Harvey Sherman (HS)

HS: The first two weeks of September the Dodgers were on the road and they were scheduled to come back to Brooklyn for a make-up game with the Pirates, and that was going to be their last game at Ebbets Field. It was my birthday, I was twenty-one, and I was gonna go to the game. I’ve asked a few people to go and they had absolutely no— ”What are you crazy, you’re going to be the only one there? Who gives a hoot, you know, the heck with them, they’re leaving us, the heck with them, we’re not interested.”

So I went to the game by myself. The lights were on, the grass was as beautiful as it was the first day of the season. The players were on the field, but there was no one in the stands [laughs]. the place was vacant! It was erie, I could have sat any place in the ballpark I wanted.

During the game, Gladys Gooding, who was the organist—everything she played was a blue song about losing a lover [laughs]. And after the game I remember leaving and she was playing ”Auld Lang Syne” and then they cut her off in the middle, and they put the Dodger theme song on.

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HS: When I walked out of Ebbets Field, I stood a block away and just looked back, the lights were still on, and I said goodbye, it’s over. I never thought the Dodgers would leave. It was like a divorce, you felt like a child in a divorce; you had no control over what was happening. And I couldn’t make it any clearer than that.

There was a period of time I wouldn’t even go to a ballgame. And I had no recollection of what happened in, ’58, ’59, ’60, ’70, ’80, you know, no recollection whatsoever. And I’m sure wonderful things happen, but I’ve just completely blocked it out of my mind. And to this day I miss it terribly, I miss it terribly.