"The Bathtub" | |
_(434431507).jpg) Polo Grounds IV during the1913 World Series (New York Giants andPhiladelphia Athletics) (below) Site of the original Polo Grounds, 1876–1888, between 110th and 112th Street, Manhattan | |
 Interactive map of Polo Grounds | |
| Former names | Brotherhood Park (adjacent to Polo Grounds II, 1890) Brush Stadium (1911–1919) |
|---|---|
| Location | bounded by West 155th Street,Frederick Douglass Blvd. andHarlem River Drive inWashington Heights,Manhattan,New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°49′54″N73°56′14″W / 40.83167°N 73.93722°W /40.83167; -73.93722 (1891–1963 location of the Polo Grounds) Polo Grounds III (1891–1963) 40°49′49″N73°56′16″W / 40.83028°N 73.93778°W /40.83028; -73.93778 (1890 location of the Polo Grounds) Polo Grounds II/Manhattan Field (1889–1890/1891–1948) 40°47′53″N73°57′2″W / 40.79806°N 73.95056°W /40.79806; -73.95056 (1876–1888 location of the Polo Grounds) Polo Grounds I (1876–1889) |
| Owner | New York Giants |
| Operator | New York Giants |
| Capacity | 34,000 (1911) 55,000 (1923) |
| Field size | Left field: 279 ft (85 m) Left-center: 450 ft (137 m) Center field: 483 ft (147 m) Right-center: 449 ft (136 m) Right field: 258 ft (78 m)  |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1890 |
| Opened | April 19, 1890 |
| Renovated | June 28, 1911 |
| Expanded | 1923 |
| Closed | December 14, 1963; 61 years ago (1963-12-14) |
| Demolished | April 10, 1964[1][2] |
| Architect | Henry B. Herts |
| Tenants | |
| New York Metropolitans (AA) (1883) New York Giants (PL) (1890) New York Giants (NL) (1891–1957) New York Giants (ALPF) (1894) New York Yankees (AL) (1913–1922) New York Mets (NL) (1962–1963) New York Brickley Giants (NFL) (1921) New York Giants (NFL) (1925–1955) Columbia Lions football (NCAA) (1900–1922) New York Nationals (ASL) (1927–1930) Fordham Rams football (NCAA) (1928–1950; 1953–1954) New York Giants (ASL) (1930–1932) New York Cubans (NNL) (1939–1950) New York Black Yankees (NNL) (1931–46) New York Bulldogs (NFL) (1949) New York Titans/Jets (AFL) (1960–1963) Gotham Bowl (NCAA) (1961) | |
ThePolo Grounds was the name of three stadiums inUpper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professionalbaseball andAmerican football from 1880 to 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built for the sport ofpolo. Bound on the south and north by110th and112th streets and on the east and west byFifth andSixth (Lenox) avenues, just north ofCentral Park, it was converted to a baseball stadium when leased by theNew York Metropolitans in 1880.
The third Polo Grounds, built in 1890, and renovated after a fire in1911, was inCoogan's Hollow and was noted for its distinctivebathtub shape, with very short distances to the left and right field walls and an unusually deep center field.
The original Polo Grounds was home to the New York Metropolitans from 1880 to 1885, and theNew York Giants from 1883 to 1888. The Giants played in the second Polo Grounds for part of the1889 season and all of the1890 season, and at the third Polo Grounds from1891 to1957. The Polo Grounds was also the home of theNew York Yankees from1913 to1922 andNew York Mets in their first two seasons (1962,1963). Each version of the ballpark held at least oneWorld Series. The final version also hosted the1934 and1942All-Star Games.
InAmerican football, the third Polo Grounds was home to theNew York Brickley Giants for one game in1921 and theNew York Giants from1925 to1955. TheNew York Titans/Jets of theAmerican Football League played at the stadium from the league's inaugural season of1960 until1963.
Other sporting events held at the Polo Grounds includedsoccer,boxing, andGaelic football. Its final sporting event was a pro football game between theJets andBuffalo Bills.Shea Stadium opened in 1964 and replaced the Polo Grounds as the home of the Mets and Jets. The Polo Grounds was demolished and a public housing complex,Polo Grounds Towers, was built on the site.[1]
The original Polo Grounds stood at 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, directly across 110th Street from the northeast corner ofCentral Park. The venue's original purpose was for the sport ofpolo. Its name was initially merely descriptive, not a formal name, often rendered as "the polo grounds" in newspapers. TheMetropolitans, an independent team of roughly major-league caliber, was the first professional baseball team to play there, beginning in September 1880, and remained the sole professional occupant through the 1882 season. At that time the Metropolitans' ownership had the opportunity to bring it into theNational League, but elected instead to organize a new team, theNew York Gothams — who soon came to be known as the Giants — mainly using players from the Metropolitans and the newly defunctTroy Trojans, and entered it in the National League, while bringing what remained of the Metropolitan club into the competingAmerican Association. For this purpose the ownership built a seconddiamond and grandstand at the park, dividing it into eastern and western fields for use by the Giants and Metropolitans respectively. Polo Grounds I thus hosted its first Major League Baseball games in 1883 as the home stadium of two teams, the American Association Metropolitans and the National League Gothams.[3] The dual-fields arrangement proved unworkable because of faulty surfacing of the western field, and after various other arrangements were tried, the Metropolitans and Giants alternated play on the eastern field in later years until the Metropolitans moved to theSt. George Cricket Grounds onStaten Island in 1886.
Although the Giants would soon become the team of choice in the city, the "Mets" had a good year in 1884. They had started the season in a new facility calledMetropolitan Park, which proved to be such a poor venue that they moved back to the Polo Grounds within a few weeks. Despite that bit of drama, the Mets went on to win the American Association pennant. Their good fortune ran out when they faced theProvidence Grays in theWorld Series, in which Providence pitcherOld Hoss Radbourn pitched three consecutive shutouts against them. All three games had been staged at the Polo Grounds.
An early highlight of Giants' play at the Polo Grounds wasRoger Connor's home run over the right-field wall and into 112th Street; Connor eventually held the record for career home runs thatBabe Ruth would break July 8, 1921.
The original Polo Grounds was used not only for Polo and professional baseball, but often for college baseball and football as well – even by teams outside New York. The earliest known surviving image of the field is an engraving of a baseball game betweenYale University andPrinceton University onDecoration Day, May 30, 1882.[4] Yale and Harvard also played their traditionalThanksgiving Dayfootball game there on November 29, 1883 and November 24, 1887.[5] (SeeFootball below)
New York City was in the process ofextending its street grid into uptown Manhattan in 1889. Plans for an extended West 111th Street ran through the Polo Grounds. City workers are said[by whom?] to have shown up suddenly one day and begun cutting through the fence to lay out the new street. With the Giants having won the National League pennant the year before, as well as theWorld Series there was significant sentiment in the city against the move; a bill was even passed by the state legislature giving the Giants a variance which would allow the park to stand. GovernorDavid B. Hill, who had campaigned for office on a "home rule" pledge, vetoed it on the grounds that whatever he might think of the forced destruction of the park, the will of the city government was to be respected. The loss of their park forced the Giants to look quickly for alternative grounds.
The Giants opened the 1889 season atOakland Park inJersey City, New Jersey, playing their first two games there.[6][7] Four days later, they moved to the St. George Cricket Grounds (where the Metropolitans had continued to play until their demise following the 1887 season).[8]
After closing out a homestand at the St. George Grounds on June 14, the Giants went on the road. Upon their return on July 8 they had relocated again, to a "New Polo Grounds" site within Manhattan at the far terminus of the thenNinth Avenue Elevated at 155th Street and 8th Avenue (nowFrederick Douglass Boulevard).[9] Newspaper accounts indicate that the seats from the original Polo Grounds were moved to the new Polo Grounds stands. Despite their vagabond existence during the first half of the 1889 season, the Giants began their stay at the new ballpark just 4 games behind the league-leading Boston club.[10] They rallied to win the pennant for the second consecutive year, as well as that year'sWorld Series against Brooklyn.
The new site was overlooked to the north and west by a steep promontory known asCoogan's Bluff. Because of its elevation, fans frequently watched games from the Bluff without buying tickets.[11] The ballpark itself was in bottomland known as Coogan's Hollow. The grandstand had a conventional curve around the infield, but the shape of the property made the center field area actually closer than left center or right center. This was not much of an issue in the "dead ball era" of baseball. The land remained in the Coogan estate, and the Giants were renters for their entire time at Polo Grounds II, III and IV. TheBrooklyn Dodgers played a pair of home series at this ballpark in late July and early August 1890.[12]
After the National League version of the New York Giants moved into Polo Grounds III in 1891, Polo Grounds II was sub-leased to theManhattan Athletic Club and was referred to ever after asManhattan Field. It was converted for other sports such as football and track-and-field.
The New York Giants leased Manhattan Field to the Columbia University football team for $14,000 in 1899 and $15,000 in 1900.[13]
The superstructure of Manhattan Field was demolished in 1911 following the fire that destroyed Polo Grounds III, but the site still existed as a field for 20 more years.[14] Babe Ruth's first home run as aYankee, on May 1, 1920, was characterized byThe New York Times reporter as a "sockdolager" (i.e. a decisive blow), and was described as traveling "over the right field grand stand into Manhattan Field".[15] Bill Jenkinson's modern research indicates the ball traveled about 500 feet (150 m) in total, after clearing the Polo Grounds double decked right field stand. Manhattan Field continued to be an occasional site for amateur sports reported in local newspapers as late as spring of 1942. In June 1948, the Giants again leased the Manhattan Field property, and had it paved over to serve as a parking lot for the Polo Grounds.
Polo Grounds III was the stadium that made the name nationally famous. Built in 1890, it initially had a completely open outfield bounded by just the outer fence, butbleachers were gradually added. By the early 1900s, some bleacher sections encroached on the field from the foul lines about halfway along left and right field. Additionally, there were a pair of "cigar box" bleachers on either side of the "batter's eye" in center field. The expansive outfield was cut down somewhat by a rope fence behind whichcarriages (and earlyautomobiles) were allowed to park. By 1910, bleachers enclosed the outfield, and the carriage ropes were gone. The hodge-podge approach to the bleacher construction formed a multi-faceted outfield area. There were a couple of gaps between some of the sections, and that would prove significant in 1911.
Known asBrotherhood Park when it opened in 1890, Polo Grounds III was the home of asecond New York Giants franchise in thePlayers' League. The latter was a creation of Major League Baseball's first union, the Brotherhood of Professional Base-Ball Players. After failing to win concessions from National League owners, the Brotherhood founded its own league in 1890. The Players' League Giants built Brotherhood Park in the northern half of Coogan's Hollow, next door to Polo Grounds II, otherwise bounded by rail yards and the bluff. Brotherhood Park hosted its first game on April 19, 1890, the same day the National League's Giants played their first home game of the season.[16] For the full 1890 season the two editions of the Giants were neighbors. When the teams played on the same day, fans in the upper decks could watch each other's games, and home run balls hit in one park might land on the other team's playing field. After the one season the Players' League folded, and the Brotherhood's members went back to the National League. The National League Giants then moved out of Polo Grounds II and into Brotherhood Park, which was larger. They took their stadium's name with them once again, turning Brotherhood Park into the new-new Polo Grounds. Between Polo Grounds II and III-IV, they would remain in Coogan's Hollow for 69 seasons.[17]
In the very early morning hours of Friday, April 14, 1911, a fire of uncertain origin swept through the stadium's horseshoe-shaped grandstand, consuming wood and leaving only steel uprights in place. The gaps between some sections of the stands saved a good portion of the outfield seating and the clubhouse from destruction. Giants ownerJohn T. Brush decided to rebuild the Polo Grounds with concrete and steel, rentingHilltop Park from the Highlanders during reconstruction.
Progress was sufficient to allow the stadium to reopen just 2½ months later, June 28, 1911, the date some baseball guides date the structure. As configured, it was the ninthconcrete-and-steel stadium in the Majors and fourth in the National League. Unfinished seating areas were rebuilt during the season while the games went on. The new structure stretched in roughly the same semicircle from the left field corner around home plate to the right field corner as prior but was extended into deep right-center field. The surviving wooden bleachers were retained basically as is, with gaps remaining on each side between the newfireproof construction.
The Giants rose from the ashes along with their ballpark, winning the National League pennant in 1911 (as they also would in 1912 and 1913). As evidenced from the World Series programs, the team renamed the new structureBrush Stadium in honor of their then-owner John T. Brush, but the name did not stick, and by the late 1910s it was passé. The remaining old bleachers were demolished during the 1923 season when the permanent double-deck was extended around most of the rest of the field and new bleachers and clubhouse were constructed across center field. This construction gave the stadium its familiar horseshoe or bathtub style shape, as well as a new nickname, "The Bathtub".
This version of the ballpark had its share of quirks. The "unofficial" distances (never marked on the wall) down the left and right field lines were 279 and 258 feet (85 and 79 m) respectively, but there was a 21-foot (6.4 m) overhang in left field, which often intercepted fly balls that would otherwise have been catchable and turned them into home runs. Contrasting with the short distances down the foul lines were the 450-foot distances to deepest left and right center (the gaps); the base of the straightaway centerfield clubhouse stood 483 feet fromhome plate, up a 58-foot runway from the grandstand corners on either side of the clubhouse (these corners were themselves 425 feet (130 m) from home plate). The famous photo ofThe catch made byWillie Mays in the1954 World Series againstVic Wertz of theCleveland Indians occurred immediately in front of the "batter's eye", a metal screen atop the grandstand wall directly to the right of the centerfield runway. It would have been a home run in several other ballparks of the time as well as in most of today's modern ballparks. Thebullpens were actually in play, in the left and right center field gaps.[18] The outfield sloped downward from the infield, and people in the dugouts often could only see the top half of the outfielders.
TheNew York Yankees sublet the Polo Grounds from the Giants during 1913–1922 after their lease onHilltop Park expired. After the 1922 season, the Yankees builtYankee Stadium directly across theHarlem River from the Polo Grounds, which spurred the Giants to expand their park to reach a comparableseating capacity to stay competitive. Since nearly all the new seating was in the outfield, Yankee Stadium still had more desirable seats than did the Polo Grounds for watching baseball. However, the Polo Grounds became better suited for football due to the new seating placement.
The Giants' firstnight game at the stadium was played on May 24, 1940.
The Polo Grounds was the site of one of the most iconic moments in baseball history – the historic"Shot Heard 'Round the World" walk-off home run on October 3, 1951 that decided the hard-foughtNational League pennant playoff series between the Giants and their cross-town rivals, theBrooklyn Dodgers.
On August 16, 1920, Cleveland Indians shortstopRay Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by the Yankees'Carl Mays.[19] At the time, batters did not wearhelmets. Chapman died 12 hours after he was hit, at 4:30 a.m. on August 17. He remains the only player to die from an injury sustained in a Major League Baseball game.[20][21]
On July 4, 1950, Bernard Doyle, a resident ofFairview, New Jersey, in his 50s, originally fromDublin, Ireland, was struck and killed by a stray bullet while in his seat at the Polo Grounds.[22] Doyle had brought a neighbor's son with him to see adoubleheader between the Dodgers and the Giants. Doyle was killed about an hour prior to the start of the first game.[23][24] A 14-year-old boy later confessed to having shot a.45 caliberpistol into the air from his rooftop at 515 Edgecombe Avenue, located 1,120 feet (340 m) from where Doyle was seated.[25]
The Polo Grounds' end was somewhat anticlimactic, especially compared to other "Jewel Box" parks.
Part of the problem was that the stadium was not well maintained from the late 1940s onward: while the baseball Giants ownedthe stadium, the Coogan heirs still ownedthe parcel of land on which it stood, while the neighborhood around the stadium had begun to go to seed in the late 1940s. These, along with other factors, combined to restrict ticket sales, even when the Giants were playing well.
In 1954, for example, the baseball Giants drew only 1.1 million fans (compared to over two million for theMilwaukee Braves) despite winning theWorld Series.
The football Giants left for Yankee Stadium across the Harlem River following the1955 NFL season, and the baseball Giants' disastrous1956 season – most of which they spent in last place before a late-season surge moved them up to sixth – caused a further decline on ticket sales. The Giants' 1956 attendance was less than half of that for the Giants' World Series-winning 1954 season, and also ranked last in Major League Baseball.
Along with the departure of the football Giants and the consequential loss of their rent, this collapse of the baseball Giants' gate financially devastated franchise ownerHorace Stoneham, who was not nearly as wealthy as his fellow owners – the Giants were his sole source of income. To make matters worse, Stoneham was left with no money for stadium upkeep, and he was forced to lay off the stadium's maintenance staff in order to stay afloat.
The stadium also had very little parking; its final form had opened two years after theModel T was introduced. Due to the manner in which the stadium was designed, fans had to pour onto the field to exit via the center field gates, making for a problematic situation whenever attendance was anywhere near capacity.
Frustrated with the Polo Grounds being obsolete and dilapidated, and with no maintenance staff or prospect of the stadium being renovated, Stoneham seriously considered having the Giants become tenants of the Yankees in the Bronx, or moving to a proposed stadium that would have been owned by the city.[3]
After both of those plans fizzled, the Giants announced on August 19, 1957 that after 74 years of professional baseball in New York, they would relocate toSan Francisco, California at the end of the season, following their long-time rivals Dodgers to the West Coast. The Giants had won five World Series titles in the Polo Grounds.
The ballpark then sat largely vacant for nearly three years, until the newly formedTitans of New York (present-dayNew York Jets) began play in1960, followed by the newly formed Mets in 1962, using the Polo Grounds as an interim home whileShea Stadium was being built. As a 1962 baseball magazine noted, "The Mets will have to play in the Polo Grounds, hardly the last word in 20th Century stadia."
In 1961, the city of New York decided to claim the land undereminent domain, for the purpose of condemning the stadium and building a high-rise housing project on the site. The Coogan family, which still owned the property, fought this effort until it was finally settled in the city's favor in 1967.[26]
On September 18, 1963, 1,752 fans went to see theNew York Mets play their last game at the Polo Grounds against thePhiladelphia Phillies with a 5–1 Philadelphia win.[27] The game's highlights were later shown onUniversal-International Newsreel. On October 12, the Polo Grounds played host to one last exhibition contest, as Latin American All-Stars of the National League, managed byRoberto Clemente and behind the pitching ofJuan Marichal andAl McBean, defeatedHector Lopez's AL Stars, 5–2.[28][29]
The final sporting event played at the Polo Grounds was on December 14, 1963 when the now renamed AFL team New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills 19–10.
In the 1992 bookThe Gospel According to Casey, by Ira Berkow and Jim Kaplan, it is reported (p. 62) that in 1963, Mets managerCasey Stengel, who had bittersweet memories of his playing days at the Polo Grounds, had this to say during a rough outing to pitcherTracy Stallard, whose greatest claim to fame had been giving upRoger Maris' 61st homer in 1961: "At the end of this season, they're gonna tear this joint down. The way you're pitchin', the right field section will be gone already!"
The final iteration of the Polo Grounds was demolished in 1964,[1][2] beginning on April 10 with a wrecking ball bomb painted to look like a baseball, the same one that had been used four years earlier onEbbets Field.
The wrecking crew wore Giants jerseys and tipped their hard hats to the historic stadium as they began dismantling it, with a crew of 60 workers taking 4½ months to level the stadium. Stephen McNair, a Dodger fan, grabbed a sledge hammer as easily as Johnny Mize picked up a bat, marked off the left field fence beneath Section 33, and vowed, "I'm going to take that place down myself." It was the fence over which Bobby Thomson hit the home run that kept the Dodgers out of the World Series in 1951 and put the Giants in.
The foreman on the job, Abe Gach, shouted, "No, you don't. Be gentle over there. History was made there."
The Indians' bus passed the site in the midst of demolition while Cleveland was playing the Yankees:Dick Donovan, eyeing the rubble, remarked, "Boy, they must have had a helluva game there last night."[30]
The site is now home to thePolo Grounds Towers, a public housing project opened in 1968, and managed by the New York City Housing Authority.
The various incarnations of the Polo Grounds were well-suited forfootball, and hundreds of football games were played there over the years.
The first professional football game played in New York City was played at the Polo Grounds on December 4, 1920. The game featured theBuffalo All-Americans against theCanton Bulldogs in thefirst year of theAmerican Professional Football Association. The Buffalo All-Americans won the game, 7–3. Some argue that the Buffalo All-Americans are tied with the Akron Pros for the first championship of the American Professional Football Association, which soon came to be known as theNational Football League. In1921 the NFL'sNew York Brickley Giants played the final game oftheir 1921 season against theCleveland Indians at the Polo Grounds. The game ended in a 17–0 Giants loss.[31] Shortly afterwards, the team folded. The Brickley Giants were originally formed with the intent of competing in 1919, and having all of their home games held at the Polo Grounds. However, after the team's first practice, the 1919 schedule, that began with an opening day game against theMassillon Tigers, was scratched because of conflict with New York's blue laws. In 1919, the city allowed professional baseball on Sunday and the Giants thought the law would also apply to football. However, it was ruled that professional football was still outlawed on Sundays, so the team disbanded until 1921.
Other than the name, there is no relation between the Brickley Giants and themodern New York Giants franchise.[32]
Both theNew York Giants of the National Football League and theNew York Jets (then known as the Titans of New York) of theAmerican Football League used the Polo Grounds as their home field before moving on to other sites. The Giants moved initially toYankee Stadium in1956 while the Jets, founded in1960, followed theNew York Mets toShea Stadium in1964.The football Giants hosted the1934,1938,1944, and1946 NFL Championship Games at the Polo Grounds, while the1936 NFL Championship Game, originally scheduled for Fenway Park, was moved to the Polo Grounds by mutual agreement of Boston Redskins franchise owner George Preston Marshall, the Green Bay Packers, and the NFL due to low ticket sales in Boston; the Redskins would relocate to Washington in 1937.[33]
Columbia University andYale University, two of American football's oldest teams, played football in the original 110th Street Polo Grounds in the 19th century, for some games which were expected to draw large crowds, including theThanksgiving contests in 1883 and 1887.[5] (See alsoList of Harvard-Yale football games).
The grounds were also used for many games by New York-areacollege football teams such asFordham andArmy. An upset victory by the visitingUniversity of Notre Dame over Army in 1924 led toGrantland Rice's famous article about the Irish backfield, which he called "TheFour Horsemen". The field was also the site of severalArmy–Navy Games in the 1910s and 1920s.
The Polo Grounds held its fair share of internationalsoccer matches as well over the years. In 1926,Hakoah, an all-Jewish side fromVienna, Austria, "drew the largest crowds ever to watch soccer in America up to that time: three successive games drew 25,000, 30,000, and 36,000 spectators. The highlight of the tour was a May 1, 1926 exhibition game between Hakoah and anAmerican Soccer League all-New York team which drew 46,000 fans to the Polo Grounds in New York."[34] (The ASL team won 3–0.)
On 1927,Club Nacional de Football played three matches of itstour of North America. They played Flooring Indiana,[35]Brooklyn Wanderers[36] and anAmerican Soccer League all-star team.[37]
The first soccer played at the Polo Grounds was in 1894 when the owners of several major league baseball clubs formed theAmerican League of Professional Football to fill their stadiums during baseball's off-season. Six famous baseball franchises of the era formed association football sections and fans were told that many would be fielding their baseball stars on the football field in the opening season. TheNew York Giants soccer team took the field in all-white uniforms with black socks and played six games before the threat of a rival baseball league being formed diverted the owners’ attention away from their new venture and caused it to be suspended mid-season. The Giants lay third in the league after six games with two victories, having played their matches in midweek in front of attendances in the high hundreds paying 25 cents a game. Although the owners remained positive about the venture and wanted to run it again the following season, this never happened and the Giants' soccer team was no more.[38][39]
On May 19, 1935, theScotland national team toured the United States, and in their first game played against an ASL All-Star squad which was unofficially representing the United States. Scotland won 5–1 in front of 25,000 people at the Polo Grounds. In 1939, the Scots returned to America for another tour, and played at the Polo Grounds twice. In their first game at the Polo Grounds on May 21, 1939, Scotland tied the Eastern USA All-Stars 1–1 in front of 25,072 fans. In their second game at the Polo Grounds on June 18, 1939, Scotland beat the American League Stars 4–2.
Following World War II, on September 26, 1948, theUSA beatIsrael 3–1 in their first ever game since independence before 25,000 fans at the Polo Grounds. On June 9, 1950, a crowd of 21,000 fans came to the Polo Grounds to watch an 'International Dream Double Header'.Beşiktaş J.K. of Turkey defeated the American Soccer League All-Stars 3–1, and thenManchester United defeatedJönköping (the top amateur team in Sweden) 4–0. On May 17, 1960,Birmingham City of England playedThird Lanark of Scotland and lost 4–1 at the Polo Grounds in New York City. On August 6 of the same year, 25,440 patrons showed up at the Polo Grounds to watch the inaugural International Soccer League Final which sawBangu of Brazil edge outKilmarnock FC of Scotland 2–0.Bangu's six games on Polo Ground had a total attendance of 104,274. The following year, 1961, may have been the last year documented that soccer was played at the Polo Grounds. The second edition of the International Soccer League held most of its game at the Polo Grounds, with a few games held inMontreal. On July 16, 1961Shamrock Rovers beatRed Star Belgrade 5–1, on August 9,Dukla Prague beatEverton 7–0, and four days later on August 13, Dukla Prague beat Everton again 2–0, thus winning the Dwight D. Eisenhower Trophy. The combined attendance for both games at the Polo Grounds was 31,627. In domestic league soccer, the Polo Grounds was the home to theNew York Nationals of theAmerican Soccer League in 1928.
TheNew York GAA occasionally played majorGaelic games matches in the Polo Grounds. InGaelic football, the1947 All-Ireland final betweenCavan andKerry was held at the Polo Grounds on September 14 of that year. The only time anAll-Ireland Senior Final has been played outside Ireland, it was theGaelic Athletic Association (GAA)'s commemoration of "Black '47", the worst year of theGreat Famine. New York was chosen as a center forIrish Americans, many descended from Famine exiles. Cavan emerged victorious in the game itself, fondly remembered forRadio Éireann commentatorMichael O'Hehir's successful pleas for the broadcast line to be extended as the game had run late.[40] The last Gaelic games match at the Polo Grounds was on June 1, 1958 when another Cavan side beat New York inGaelic football.
The Polo Grounds was the site of many famousboxing matches. These included the legendary 1923heavyweight championshipbout betweenJack Dempsey andLuis Ángel Firpo,Harry Greb's defense of the middleweight championship title against reigning World Welterweight ChampionMickey Walker in July 1925, andBilly Conn'snear-upset over heavyweight championJoe Louis in June 1941. It was also the venue for therematch between World Heavyweight ChampionIngemar Johansson and former championFloyd Patterson on June 20, 1960. In what turned out to be the last major boxing match at the Polo Grounds, Patterson became the first heavyweight boxer to regain the championship over the Swedish-born Johansson, who almost one year to the daytook the crown from Patterson at Yankee Stadium.
The Polo Grounds were the site of three different oval tracks. The first track, a ¼ mile dirt oval, was used for midget racing in 1940 and 1941. The second, a 1/5 mile board track, was used briefly in 1948. The final track, a ¼ mile paved oval, was used for stock car racing in 1958 and 1959, after the Giants moved to San Francisco.[41][42]
A performance ofVerdi'sRequiem took place at the Polo Grounds on June 4, 1916, presented by the National Open Air Festival Society. It was given by a chorus of 1,200 singers (chorus master,Arnaldo Conti), selected from among the leading choral societies of New York; and an augmentedNew York Philharmonic Orchestra of 120 players. The soloists wereMaria Gay,Louise Homer (under the assumed name of 'Lucile Lawrence'),[43]Giovanni Zenatello (Gay's partner) andLeon Rothier, and the performance was conducted byLouis Koemmenich.[44][45][46]
One of the oddest features at the Polo Grounds were the deep dimensions in straight away center field. The wall was so far away from home plate, at 483 feet (147 m), that no batter ever hit home runs over it. Before its 1923 reconstruction, onlyBabe Ruth ever reached the centerfield stands; after 1923 only five players would reach the distant centerfield bleachers.[47] The entire 60-foot (18 m) wall in dead center field was consideredin play, as were the clubhouse windows on the in-play side of the wall. The ground rules of the Polo Grounds were set up so that if a ball went through an open window in the clubhouse, it was a ground rule double, rather than a home run. Since no ball ever reached that area in the life of the stadium, that rule was never tested.
In Game 1 of the1954 World Series, Giants outfielderWillie Mays madea sensational catch of a fly ball hit by theCleveland Indians'Vic Wertz into deep center field, a catch which, in the words of NBC television sports announcerJack Brickhouse, "must have looked like anoptical illusion to a lot of people", and which turned the tide of that Series in the Giants' favor.
On October 2, 1936, in Game 2 of the1936 World Series, Yankees centerfielderJoe DiMaggio made a similar, though far less crucial, catch (his team being ahead 18–4) for the final out of the game.[48][49] The Giants'Hank Leiber hit a long fly ball to deep center field that DiMaggio caught in the runway, perhaps between 430 and 440 feet (131 and 134 meters) from the plate, and his momentum carried him partway up the clubhouse steps. He then stopped and turned around, as the crowd stood and acknowledged the departure ofFranklin D. Roosevelt, who was in attendance that day.[50]
Babe Ruth hit many of his early signature blasts at the Polo Grounds, reaching the center field seats on several occasions. His longest blast at the grounds, over the right-center upper deck in 1921, was estimated at over 550 feet. He also hit several centerfield home runs at other ballparks which exceeded 500 feet. Had Ruth played regularly in the remodeled Polo Grounds, theoretically he would have been capable of hitting the clubhouse if conditions were right. Neither he nor anyone else ever did, but a few came close.
After the 1923 remodeling, only five players ever hit a home run into the center field stands:[47][51]
The deep center field was complemented by the short right-field fence. Itsfoul pole was 258 feet (79 m) from home, one of the shortest ever used in the major leagues. Since the early 20th century, home runs that just cleared a field's shortest fence had been known as "Chinese home runs", from astereotype of Chinese immigrant workers as doing the bare minimum required for the low wages they received for menial labor. Within baseball, by the 1940s those home runs were largely associated with the short right-field fence at the Polo Grounds. The 511 career homers hit by Giants outfielderMel Ott, whose physique and batting technique were not those associated withpower hitting, have often been downplayed because a significant number were hit to right at home, a criticism he often responded to by asking why few other hitters in the league were making that hit if it were so easy.[56]
Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" that won the 1951 National League pennant for the Giants was hit over the left field fence. But arguably the best-remembered home run hit to the right side was thewalk-off three-run shot byDusty Rhodes,batting forMonte Irvin in the 10th inning of Game 1 of the 1954 Series, after Mays' catch had kept the Giants tied. It just barely cleared the fence, above the outstretched glove of the leaping outfielderDave Pope, leadingAl López, manager of the heavily favored Indians, to attribute the Giants' stunning victory in the Series opener to the ballpark's unusual dimensions.[57]
Both the home and visitors' bullpens resided on the outfield warning track, situated, respectively, in the right-center and left-center power alleys, each roughly 450 feet from home plate.[58] Anyone seated on the bench was offered some measure of protection from the elements by what has been variously described as an awning,[59] a canopy,[60] or simply the top of the bullpen, as Pittsburgh sportswriterLes Biederman put it when, two years after the ballpark's demolition, he reminded readers that this had been the landing spot forRoberto Clemente's first major league home run.[61]
The only part of the Polo Grounds that still remains is the "John T. Brush Stairway",[62] which runs downCoogan's Bluff from Edgecombe Avenue to Harlem River Driveway at about 158th Street.[63][64] The stairway, named forJohn T. Brush—the then-recently deceased owner of the Giants—opened in 1913 and led to a ticket booth overlooking the stadium. The stairway reportedly offered a clear view of the stadium for fans who did not purchase tickets to a game. A marker on the stairway reads: "The John T. Brush Stairway Presented By The New York Giants."[63]
Donations from theNew York Giants,Jets,Yankees,Mets,San Francisco Giants, andMajor League Baseball enabled a $950,000 restoration project that began in 2011. The restoration was scheduled to be completed in September 2012,[65] but after numerous delays, the restored steps opened finally in early August 2014.[66]
The light poles from the Polo Grounds remain in use atPhoenix Municipal Stadium, Arizona State University's baseball field inPhoenix, Arizona, built in 1964. When the stadium was built,Horace Stoneham, owner of the San Francisco Giants, had the original Polo Grounds light poles shipped there. The Giants held spring training at the stadium's predecessor since 1947 and played at the new ballpark during spring training in 1964. The poles were installed in the stadium where they currently remain standing.[67]
Compiled from various photos, baseball annuals,The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball (Turkin & Thompson, 1951) andGreen Cathedrals by Phil Lowry.
| Dimension | Distance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Left Field Line | 335 ft (102 m) | Not posted |
| Center Field | 500 ft (150 m) | Not posted |
| Right Field Line | 335 ft (102 m) | Not posted |
| Dimension | Distance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Left Field Line | 277 ft (84 m) | Not posted |
| Center Field | 433 ft (132 m) | Not posted |
| Right Field Line | 258 ft (79 m) | Not posted |
| Dimension | Distance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Left Field Line | 279 ft (85 m) | Not posted—sometimes listed as 280 |
| Left Field Upper Deck Overhang | about 250 ft (76 m) | |
| Shallow Left Center | 315 ft (96 m) | |
| Left Center 1 | 360 ft (110 m) | |
| Left Center 2 | 414 ft (126 m) | |
| Deep Left Center | 447 ft (136 m) | Left of bullpen curve |
| Deep Left Center | 455 ft (139 m) | Right of bullpen curve |
| Center Field | Approx. 425 ft (130 m) | (Unposted) corners of runways |
| Center Field | 483 ft (147 m) | Posted on front of clubhouse balcony, sometimes 475 ft (145 m) |
| Center Field | 505 ft (154 m) | (Unposted) sometimes given as total C.F. distance |
| Deep Right Center | 455 ft (139 m) | Left of bullpen curve |
| Deep Right Center | 449 ft (137 m) | Right of bullpen curve |
| Right Center 2 | 395 ft (120 m) | |
| Right Center 1 | 339 ft (103 m) | |
| Shallow Right Center | 294 ft (90 m) | |
| Right Field Line | 257 ft. 33⁄8 in. | Not posted—sometimes listed as 258 |
| Backstop | 65 ft (20 m) | Sometimes also given as 74 ft (23 m) |
The disparities in some of the posted distances, notably straightaway center, have not been fully reconciled by researchers. The closest object in straight center field was the Grant Memorial, followed by the post supporting the overhang of the clubhouse (above which the 483 or 475 signs were posted), and a roll-up door several feet behind the overhang at ground level. The roof of the protruding part of the clubhouse sloped back and met the vertical wall of the larger part of the clubhouse. The exact objects referred to by the numbers 475, 483, and 505 can be speculated but remain unconfirmed. In 1931, additional box seats were built and the infield was moved 8 feet toward center field, while the 483 sign remained as-is. That at least accounts for the 483/475 (and also 433/425) discrepancies, though not identifying precisely what object the 483/475 signs referred to.
| Years | Capacity |
|---|---|
| 1911–1916 | 34,000[68] |
| 1917–1919 | 36,000[68] |
| 1920–1922 | 38,000[68] |
| 1923–1925 | 43,000[68] |
| 1926–1929 | 55,000[68] |
| 1930–1935 | 56,000[68] |
| 1937–1939 | 51,856[68] |
| 1940–1946 | 56,000[68] |
| 1947–1952 | 54,500[68] |
| 1953–1963 | 56,000[68] |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
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