SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — I was one year and 11 days old when the wrecking ball first hammered Ebbets Field on Feb. 23, 1960. So why do images of that long-gone Brooklyn landmark, with its two tiers of ornate, renaissance-era arches and its famous Schaefer Beer scoreboard, still stir something inside me?
Why does it fascinate me to know that the same wrecking ball that demolished Ebbets Field also brought down New York’s Polo Grounds four years later?
Why do I lament the time my brother Steve and I ruined a piece of Polo Grounds history? Some background: My father, Dusty, acquired a concession stand sign advertising “beer, hot dogs and popcorn.