There is a pretty hot topic on Metsblog.com today in regards to Citi Field and it’s homage to Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Instead of posting a response I figured I would espouse here.

There are some that feel that the Mets are shortchanging themselves by paying to much attention to Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Somehow the Mets should only be exploiting there own history. Here’s my take on the situation.

The Mets will forever be tied to previous New York National League baseball history. Their birth was the result of the Dodgers and Giants leaving run down stadiums in run down neighborhoods for more profitable pastures. If emotions can be put aside, no one in their right mind could have blamed Walter O’Malley and Horace Stoneham for taking their teams to the left coast. That was clearly articulated in the HBO special, the Dukes of Flatbush, that I strongly recommend you see.

New York attorney William A. Shea fought to build a new Continental Baseball League that would include a franchise in New York. So threatened was Major League Baseball that an expansion franchise was granted to the city and the Mets were born. There is no question that the ambition behind attracting a new team to New York was due to the escape of the Dodgers and Giants. Because of that, the Mets borrowed royal blue from the Dodgers and burnt orange from the Giants to create their team colors.

Shea Stadium was a functional and practical stadium built at a time when symmetrical, modern, and no obstructing posts were the rage in ballpark architecture. Also it was dual purpose. City planners everywhere, not just New York, saw a great advantage of a stadium that could serve multi purposes. That’s why Shea never had the character of an Ebbets Field, a Fenway Park, or even a Yankee Stadium.

All has changed since the construction of Oriole Park in 1992. Now every team wants that neighborhood style quirky dimension ballpark. So when the Mets wanted to build a new stadium, which began in the late ‘90s, they chose to model the park after something historic. Fred Wilpon, because of his love for the Brooklyn Dodgers, chose Ebbets Field as a park they would model the Mets new stadium after. Some of the remarks made suggest that Citi Field is an absolute clone of Ebbets Field. Nothing could be further from the truth.

First off, Ebbets Field is tiny in comparison to Citi. Although its exterior façade, its brickwork and arches, are taken from the old Brooklyn yard, there are other aspects of the stadium totally unrelated. There is a lot of steel work throughout the park including the light towers reminiscent of the many bridges in the city and like the Mets emblem, is symbolic of the interconnectivity of the five boroughs. Plus the interior of the ballpark looks nothing like Ebbets field. The seat colors are different, there are no posts, and there certainly were no amenities at Ebbets Field like there will be in the Mets new park. Plus Ebbets Field had no overhanging stands in right field. In fact, there were no stands in right field.

Citi Field will have a rotunda in honor of Jackie Robinson. Ebbets Field had a rotunda too but its scale and grandeur is dwarfed by what they are building in Queens. And although Jackie Robinson was never a Met, he was a National League player in New York who broke the color barrier in baseball. He is an American hero and deserves a place in the New York National league’s ballpark.

True, there is an Ebbets Club and a Coogan’s Grill in Citi Field but make no mistake, it will be the Mets home. There will be Mets championship banners hanging. There will also be a Mets museum that will honor Mets history and their former home. And perhaps most important, there will be Mets players on the field.  

Ebbets Field has a special place in Fred Wilpon’s heart but Jeff Wilpon will eventually own the team and he is too young to recall the Dodgers of Brooklyn. Jeff traveled to many baseball stadiums in the major leagues to find what would work and what wouldn’t so it was not just Ebbets Field that is the sole inspiration for Citi Field.

Jeff Wilpon grew up with the Mets in the ‘60s and ‘70s’ and he understands their history and how important that is to New York. I doubt very much he will let it be forgotten.