Editing Ebbets Field (section)

===Demise===
[[File:Crowd at Ebbets Field.jpg|thumb|250px|Ebbets left field corner in the 1920 World Series, with temporary bleachers]]

The Dodgers found themselves victims of their own success soon thereafter, as Ebbets Field never seated more than 35,000 people, and the constraints of the neighborhood made its expansion impossible. It also had almost no automobile [[parking]] for Dodger fans who had moved east to suburban [[Long Island]], though it was near a [[Prospect Park (BMT Brighton Line)|subway station]]. [[Walter O'Malley]], who obtained majority ownership of the Dodgers in 1950, announced plans for a privately owned [[Brooklyn Dodgers proposed domed stadium|domed stadium]] at the [[Atlantic Yards]] in Brooklyn (currently the site of the [[Atlantic Terminal Mall]]), where a large market was being torn down.

New York City Building Commissioner [[Robert Moses]] refused to help O'Malley secure the land, instead wanting the Dodgers to move to a city-owned stadium in [[Flushing Meadows]] in the borough of [[Queens]] (the future site of [[Shea Stadium]] and [[Citi Field]]). O'Malley refused to consider Moses' proposal, famously telling him "We are the Brooklyn Dodgers, not the Queens Dodgers!"{{citation needed|date=October 2024|reason=cannot find a source for this quote}}

As a result, O'Malley began to flirt publicly with [[Los Angeles]], using a relocation threat as political leverage to win favor for a Brooklyn stadium. Ultimately, O'Malley and Moses could not come to agreement on a new location for the stadium, and the club moved west to Los Angeles after the [[1957 Brooklyn Dodgers season|1957 season]]. During their last two years in Brooklyn, the Dodgers played several games each year in [[Jersey City, New Jersey]]'s [[Roosevelt Stadium]], which was a tactic by O'Malley to force Moses to acquiesce and allow a new stadium to be built.

Ebbets Field was sold by O'Malley to real estate developer [[Marvin Kratter]] for about $2,000,000 on October 31, 1956.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qdxGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PvgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1395%2C7301502 "Real Estate Tycoon Buys Ebbets Field," ''The Associated Press'' (AP), Wednesday, October 31, 1956.] Retrieved March 3, 2023.</ref> The deal included a five-year [[lease]] that allowed the Dodgers to move out as soon as a proposed [[Downtown Brooklyn]] stadium was ready for business and Kratter to raze the ballpark and redevelop the land for a $25 million housing project beginning in 1961.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,824598,00.html "Time Clock, November 12, 1956," ''TIME'' (magazine), Monday, Nov. 12, 1956.] Retrieved March 3, 2023.</ref> When stadium plans fell through the team left for Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

To avoid being the only team west of St. Louis, O'Malley urged [[Horace Stoneham]], owner of the Dodgers' [[Dodgers–Giants rivalry|long-time crosstown rivals]], the [[New York Giants (baseball)|New York Giants]], to also move west: Stoneham, who was having stadium and financial difficulties of his own, agreed, and moved the Giants to [[San Francisco]] after the 1957 season.

The departure of the Dodgers was followed by a "twilight" phase in which the park sporadically hosted [[soccer]], as well as high school, college, and a handful of [[Negro league]] baseball games featuring a team formed by ex-Dodger star [[Roy Campanella]]. In one of those games pitcher [[Satchel Paige]] made a special guest appearance.<ref>{{cite web|first=Rory |last=Costello |title=Twilight at Ebbets Field |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/twilight-ebbets-field}}</ref>

The demolition of Ebbets Field began on February 23, 1960. More than 35 years after the Dodgers had left Brooklyn, a federal judge in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]] presiding over a case deciding the use of the Brooklyn Dodgers' trademark called O'Malley's relocation of the franchise from its historic home to Los Angeles "one of the most notorious abandonments in the history of sports".<ref>[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13746555571004926847&q=817+F.+Supp.+1103&hl=en&as_sdt=40006#p1111 Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. v. Sed Non Olet Denarius, Ltd.], 817 F. Supp. 1103, 1111 (S.D.N.Y. 1993).</ref>

[[File:Ebbets Field Apartments jeh.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Ebbets Field Apartments in 2008]]

An auction of Ebbets Field's structure and contents was held on April 20, 1960. An estimated 500 people bid on locker room stools, benches, team banners, seats, bricks, bats, caps, team photos, balls, and a brownstone cornerstone of the stadium.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McGee|first1=Bob|title=The Greatest Ballpark Ever{{spnd}}Ebbets Field and the Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers|date=2005|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick (N.J.) and London (Eng.)|isbn=0-8135-3600-6|pages=15–18|edition=hardcover|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BOZyd7v1cDAC|access-date=29 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Lenny |last=DiFranza |title=Chip off the Block |url=http://baseballhall.org/discover/short-stops/chip-off-the-old-block |publisher=[[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]] |access-date=October 28, 2018}}</ref>