LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Those cheap Brooklyn Dodgers

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To the editor:

Very elderly baseball fans like me sometimes romanticize the game as they knew it in their youth. We bury in a recess of our brains the egregious misbehavior of management, its stinginess, its bigotry. We remember the oddities, like the day I went to Brooklyn Dodgers venue Ebbetts Field hoping to see a doubleheader, when the second game was interrupted and canceled by a swarm of potato bugs from farms on Long Island.

The cheapskate Dodgers gave the fans no recompense.

Another symbol of cheapness at Ebbetts was the Abe Stark ad sign from 1931 through 1957, after which the Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles. Prior to 1931, Stark — a clothier — had had a much wider and higher outfield ad sign that promised a free suit for hitting it on the fly. Stark replaced it with a free suit sign that was practically unhittable on the fly. It was much narrower, and only three feet high.

Dodger right fielders could afford to play near the wall because right field was shallow. (This shallowness was compensated for by a very high wall and fence — it was needed for a ball to clear it to be a home run.)

During the 1931-57 season span, each of the Major Leagues had eight teams, and the season was 154 games long, with 77 games played at home against each of the other seven teams in the league. The only postseason play was for the teams that finished first. In addition, exhibition games were sometimes played.

In all, close to 14,000 games were played at the venue in that span. That sign was hit on a fly only twice — both by Giants star Mel Ott. Stark was particularly grateful to great-fielding Dodger outfielder Carl Furillo for saving him so many suits, so he gave him a free garment. But Dodger outfielder Duke Snider said that the gift was a free pair of slacks!

Alan Saks

 

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Alan Saks,

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