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Roosevelt Stadium
"Home away from home" of the Brooklyn Dodgers (1956-1957)

Roosevelt Stadium Key

 
Vital statistics:
Lifetime Capacity Outfield dimensions (feet) Behind home plate Fence height The Clem Criteria:
Built / renov. Demo-
lished?
LF LC CF RC RF Field
asymm.
Arch.
design
Seat
prox.
Loc. Aesth. Overall
1937* 1986 24,500 330 397 411 397 330 60 11-4-7-11 2 7 5 3 5 4.4
* The Dodgers only played here in 1956 and 1957.

Roosevelt Stadium was an Art Deco-style Public Works Administration project named for the Father of the New Deal, FDR. It was located in Jersey City, at Droyer's Point on the east shore of the Newark Bay, four miles straight west of lower Manhattan. Compared to other ballparks, it stood out in the way that the uncovered portions of the grandstand made a huge, broad arc around the corners of the field, putting some fans far from the action. (NOTE: Dimensions on the diagram above were taken from a seating chart on one of the Web sites listed below; the shape of the outfield fence on that chart, however, is not consistent with those dimensions. The power alley distance of 397 feet in the "vital statistics" table was taken from Lowry's Green Cathedrals.) A major league game was played there nineteen years after it was built, as the Dodgers played here for seven games in 1956 and eight games in 1957. It must have been hard for the Dodgers to leave behind their fine but aging home at Ebbets Field to play in this humble venue. The Dodgers' owner, Walter O'Malley, was pressuring city officials to help fund a new stadium, and ostentatiously held games across the Hudson River to see whether he could generate interest in the Garden State to build a new stadium there. The answer was "no," so in 1958 he loaded up his team and moved to L.A.

College football games and other public events were held here over the years. During the 1960s and 1970s, there several major rock concerts, including Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, the Beach Boys, and the Eagles. Roosevelt Stadium steadily fell into decay, and demolition on it began in 1985. Confusion has arisen over this, since there were two Roosevelt Stadiums, the one in Jersey City represented on this page, and a much smaller one in Union City which is used for high school sports and was renovated in 1985. I happened to see the latter while visiting New York in July 2004, and was amazed to learn that minor league baseball games and football games were played there.

SOURCES: Lowry (1992), jerseycityonline.com, njcu.edu

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