Charles Ebbets — baseball’s gold standard

He loved baseball but was better at bowling. He spent 42 years of his life in the business of baseball, his name and the borough of Brooklyn were known further and wider than even Coney Island. Starting as a ticket seller, he became a great innovator and change agent of what took place on the field. His name was Charles Ebbets and he had to be talked into calling his vision for Brooklyn and baseball Ebbets Field. He was born on Oct. 29, 1859, and spent his life making a mark on the game he loved.

Reading the list of jobs Ebbets held you’ll see why he could be called a great American success story: ticket seller, clerk, bookkeeper, scorecard salesman, business manager, president, field manager, part owner and eventually owner, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

He began his career at age 23. Brooklyn was playing on a field called Washington Park, which almost was the name of the new stadium until he was convinced he deserved to have it carry his name. Ebbets was a trained architect and builder. What inspired him to use those talents to build someplace better, new, and different? In his own words, speaking as a future owner, he said, “I will no longer have to worry about fires, collapsing stands, and other dangers that menace the spectators and of which they seldom give thought.” That one sentence will give you an idea of what watching a game was like in the last 1800’s. 

Ebbets’ ascent in the Dodgers organization dovetailed with the history of the borough. He joined the club two weeks before the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, the engineering feat of its day but also the death knell for Brooklyn as an independent city. He remained with the team as it moved to the American Association in 1884 and the National League in 1890, ascending to its…