Visiting the Past

POLO GROUNDS (1891-1957; 1962-63)

The ballpark commonly known as the Polo Grounds was actually the fourth version of a ballpark with that name. In the 1870's the first version was in fact a polo field located on the northern corner of Central Park. Owned by New York Herald publisher, James Gordon Bennett, the polo field gave way to baseball from 1883 until 1890 when the city of New York decided to put a street through the field. Giants’ owner, John Day, was forced to move his team to a ballpark named Manhattan Field, which was located in the southern half of Coogan’s Hollow, a grassy meadow in the shadow of Coogan’s Bluff. The bluff was a location fans could go up to and see a game for free, as it gave a great view of the field. The land was named after James J. Coogan, a wealthy landowner and Manhattan borough president. Coogan had leased the southern half of the hollow to the Giants and the northern half to a team in the outlaw Players League. After about a year, the Players League went out of business, and the Giants moved yet again, into the newly vacated, larger ballpark. The new park held a total of 16,000 fans, and was originally known as Brotherhood Park, but like the others, the fans soon labeled it the “Polo Grounds”. The Giants remained here for the next 20 years. While the Giants were playing a series out of town, the ballpark caught fire. A watchman on an elevated railroad tower near the park saw the flames and sounded the alarm, but the blaze was out of control. The fire lasted almost two days, and completely burned the all-wooden stadium to the ground.

Giants’ owner, John T. Brush, inspected the rubble from his wheelchair the next morning. Soon thereafter, he rebuilt the stadium in concrete and steel, one of only three in the Major Leagues at that time. (The other two were Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia) While the new ballpark was being constructed, the Giants played at Hilltop Park, sharing it with the American League’s Highlanders (the present-day New York Yankees). Once built, it had an imposing double-deck roofed grandstand that stopped at the foul pole in left and extended past the pole in right. The grandstands eliminated the tradition of fans watching the game from Coogan’s Bluff, as the taller stands blocked the view of the field. In the 1920's, under new ownership, a major change was made to the ballpark. Since the carriage trade was disappearing, there was no longer a need for an open outfield area. The park was enclosed in 1923. This change raised the capacity to nearly 55,000. With the centerfield being closed off, this got rid of local folks watching games from their horse-drawn carriages around the outfield rope, as they’d done in years past. Originally the park was decorated with coats of arms of every National League team on the grandstand façade, these were eventually removed. The new stadium kept its bathtub shape in order to squeeze it between Manhattan Field and the Harlem River. For the first eight years, it was called “Brush Park”, but that never really caught on with fans who continued calling it the Polo Grounds. Ironically, the Giants returned the favor to the Yankees, as the Yanks shared the Polo Grounds with the Giants from 1913-22 until Yankee Stadium was built

To truly appreciate the Polo Grounds, you must envision a huge bathtub with a baseball diamond crammed inside. As a result, it had many quirks unlike any other field in baseball. Right-handed hitters could line a ball over the 17-foot wall for a 279-foot home run, or they could pop one up into the upper-deck overhang reducing the distance to 250. Left-handed hitters could pull a fly ball down the line for a 257-foot home run. Woe to any team without a speedy centerfielder though. The deep dimensions at the curves more than compensated the short distances down the lines. As the grandstands extended, they angled deeper away from the batter. The fences reached 455 feet at the curve in left-center and 449 feet in right-center. The grandstands were divided in centerfield by a green building that housed home and visitor’s clubhouses, as well as administrative offices. Staircases on each side of the building led players up to their dressing rooms. The building was decorated with a Chesterfield cigarette sign, topped with a Longines clock and a memorial to Eddie Grant, a Giants player killed during WWI. The indent, directly in front of the building in straight-center, went back to 483 feet. The Chesterfield ad was eventually replaced with a Knickerbocker beer ad in 1956. The Polo Grounds was also the only ballpark in major league history to have both teams’ bullpens in fair territory; the Giants’ in right-center, and the visitor’s in left-center. Only four batters have ever hit a ball over the centerfield wall; Luke Easter of the Negro Leagues in 1948, Joe Adcock in 1953, Lou Brock in 1962, and only one day after Brock’s home run, Hank Aaron.

Three of the most memorable plays in baseball history happened here. First, there was a play known as “Merkle’s Boner”. On September 23rd, 1908, in an important game between the Giants and Cubs, the apparent winning run was nullified because Fred Merkle, the runner on first, did not touch second base. While fans swarmed the field thinking the winning run scored from third, an alert Johnny Evers grabbed the ball and touched second base, which completed the force out of Merkle. It was the final out of the inning, and ended the game in a 1-1 tie. Since both teams were tied for the league lead, the game on September 23rd had to be finished. They played the game on October 8th in front of a packed house. The Cubs ended up winning the game 4-2, and the pennant in the process. “Merkle’s Boner” has been part of Polo Grounds history ever since. The second historical play came on October 3rd, 1951. In the last month and a half of the season, the Giants virtually came out of nowhere to catch and tie the rival Dodgers for first place in the league. In the final game of a three-game playoff between the Giants and Dodgers, the Dodgers were up 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth, when Alvin Dark came up with an infield single. Don Mueller was the next batter, who also singled, sending Dark to third. After a Monte Irvin pop-up, Whitey Lockman doubled into left, which scored Dark and sent Mueller to third; 4-2, Dodgers. With Bobby Thomson coming up, the Dodgers manager, Chuck Dressen, pulled Don Newcombe in favor of Ralph Branca. Thomson smacked Branca’s second pitch into the lower grandstand in left field. The home run gave the Giants a 5-4 victory, and would be forever known as “the shot heard ‘round the world”. It’s arguably considered the most dramatic moment in baseball history. Lastly, the final play is simply known as “The Catch”. In the first game of the 1954 World Series between the Indians and Giants, Willie Mays made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz’s drive. Not only was the catch remarkable, but so was May’s throw back into the infield, preventing two would-be scorers from tagging-up. This set the tone for the rest of the series, as the Giants swept the Indians 4-0.

Only 3 years later, after the 1957 season, the Giants left New York and the Polo Grounds behind for the greener pastures of San Francisco. The final Giants’ game in ’57 ended with the players running off of the field for their lives as the irate fans charged the field, angry at the team for leaving town. It was the first time in almost 70 years the park wasn’t involved in baseball. From 1960-63, the park was home to the new American League Football’s New York Titans (the present-day New York Jets). Baseball returned to the Polo Grounds in 1962 with the expansion New York Mets. The Mets played there for the ’62 and ’63 seasons, accumulating a whopping 231 losses, before moving into Shea Stadium in ‘64. Like the Mets, the Jets also left the Polo Grounds in ’63. The Polo Grounds were demolished a year later. There is now a 4-tower, 30-story public-housing complex called the Polo Grounds Towers in the place of the old ballpark.

POLO GROUNDS TRIVIA

• The first baseball game was played here on April 22, 1891, as the Boston Beaneaters (Braves) beat the Giants 4-3. The last on September 18, 1963 in front of only 1,752 fans, as the Mets lose to the Phillies, 5-1.
  
• The term “hot dog” was first used when a New York Journal sports cartoonist, Tad Dorgan, couldn’t remember how to spell “dachshund” when describing the “red hot dachshund sausages” served at a game in 1901.
  
• In 1907, the Giants had to forfeit the opening game of the season because of a snowball fight that broke out amongst rowdy fans.
  
• On May 6th, 1916, Babe Ruth homers off of Jack Warhop for his first major league home run.
  
• On August 16, 1920, Cleveland’s Ray Chapman was struck in the head by a pitch thrown by the Yankees’ Carl Mays. Chapman was immediately rushed to the hospital, but died 12 hours later. He is the only player to ever be killed while playing major league baseball.
  
• All 13 games of the 1922 and 1923 World Series were played there, (Giants vs. Yankees) with the Giants winning both.
  
• In 1929, the first attempt was made to wire umpires for sound and connect them to the PA system. However, it didn’t work very well.
  
• 5-time 20-game winner, Carl Hubbell, used his nasty screwball to strike out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin consecutively in the 1934 All-Star Game.
  
• In 1939, the Giants became the first team in history to hit 5 home runs in one inning, a record tied many times, but never broken.
  
• The first night game was played there on May 24th, 1940. The Giants beat the Braves, 8-1.
  
• Mel Ott’s 323 home runs there are the most ever by one player at one ballpark. Ott also hit his first, 500th and last (511) there as well.
  
• Game 1 of the 1951 World Series was the first major league baseball game ever to be televised to a live nationwide audience.
  
• The Mets’ Jim Hickman hits the parks last home run in 1963.
  
• The Polo Grounds were demolished on April 10th, 1964 with the same wrecking ball that leveled Ebbetts Field four years earlier.

TENANTS

BASEBALL

New York Giants, 1911-57
New York Yankees, 1913-22
New York Cubans (Negro Leagues), 1940-48
New York Mets, 1962-63

FOOTBALL

New York Giants, 1925-55
New York Titans/Jets, 1960-63

RESEARCH SOURCES

The Ballpark Book by Ron Smith
Take me out to the Ballpark by Josh Leventhal
MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com
Ballparktour.com
Baseball-almanac.com
Daveyball.com

SPECIAL THANKS…

• To the webmaster at ballparktour.com for letting me use his site’s images.
  
• To my sweetheart, Kelly, because every editor needs an editor. Thank you for all of your help!
  

NEXT EDITION:

Ebbetts Field

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