Ebbets Field was Brooklyn’s Baseball Shrine. From the first televised baseball game and the home of the first black player to integrate baseball, Ebbets Field served as a community meeting place where people came to worship their hometown Dodgers.
Inside are contributions from such notable baseball heavy hitters as Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, NY Times Dave Anderson and ex NY Met GM Joe McDonald (who started out as a ticket taker at Gate 19). Also interviewed are multiple ex-Brooklyn Dodgers including Spider Jorgenson, Gene Hermanski, and Carl Erskine, who give their first hand observations and memories of Ebbets Field. Many old Brooklyn Dodger fans also added their unique stories, as well as photos, of the Ebbets Field experience.
Joseph McCauley has many books on historic ball parks but noted that none focused on one of the most famous ball parks of all, Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. A trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York motivated him to write a book on Ebbets Field in 2002.
Two years later, after interviews with fans and 11 Brooklyn Dodgers, trips to the Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Library and the Library of Congress, the book has been completed.
Mr. McCauley lectured at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York and signed copies of his book there along with ex-Dodger batboy Bil Phifer. He was also invited for an appearance with ex-Dodger player Don Lund at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor , Michigan.
Joseph has a journalism degree from Wayne State University. For the past 29 years, he has been a USPS letter carrier but never lost his love of writing.
Joseph has 3 children and resides with his wife Grace in Northville Twp, Michigan.