Oct. 30, 1956: The Brooklyn Dodgers sell their home ballpark, Ebbets Field, to a real estate developer who plans to build a residential project on the site. Under the agreement, the team was allowed to play in the park until 1961, but officials opt to move the franchise to Los Angeles following the 1957 season after the city refuses to build a domed stadium on Atlantic Ave.
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While the Dodgers have flourished in their new home, Brooklyn never recovered from the loss of its beloved Bums. For one thing, the borough was demoted to the level of Staten Island as the only two New York City jurisdictions without a major league sports franchise.
The shame is so deep that Brooklyn boosters are reduced to stealing an NBA team from New Jersey and installing it in as-yet unbuilt arena planned for the site the Dodgers once coveted. Such theft is nothing new for Brooklyn. For years, the borough has been stealing bits and pieces of trendy neighborhoods from Manhattan and assembling them into the massive amalgam of pretension now known as Park Slope. — Jeffrey Kanige
