Charles Ebbets
The Man Behind the Dodgers and Brooklyn's Beloved Ballpark
Format:Paperback
Publisher:McFarland & Co Inc
Published:5th Dec '18
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Much has been written about the legendary players and managers of baseball's Deadball Era (1901-1919). Far less attention has been given to the club owners, like Charles Ebbets. In 1898, after a 15 year apprenticeship, he became president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, taking over a chronic second division team in poor financial condition. Over the next 25 years, he organized four pennant-winning clubs and developed one of the most profitable franchises in the game--while building two state-of-the-art ballparks in Brooklyn.
Ebbets was also an effective steward of the national pastime, working tirelessly on innovations that would help all teams, not just his own. Despite his success, his personal weaknesses ultimately undermined much of what he had so painstakingly built.
This first full length biography provides an in-depth view of his life and career, filling a critical gap in the history of the Deadball Era and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
“An excellent account of the efforts required to establish the business of base ball in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thoroughly researched and gracefully written, the Ebbets bio fills a longstanding void in baseball scholarship, providing readers with the largely untold life story of the club owner...Zinn knows his subject well...compelling reading and a most deserving Gabriel Award winner.”—The Inside Game (SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter); “John Zinn's well-researched biography of Ebbets gives us a detailed look at a Dodgers owner who devoted 42 years of his life to Brooklyn baseball. Zinn skillfully recounts Ebbets’s role in helping guide the National League through the challenges presented by three rival leagues, as well as his long battle to bring Sunday baseball to New York.”—Lyle Spatz, author of Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger.
ISBN: 9780786499731
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 13mm
Weight: 331g
252 pages