based on the dangers of trolleys in Brooklyn, generally, and not trolley lines that needed to be crossed to get to the game. There were no trolley lines near Eastern Park at the time. Eastern Park was considered difficult to reach, and although the team survived there for seven seasons, the venture there was a failure. When Charlie Ebbets acquired the Dodgers, he moved the team back, to the second version of Washington Park, which was both closer to the city center and offered a lower rent. The park also hosted numerous college and amateur football games during its heyday, notably the Princeton–

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

game of 1890. There was also a track installed, and both bicycling and running races were held from time to time. It was also the home venue of the short-lived Brooklyn Bridegrooms Soccer Team in 1894. This was a spin-off of the Baseball Franchise that took part in an ill-fated attempt by six baseball franchises to fill their stadiums in the off season by running a soccer league. Brooklyn were top of the league when the uncompleted season was cancelled and play never resumed.

Site today

The old ballpark site is now home to a mix of commercial and light industrial tenants including Gershow Recycling scrap yard.

References

External links

A website with history and diagrams of Eastern ParkSABR detailed history of the ballpark

Ebbets-Field.com
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