Demolition of Ebbets Field & Polo Grounds

[Mike Wagner]

Dear Friends,

Out of curiosity, with all the years that have passed since Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, and other stadiums that are forever gone, how do you feel about the demise of these ballparks over 40 years ago?

Do you miss them or not? Do you care or not? Do you wish a part of these stadiums were still around for you to visit and pay your respects to?

Anyone who would like to comment about these and any other ballparks are invited to give your feelings.

Thank you.
-Mike Wagner

[tugger]

Ballparks do not convert well into museums. I'd love if they were around, but I'd maybe visit once, that's about it. Who would maintain these places?

[soup]

Not to put a wet blanket on your thread, but it seems like your questions would (and have been) best answered in the threads that are dedicated to the individual stadiums that have been demolished. The topic is so broad, and it's one of the things that we talk about most on this forum. If you read threads such as the Ebbets Field thread (and most recently, the threads dedicated to Yankee and Shea stadium), you will get very detailed answers to your questions

[Jim Vaz]

Of course I'm sure there are fans who miss them and will forever cherish them, and the salt in the wound hurts even more when you consider that they built nothing significant on top of them other then some ugly housing projects.

With that said, today they would be nothing but dilapidated structures falling apart that nobody would be taking care of. Nobody was going to spend the money to maintain old building that were never going to be occupied again.

Some can argue that the coliseum in Rome still stands and while it does, these are very few and far between. Many more structures have fell victim to time then those that still stand.
You remember, you reminisce, but you move on.

[410 FT]

As I've mentioned,I was born too late to have visited Ebbets or the Polo Grounds. But there's an attraction or pull to have been there. Why should we care,we have other places to play ball but apparently it's not just the game itself because why would the ballparks thread be the most visited then? There is something about a ballpark aside from the game. And now, everyone in New York has a lost park they once called home.

[NeoExelor]

Not to sound crude and rude, but there's a reason they were demolished...

[Jim Vaz]

Not to sound crude and rude, but there's a reason they were demolished...

Not crude at all.
Old antiquated, and lacking the modernness of what people at that time were going for. it was the birth of the multi use cookie cutters and nobody wanted an old Polo grounds.

Only in hindsight and this generations overall appreciation for the past do we now long for a place like old Ebbets.
I'm sure if you asked any person in 1957 if they wanted to remain in Ebbets field or get a brand new world class park (at that time) they would not even balk at the chance of having a new park.

[tugger]

Here's what happens to an abandoned ballpark.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2387/2507132586_bb18521d95_o.jpg

[cgcoyne2]

I would love to have seen the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field but they were both knocked down before I was born in late 1964.

My biggest regret in life was never visiting Old Yankee Stadium.

I guess you would say that makes my life pretty good. I can't argue with that one bit.:nod:

[ChineseDemocracy]

Maybe not preserving whole stadiums, but wouldn't it be a real treat to have Ebbets preserved between 1st and 3rd?

Just keeping the rotunda would be enough.

As for the Polo Grounds, wouldn't it be neat if they preserved the outfield clubhouse areas? Lots of neighborhood children and tourists could have simulated Willy Mays' famous catch. Not to mention that the Giants won their championships at the Polo Grounds and nowhere else.

[Mary Ellen]

There is something haunting about those old stadiums. I have visited the sites of both Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds over the years and I miss my old Shea terribly. CF and NYS are both beautiful new parks.

But they are soleless until the fans occupy the seats, begin new traditions and breathe life into them.