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Take a Nostalgic Tour of Brooklyn%u2019s Baseball Landmarks!&&&> y*t(. -visfe JUfc- iul* 3J&BY ROBERT D. DOOLANDid you know that the %u201c father of baseball%u201d is an Englishm an? Or th at the P arade Grounds got its nam e from the Union troops who m ustered there during the Civil War?These a re just a few of the facts and anecdotes that w ere am ong the gem s to be picked up on the %u201c Brooklyn Up At B at%u201d bus tour, a five-hour nostalgia trip through Brooklyn Dodger history, th at w as led by baseball historian Tom Knight on Ju n e 5, sponsored by the Prospect P ark E nvironm ental Center.Knight is the official baseball historian of Brooklyn. He w rites a column, %u201c Diamond Reflections,%u201d th at can be read in four local new spapers includinjg the P rospect Press, and in the publications of the San Diego P adres and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has also spoken on the subject before the New York P ress Club, Brooklyn College and m any other groups. His knowledge of the gam e and coloful tales provide a rich history of the beloved %u2018bum s.%u2019The first stop on the tour is Washington P a rk %u2014the site of the beginnings of baseball in Brooklyn. N am ed after George W ashington, the site near 3rd St. and Fourth Avenue in South Brooklyn w as a B ritish g arrison during the Revolutionary W ar. Their headquarters was the Old Stone House which later becam e the clubhouse. The ballpark w as built in 1883 and two World Series were played here%u2014D etroit versus St. Louis in 1887 and New York of the N ational League versus St. Louis in 1888.The park burned down in 1889 and a new one was built across the street in 1898. It was in this park that Casey Stengel m ade his debut, collecting four hits. It is also the park where Cy Young pitched his last gam e. The Dodgers becam e cham ps here in 1889-90.Walter O'Malley was from Amityville. On this tour he was known as%u2018The Amityville Horror'.As Tom Knight walked his tour troupe around the block where the park stood, you could alm ost h ear the voices of the ballplayers and their cleats on the concrete leading to the clubhouse. Visions of baggy uniform s and rounded caps rem ind you of Ruthian days. The windows of the locker room are bricked up now but the m ystique rem ains.The colorful history of the team starts to unfold as Tom provides insight into the background of the team . %u201c While playing a t the second W ashington park, the team was known as the Trolley Dodgers, the Bridegroom s%u2014eight players m arried during one off-season, and the Superbas, derived from a vaudeville ac t playing at the tim e. It w asn%u2019t until 1932 th at they officially becam e known as the D odgers,%u201d he says.Tom%u2019s encyclopedic knowledge of the gam e isn %u2019t lim ited to the Dodgers. Throughout the tour, stories of other team s and players are told. F or exam ple, did you know th at %u201cone day Lou G ehrig took over first base for an injured Wally Pipp and Pipp never saw him play again until his very last g am e!%u201d Or did you know th a t A1 Capone is partly responsible for the no-fraternization rule th at still exists in baseball? Tom explained why.The next stop on the trail w as the GreenWood C em etery, one of the first landscaped cem eteries in the country, and the final resting place of som e of the m ost fam iliar nam es in baseball. Tom Knight led the curious fans on this tour to th eir graves.Henry Chadwick and Charlie E bbets are two who a re buried here. Chadwick is often called the %u201c father of baseball.%u201d Bom in England, he becam e a New York Times reporter a t age 32 and a baseball w riter at 34. He authored m any baseball books, including the first rulebook, and edited the first weekly baseball paper. He also devised the box score. He is the only w riter in the Hall of F am e, excepting those in the w riter%u2019s wing. His m onum ent symbolizes his love for the gam e%u2014a baseball on top with bases surrounding it.Ebbets, who started selling peanuts for the team in 1883, was one of the m ost revered m en in the borough, soys Knight. One hundred thousand people lined the streets the day ot ms funeral to pay tribute to him . %u201c Yet, on the day of his death, Dodger coach Wilbert Robinson refused to cancel the gam e believing Ebbets would not have approved of it,%u201dAmong Brooklyn's historical baseballsites are these m onum ents in Green-WoodCemetery, the old Washington Park home ofthe Dodgers and the mural below now onthe wail of a school on the site of the oidEbbets Field. (Phoenix/Doolan Photos)adds Tom. One of E bbets lasting contributions to the gam e is the June 15 trading deadline.Strolling through th e beautiful grounds of the cem etery, we h eard another of Tom %u2019s m any stories including the fact, Tom says, th at %u201cthe ground shakes whenever W alter O%u2019M alley%u2019s nam e is m entioned.%u201dOr this one: did you know th at in spring training of 1916 W ilbert Robinson decided he w anted to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane? The team train er forgot the baseball so he dropped a grapefruit. D ie grapefruit sm ashed in W ilbert%u2019s glove knocking him to the ground. %u201c He thought the juice from the grapefruit w as blood and th at he was dying,%u201d says Tom. %u201c Robinson believed Casey Stengel was behind it and never quite forgave him .%u201dThe next stop on the baseball trail was the Prospect P a rk Environm ental C enter where a slide show of the Dodgers is seen. Slides of Ebbets Field with its beautiful entrance are shown along with pictures of m any of the Dodger%u2019s s ta r players. Tom provides insightful com m ents about each. %u201c Did you know that Burleigh G rim es pitched a World Series gam e with appendicitis?%u201d he asks. %u201c O r that Dixie W aiker, known as the people%u2019s choice, caught his own home-run ball?%u201d Or m aybe get into the debate over who was the greatest, M antle, M ays or Snyder. Maybe you didn%u2019t know th a t %u201c W alter O%u2019Malley w asn't from Brooklyn at all but from Amityville. On this tour he%u2019s known as theoriginal Amityville h o rro r!%u201d says Tom.F rom the environm ental center the tour moves to the P arad e Grounds. H ere som e of tom orrow %u2019s stars are playing the gam e, m uch as they h ave done for generations. Many semi-pro an d Little League team s play here, but their num ber pales in com parison with the days when 21 fields were constantly in use. %u201c Leftfielders on one field w ere backto-back with rightfielders from another diam ond,%u201d says Knight. %u201cFields one and 13 w ere the showcase fields and as m any as 10,000 people would turn out to w atch these gam es. Brooklyn was a baseball boomtown.%u201dOver a hot dog an d a coke (what else?) you m ay h e a r how one young fan kept going back for Cal A bram s%u2019 autograph. Finally, A bram s asked w hy he w anted so m any and the young fan replied, %u201cI need tw enty of yours to get one of Carl Furillo%u2019s !%u201d reports Tom.The last stop on the %u201cBrooklyn Up At B at%u201d tour is Ebbets Field, now the site of high-rise apartm ents. The field w as opened in 1913. %u201c On opening day em ployees broke down the grandstand gate because somebody lost his key,\press box. And in 1924, %u20185000 fans sm ashed the bleacher gate with a telephone pole. They were roped off m centerfield but got to watch the gam e for free.%u201dEbbets F ie ld h n lr is m n n v m o m r ir io s f n rDodgers fans. The great team s of the Fifties, featuring Roy Cam panella, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, P rea ch er Roe, Gil Hodges, and Don Newcombe won championshipshere. Babe Ruth w as hired in 1938 to coach and hit hom ers in batting practice to attract fans. The 1949 All-Star gam e was played at Ebbets Field and %u201c who can forget Bobby Thomson%u2019s fam ous ninth inning home run?%u201d asks Tom.Today, while walking the perim eter of theonce-vibrant stadium with Tom Knight providing the lore and a strong dose of spirit, you m ay hear how Hy Myers, the Brooklyn centerfielder, tricked Charlie Ebbets. %u201c M yers said he could m ake m ore m oney farm ing and held out. Someone told him th at E b %u00adbets was coming to see his farm so he borrowed his neighbors%u2019 livestock. Ebbets was so im pressed he offered Myers m ore money. L ater, M yers threw a bam dance for his neighbors.%u201dThe m em ories of the Dodgers bum brightly for m any Brooklynites. Though the team is gone and Ebbets Field is now a housing developm ent, the tour with historian Tom Knight brought to life the m ystique of the Dodgers and the vitality of this borough.Next tour on the Prospect P ark Enviro u n eu tal C enter%u2019s roster is %u201c Backstage in Brooklyn,%u201d a June 20 bus tour of the scenes of past and present theatrical glory ranging from old movie palaces to the NBCo h iiltn o In M tiliv A n d %u00a5%u2666 o fn r4 o o f fKoBrooklyn Academy of Music, Lafayette and Ashland PI., 11am. $23. For registration, 788-8500.%u25a0MBJune 19, 1986, THE PHOENIX. Page 37