Washington Park (baseball)

First park{{anchor|Washington Park #1}}

The team, originally known as the Brooklyn Grays for the color of their uniforms, started in a minor league in 1883. The following season they joined the then-major American Association. With the new league came a new name, the Atlantics in reference to the old Atlantics of Brooklyn, and they were known as the Bridegrooms by the time they switched to the National League in 1890. Streetcar (trolley) tracks ran near the ballpark, inspiring the team nickname that ultimately stuck: Trolley Dodgers.

In 1891, the Trolley Dodgers moved into the one-year-old Players' League ballpark, Eastern Park in Brownsville. The first Washington Park was demolished and its wooden grandstand transported to Eastern Park. The move itself proved to be ill-advised, and the Dodgers struggled to draw fans in their new neighborhood. They abandoned Eastern Park after six poorly attended seasons, moving back to Park Slope and building a new ballpark across the street from the site of their first.

Second park{{anchor|Washington Park #2}}

The second Washington Park was bounded by First and Third streets, and Third and Fourth avenues. It was located at . The park seated 18,800. It consisted of a covered grandstand behind the infield and uncovered stand down the right field line. The Brooklyn National Leaguers, by then often called the "Superbas" as well as the "Dodgers", moved into this new ballpark in 1898, where they would play for the next 15 seasons. On April 30, 1898, the Dodgers played their first game at new Washington Park and 15,000 fans attended. One of the more unusual features of the Park was the aroma from nearby factories and Gowanus Canal, which was a block away and curled around two sides of the ballpark.

Meanwhile, owner Charlie Ebbets slowly invested in the individual lots on a larger piece of property in Flatbush, which would become the site of Ebbets Field once he had the entire block. So in 1913, the Dodgers abandoned Washington Park. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle waxed nostalgic about the old ballpark, and speculated on what might happen to the property. It would turn out to have a brief reincarnation as the home of the Federal League club in 1914 and 1915.

Seating capacity

Third park{{anchor|Washington Park #3}}

The Brooklyn Tip-Tops or "BrookFeds" of the Federal League, the only major league team ever named for a loaf of bread, acquired the ballpark property in 1914, then rebuilt the second Washington Park in steel and concrete. The old park took on a modern appearance; in fact, it was nearly a duplicate of the initial version of another Federal League park in Chicago that would become Wrigley Field. However, with the Dodgers in a new and somewhat more spacious steel-and-concrete home already, Ebbets Field, there was no long-term need for Washington Park, so it was abandoned for the final time after the Federal League ended its two-year run.

Part of the left center field wall of this final Washington Park still stands on the east side of 3rd Avenue, south of 1st Street, as part of a Con Edison yard.

Dimensions

The second Washington Park between 1st Street and 3rd Street sported these dimensions.

• Left field – 335 ft (1898), 375.95 ft (1908), 300 ft (1914)
• Left center field – 500 ft (1898), 443.5 ft (1908)
• Center field – 445 ft (1898), 424.7 ft (1908), 400 ft (1914)
• Right center field – 300 ft (1898)
• Right field – 215 ft (1898), 295 ft (1899), 301.84 ft (1908), 275 ft (1914)
• Backstop – 90 ft (1898), 15 ft (1908)

Fence heights:

• Left field to center field – 12 ft.
• Right field – 42 ft (13 ft. brick fence topped by 29 ft. of canvas)

|File:Washington Park I and II Brooklyn Sanborn maps.jpg|Relative locations of the two ballpark sites |File:Washington Park I, II, and III overlay.png|Simplified version + Federal League layout

References

• Green Cathedrals, by Phil Lowry. Society for American Baseball Research (June 1986).

References

1. (5 February 1861). "A Game of Base Ball Played on Skates". The.
2. "The 1889 Brooklyn Bridegrooms". Retrosheet.
3. "BrooklynBallparks".
4. "BrooklynBallparks".
5. "History Hilights: 1890s". Los Angeles Dodgers.
6. (3 December 2017). "The 19th century's cure for the offseason blues? They used to play baseball on ice". Major League Baseball.
7. (13 January 1884). "BASE-BALL ON SKATES". The New York Times.
8. [http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/washin.htm Washington Park II at ballparks.com]
9. Snyder, John. (2010). "365 Oddball Days in Dodgers History". Clerisy Press.
10. "Seamheads.com Ballparks Database".
11. Lowry, Philip. (2006). "Green Cathedrals". Walker & Company.
12. Martin, Douglas. (November 2, 1997). "Last Vestige of the Dodgers in Brooklyn". The New York Times.
13. "Used to Be a Ballpark Right Here (And Still Is)". Forgotten New York.