Flatbusher (inhabitant of Flatbush, Brooklyn)
“Flatbusher” is the name of an inhabitant of the Flatbush, in the borough of Brooklyn. The name “Flatbusher” has been cited in print since at least 1842.
The Brooklyn Dodgers (also called “Superbas”) baseball team played in Ebbets Field (1913-1957), then regarded to be located in Flatbush and now considered to be part of Crown Heights. The Dodgers were nicknamed ‘Flatbushers” by at least July 1913—during the first year in Ebbets Field.
Wikipedia: Flatbush. Brooklyn
Flatbush is a community in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, consisting of several neighborhoods.
The name Flatbush is an Anglicization of the Dutch language Vlacke bos (vlacke = vlak = flat; “flat woodland” or “wooded plain”).
The Flatbush Post Office is assigned postal zone (ZIP Code) 11226, but the area understood as included in Flatbush extends into other postal zones.
The Flatbush community has been receiving an influx of immigrants from the Caribbean (West Indies), mostly from Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Belize, since the 1980s, as well as immigrants from South Asia, primarily India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and African countries like Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Kenya. Haitians are the largest ethnic group in Flatbush. Prior to the arrival of these groups, the Flatbush community had already been diverse, with many Italians, African-Americans and Jews. Flatbush is patrolled by the NYPD’s 67th and 70th Precincts.
Google Books
The History of the Town of Flatbush in Kings County, Long-Island
By Thomas Morris Strong
New-York, NY: Thomas R. Mercein, Jr. Printer
1842
Pg. 162:
This so disconcerted the Colonel, that he was quite enraged, and in a violent manner exclaimed, “You, Flatbushers are always meddling.”
Google Books
The Book of a Hundred Houses:
A Collection of Pictures, Plans and Suggestions for Householders
Chicago, IL: Herbert S. Stone & Company
1902
Pg. 146:
The oldest house in Flatbush is the Bergen homestead, built by Dominie Freeman, who was mainly responsible for the spiritual welfare of early Flatbushers.
13 July 1913, New York (NY) Times:
SUPERBAS LOSE TO CUBS IN 10 INNINGS
Parade of Pitchers Marks Tenth Successive Defeat at Ebbets Field.
Bill Dahlen used about everybody on the Brooklyn pay roll except the ground keeper, in yesterday’s skirmish against the Cubs at Ebbets Field, but numbers availed nothing, and the Superbas had to accept their daily defeat, making ten in a row. The only consolation that the Flatbushers gained from the struggle was that they forced the Cubs to go ten innings for the victory, while the nine previous reverses were registered in regulation time.
31 August 1913, The Sunday Herald (Boston, MA), “Runaway Matches, the Two of Them, for Bostons Over Dodgers—13-0, 6-1,” pg. 27, col. 1:
NEW YORK, Aug. 30.—The Boston Braves took both ends of a double header with the Superbas at Ebbets Field this afternoon and pulled themselves alongside the Flatbushers in the race for fifth place.
Google Books
The Artful Dodgers
By Tom Meany
New York, NY: A.S. Barnes and Co.
1953
Pg. 208:
Then when the late Jimmy Wilson took over the pilot’s seat from Hartnett in 1941, Herman was not long for Wrigley Field for he was traded to the Dodgers on May 6 of that year, thereby providing the Flatbushers with the spark needed to carry them to the pennant.
Google Books
The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (Third Edition)
By Paul Dickson
New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
2009
Pg. 330:
Flatbushers Nickname for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ebbets Field, the home of the Dodgers, was built in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, about three miles south by southeast down Flatbush Avenue from the Manhattan Bridge.
Google Books
Hazen Kiki Cuyler:
A Baseball Biography
By Ronald T. Waldo
Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
2012
Pg. 265:
Tommy Holmes, “Injury to Blimp Phelps Deflates Flatbushers,” The Sporting News, March 31, 1938, p. 1. 14.