They Tore Down Ebbets Field...Again

We just can't have nice things.

I’m trying to ease myself into spring mode while still recognizing the whole “12 seasons of NYC” thing and how we aren’t even in the third winter yet, so apologies if I’m a little loopier than usual. I’m also trying to plan Lulu’s first birthday party, and while I’m not anywhere in the $50,000 range like some people get for kids parties, I do consider this the first of 11 test runs for her bat mitzvah, which means by year 2036, as long as we’re all not Elon’s slaves on Mars, $50,000 will be like the equivalent of 20 bucks in today’s money. My mind is all over the damn place.

The reading has been pretty good, however. Two books I really love came out last week and today, and you can take your pick between fiction and non:

Elon Green’s The Man Nobody Killed: Life, Death, and Art in Michael Stewart's New York is exactly the sort of true crime I can get down with since it’s set in the early-1980s NYC, and I’ve always wondered about the horrible 1983 killing of Michael Stewart for tagging up a subway station. Elon’s last book, Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York, was also set in a pre-gentrification NYC, and ended up getting turned into a documentary for HBO. I hope the same happens with this latest book since this is a story everybody should know.

Kristen Arnett’s Stop Me If You've Heard This One is in the running for my favorite novel of the year. I’m not a “gay dirtbag” clown who lives in Orlando, but this book hit because I think a lot of us have felt like we’re in a place where we’re seen as an outsider, so wanting to chase our dreams of making the art we love makes us seem downright insane to other folks. Kristen is so good at balancing the funny and sad, she does it almost like no other writer I can think of, and I kept smiling and rooting for Cherry with every passing page. Also, I can’t help but feel like if conservatives read this book that they’re going to have a field day, especially because it’s set in Central Florida. I like to imagine a few of their heads exploding trying to explain “gay clown sex” as they attempt to have the book banned.

I know there’s this hellish tend of cutting services to important programs and laying off federal workers who do important things, but I’d love to do the opposite and also suggest starting a Department of Keeping Nice Things since we can’t seem to do that on our own. I’d tackle some of the big things like democracy and the environment, but I’d also add a few things I can admit are a bit self-indulgent, like doing whatever is in my power to stop a company like Ebbetts Field Flannels from ruining itself by going from fun old-school hat and jersey company to menswear brand.

I’ll admit up front that some of the stuff in the new collection—a term I wish I didn’t have to use when describing a sports memorabilia company—is pretty good. The Jackie Robinson All-Stars shirt looks excellent and the Homestead Grays jerseys are handsome—but they could have been in any Ebbets drop before the reboot and before Jerry Cohen sold the company he started off to Lids in 2022, which means it’s now part of the Fanatics family. If you’ve been reading me for a bit, you know how I feel about Fanatics.

They also wouldn’t have been made in China like they are now. It was one thing to spend a little bit of coin on something that was made in Seattle, but I’m pretty sure somebody will just fire off bootlegs of any of the new stuff without breaking a sweat. They had nice stuff that was almost always available, and it wasn’t a whole thing with Here’s this seasons Big Drop. Now it just feels like more stuff to add to the never-ending pile of stuff.