Ebbets Field

FOR A CHILD who grew up loving baseball in the late 1950s and early 1960s, "42" provides a sweet wallop of stadium nostalgia. Ebbets Field, home of Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers, has as much of a starring role as Harrison Ford. Thanks to CGI, the long-gone ballpark lives again, from the rotunda entryway to the cyclone fence in right field that rose above the ads for Gem razor and Esquire boot polish. Production designer Richard Hoover used old photos and the original blueprints of Ebbets Field, with computer imaging, of course, to re-create the park.

Talk about a Subway Series. On the morning of Oct. 1, 1952, Joe Black, the Brooklyn Dodgers' starting pitcher in that day's World Series opener, was clutching a strap on the D train while it rumbled toward Ebbets Field. "Couldn't afford a car," said Black, who earned less than $10,000 for a season in which he went 15-4. "Moved to Decatur Street in Brooklyn because I got tired of riding the bus from Jersey. "So I'm standing there," Black recalled yesterday, "waiting to get off at the Prospect Park stop, and this guy next to me says, 'Hey, whaddya think of this guy Black we got pitching in Game 1?

DEM BUMS HITCHING A RIDE BACK TO THE OLD HOME PLATE Baseball may have taken a walk this year, but the Dodgers are on a real roll. Seems the Dodgers - the Brooklyn variety - are going back to New York after 37 years - but only as a large blue "B" in a circle logo on state license plates. And only for those fans who step up to bat with $68 for the logo and their choice of plate number or $39.50 for the logo and a government-issued plate. The New York Department of Motor Vehicles said Tuesday that it was cashing in on the ghosts of Ebbets Field.

As they straggled into Ebbets Field late on the cloudy morning of Oct. 22, 1939, the Eagles were unlikely candidates for NFL history. Since joining the young professional football league in 1933, they had won just 17 of 70 games. In 1936, for example, Philadelphia went 1-11, was shut out six times, and was outscored by 206-51. Seeking help, owner/general manager/coach Bert Bell persuaded fellow owners to institute a draft in 1936. Then he failed to sign his own top pick, Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger.

Johnny Podres understands the Subway Series, remembers back then, it cost only a thin dime to ride between the five boroughs, not the $1.50 charged today. Remembers he was a rookie in 1953, pitching in the World Series just five days after his 21st birthday. Remembers he didn't take the subway most of the time, anyway, because he was proudly driving a 1950 Oldsmobile he bought new for $2,000 with his signing bonus. Remembers when the hottest argument in the city that still considers itself the capital of the world used to be which of New York's centerfielders - Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays or Duke Snider - was the best in all of baseball.

Jackie, Campy and Newk Lost in the hoopla over Yankee Stadium, which hosted its fourth and final All-Star Game last night, was the fact that the Big Apple's National League parks also have hosted four midseason classics. The Polo Grounds hosted the game in 1934 and 1942, Ebbets Field hosted it in 1949, and Shea Stadium hosted the 1964 game. The 1949 game was, perhaps, the most historic of the entire series, since it was the debut of African American players in the game.

The baseball team from the City of Brotherly Love probably had more hatred for Jackie Robinson during his major league debut than any other city. What's worse is that the hostile treatment of Robinson was led by Phillies' manager Ben Chapman. Chapman unleashed his racism one evening in April 1947 as he stood on the steps of the dugout in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. In his book, "The Era," Roger Kahn recounted the ugly scene. "When did they let you out of the jungle?"

Joseph O. Leslie, 68, who spent two years playing outfield on a farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1940s and was an outstanding third baseman for Collingswood High School, died Monday at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden. A lifelong Woodlynne resident, Mr. Leslie graduated from Collingswood High School in 1942 after playing varsity baseball for three years and being named All-Camden County during his junior and senior years. "It was all hitting for him, he was the fourth batter in the lineup - a long ball, clutch hitter who very seldom struck out and had real power," said his brother Gordon A. Leslie of Clearwater, Fla., who also played ball at Collingswood High School.

The setting lent the historic moment a bitter irony. On April 22, 1957, late in a 5-1 loss to the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, a Phillies rookie ran out to second base as a pinch-runner for Solly Hemus. Ten years earlier, on that same Brooklyn field, Jackie Robinson officially breached major-league baseball's color barrier. And it was there, just a few games later, that manager Ben Chapman and some of his visiting Phillies mercilessly taunted the groundbreaking Dodger. So, on that April afternoon, a full decade after Robinson's arrival, when John Irvin Kennedy, a 30-year-old black man from Jacksonville, Fla., replaced Hemus on the base paths, the Phillies at last had integrated.

If the names of Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium have a mystical ring to your ears, you're a perfect candidate for the two-volume orgy of baseball nostalgia called The Golden Decade of Baseball from SVS Inc. (60 minutes, $14.95 each). The years 1947 through 1957 were glorious times for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants and New York Yankees, and their fans will adore this fond retrospective. (Fans of other franchises need not apply.) In those 10 years, New York teams captured 17 of 20 pennants and won every World Series but two (1948 and 1957)

FOR A CHILD who grew up loving baseball in the late 1950s and early 1960s, "42" provides a sweet wallop of stadium nostalgia. Ebbets Field, home of Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers, has as much of a starring role as Harrison Ford. Thanks to CGI, the long-gone ballpark lives again, from the rotunda entryway to the cyclone fence in right field that rose above the ads for Gem razor and Esquire boot polish. Production designer Richard Hoover used old photos and the original blueprints of Ebbets Field, with computer imaging, of course, to re-create the park.

IT IS TRENDY to state that baseball's most unbreakable record is Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. Nobody has come close to that 1941 necklace of base hits, adding up until a nation was glued to the radio. Perhaps nobody will . . . Which is what they said about Lou Gehrig's "unbreakable" streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. Until Cal Ripken not only broke it, the Orioles shortstop destroyed it, running the record out to 2,632 games. Which brings us to the next record Roy Halladay now has in his crosshairs.

Rich Westcott is a baseball writer and historian and the author of 20 books, including "The Philadelphia Phillies - Past and Present," which is due out next spring. This is his reminiscence of the decades-long rivalry between the Phillies and Dodgers. Buried deep in the archives of some dust-covered files, I once came across a most unusual picture. Even today, I can remember what it looked like. It was a picture of former Phillies outfielder Dick Sisler standing on the upstairs porch of his home in Northeast Philadelphia, waving to a big crowd that had assembled on the street below.

Jackie, Campy and Newk Lost in the hoopla over Yankee Stadium, which hosted its fourth and final All-Star Game last night, was the fact that the Big Apple's National League parks also have hosted four midseason classics. The Polo Grounds hosted the game in 1934 and 1942, Ebbets Field hosted it in 1949, and Shea Stadium hosted the 1964 game. The 1949 game was, perhaps, the most historic of the entire series, since it was the debut of African American players in the game.

The setting lent the historic moment a bitter irony. On April 22, 1957, late in a 5-1 loss to the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, a Phillies rookie ran out to second base as a pinch-runner for Solly Hemus. Ten years earlier, on that same Brooklyn field, Jackie Robinson officially breached major-league baseball's color barrier. And it was there, just a few games later, that manager Ben Chapman and some of his visiting Phillies mercilessly taunted the groundbreaking Dodger. So, on that April afternoon, a full decade after Robinson's arrival, when John Irvin Kennedy, a 30-year-old black man from Jacksonville, Fla., replaced Hemus on the base paths, the Phillies at last had integrated.

As they straggled into Ebbets Field late on the cloudy morning of Oct. 22, 1939, the Eagles were unlikely candidates for NFL history. Since joining the young professional football league in 1933, they had won just 17 of 70 games. In 1936, for example, Philadelphia went 1-11, was shut out six times, and was outscored by 206-51. Seeking help, owner/general manager/coach Bert Bell persuaded fellow owners to institute a draft in 1936. Then he failed to sign his own top pick, Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger.

Johnny Podres understands the Subway Series, remembers back then, it cost only a thin dime to ride between the five boroughs, not the $1.50 charged today. Remembers he was a rookie in 1953, pitching in the World Series just five days after his 21st birthday. Remembers he didn't take the subway most of the time, anyway, because he was proudly driving a 1950 Oldsmobile he bought new for $2,000 with his signing bonus. Remembers when the hottest argument in the city that still considers itself the capital of the world used to be which of New York's centerfielders - Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays or Duke Snider - was the best in all of baseball.

Talk about a Subway Series. On the morning of Oct. 1, 1952, Joe Black, the Brooklyn Dodgers' starting pitcher in that day's World Series opener, was clutching a strap on the D train while it rumbled toward Ebbets Field. "Couldn't afford a car," said Black, who earned less than $10,000 for a season in which he went 15-4. "Moved to Decatur Street in Brooklyn because I got tired of riding the bus from Jersey. "So I'm standing there," Black recalled yesterday, "waiting to get off at the Prospect Park stop, and this guy next to me says, 'Hey, whaddya think of this guy Black we got pitching in Game 1?

The New York Mets are planning to tear down Shea Stadium and replace it with a 40,000-seat version of Ebbets Field with modern touches such as a retractable roof, the New York Post reported yesterday. Mets president Fred Wilpon is slated to unveil the final details in a few months, the newspaper reported. It's estimated the new stadium will cost $450 million to build by April 2001. The stadium - to be constructed 100 feet away from the current 33-year-old ballpark along 126th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens - would feature several aspects of Ebbets Field, down to the red-brick wall.

A crowd of 25,623 attended opening day at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947 - 50 years ago today. Most in the stands knew they were witnessing history (though the 9,000 empty seats in the park suggest less hoopla than you'd expect). Fewer fans recognized instantly that they were in the presence of greatness. But they were. Oh, yes, they were. The African American who started the game at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers was Jackie Robinson. On that day, he began integrating Major League Baseball - and changing it for the better.