Brooklyn fights to keep memory of old ballpark alive

[Fenway]

Chances are you have never heard of this park. Casey Stengal played his first game there and Cy Young his last. It was the park Moonlight Graham played his only game. It is Washington Park, Brooklyn.

A part of the park still survives but is in danger of being torn down.

Stoic Link to Baseball History Stands Guard (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/sports/baseball/10brooklyn.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1)


Once upon a time in Brooklyn, they used to play baseball here.
Tucked away among ancient factories and garages is a massive relic of the Dodgers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/losangelesdodgers/index.html?inline=nyt-org)’ old ballpark. Not Ebbets Field, but Washington Park, where Brooklyn played before moving to Flatbush. It is believed to be the oldest standing piece of a major league ballpark in the country. And almost nobody knows it is there.

At the foot of Park Slope, a block from the Gowanus Canal, is a Con Edison truck depot and storage facility bounded by First and Third Streets and Third and Fourth Avenues. Running the length of Third Avenue is a 20-foot-high stone wall that makes up part of a loading dock. The high, small windows of the wall have been bricked up.

From 1898 to 1912, Washington Park was the home of the team alternately nicknamed the Bridegrooms, Superbas and Trolley Dodgers.

“You sure?” said a security guard, Greg Montrose. “The Dodgers? Here?”

[IndianWhiteSox]

That would be great if they can save this park. The thing is that in most countries they like to save their monuments from the BC days unlike the US where most things are destroyed after 30 or 40 years. So this would really be good is they can pony up the cash to save this park.

[WhiteSox5187]

It never ceases to amaze me how basebally players before the Babe Ruth era are totally forgotten. Everyone knows Cy Young because he has an award named after him, but how about Christy Matthewson? Or how about Jack Chesboro who won 41 (no that is not a typo) games in 1904 for the New York Highlanders (now the Yankees)? Or even Ed Walsh, who won forty games in 1908 for the White Sox? When we talk about greatest shortstops, how often does the name Honus Wagner come up? Or how about John McGraw when we mention greatest managers?

IT's only a wall, but it should be preserved. We do a bad job at preserving things. Croagh Park in Dublin has been standing since about 1901 and is still actively used. Perhaps if the Sox had kept up Old Comiskey it would be the cashcow that Wrigley or Fenway is currently...and while we're at it, Ebbets Field deserves more than jsut a plaque amongst some of the worst public housing projects in all of Brooklyn...but yea, that wall should definately stay up.