Brooklyn Dodgers Brooklyn's Home Team before the Cyclones

Charles Hercules Ebbets, Sr. (October 29, 1859–April 18, 1925) was a sports executive who owned the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1902 to 1925. Ebbets started with the Dodgers as a bookkeeper in 1883 and became a shareholder in 1890. He took an active role in marketing the sport to families and took over team operations in 1898. He also managed the Dodgers that year and the team finished tenth.

Ned Honlon, the owner and manager of the Baltimore Orioles, bought some of the remaining stock in the Dodgers after the 1898 season and took the best Baltimore players to the Brooklyn team. The Dodgers won pennants in both 1899 and 1900. In 1905, Hanlon wanted to move the team to Baltimore, but Ebbets bought out his shares.

In 1912, construction began, and a year later, Pigtown had been transformed into Ebbets Field, where some of the game's greatest drama would take place. Following an inter-league exhibition game against the New York Yankees on April 5, 1913, the park formally opened on April 9 against the Philadelphia Phillies When the park was opened, it was discovered that the flag, keys to the bleachers, and a press box had all been forgotten. The press box was not added until 1929. Initially the seating area was a double deck from past third base, around home plate, and all the way down the right side. There was an open, concrete bleacher extending the rest of the way down the left side to the outer wall. There was no seating in left or center. The right field wall was fairly high due to the short foul line (around 300 feet) but had no screen or scoreboard at first. The ballpark was built on a sloping piece of ground. The right field wall made up the difference, as the right field corner was above street level. The left field corner was below street level, and there was an incline or "terrace" running along the left field wall. As was the case of Boston's Fenway park and Detroit's Tiger Stadium (two ballparks that opened one year earlier, in 1912), the intimate configuration prompted some baseball writers to refer to Ebbets Field as a "cigar box" or a "bandbox." They won the 1955 World Series (the only world title in Brooklyn Dodgers history),

Ebbets died of heart failure at age 65 in New York City and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Timeline of Charles Hercules Ebbets, Sr. with the Brooklyn Dodgers

• 1883 Bookkeeper
• 1898 President and manager
• 1899 Won pennant
• 1900 Won pennant
• 1912 Ebbets Field built
• 1916 Won pennant
• 1920 Won pennant