Hilltop Park

Ban Johnson needed a team in the Big Apple. As the founder of the infant American League, he needed a presence in the media capital of the world. With the Baltimore Orioles under his control, he was able to sell the ballclub for a mere $18,000 to three men with influence in New York: Frank Farrell (the Pool Room King), Billy Devery (a former New York City police chief) and team president Joseph Gordon (a coal merchant and state assemblyman).

The three moved the Orioles to New York and promptly renamed the team the Highlanders in 1903, with their sites already on an unassuming playing surface on the corner of West 165th Street and Broadway. Over $200,000 was spent to excavate the dump, removing rocks large and small, draining a swamp and chopping down 100 trees.

It didn't help that a labor strike was held midway through construction, but general contractor Thomas McAvoy was determined and refused to pay the workers the $2 a day that they demanded. In one fell swoop, he fired all of the disgruntled workers and hired their replacements.

The former owner of both the Giants and Orioles, Andrew Freedman, made things interesting soon after when he rallied the surrounding neighborhood to sign a petition demanding that a street be built straight through the new ballpark. However, McAvoy got the Washington Heights Board of Improvement to deny the neighborhood's demand.

Amidst all the drama, the work continued. Crews worked round the clock, digging up rocks and smoothing the grounds with 30,000 cubic yards of fresh dirt while building an all-wood structure surrounding the playing surface.

While the project cost $275,000 in total, just $75,000 went into the actual building. Everything about the structure was simple. Three grandstand sections ringed the home plate area and stretched along the baselines while single deck bleachers lined up against the foul lines. A scoreboard sat near the left-field foul line while a simple clubhouse settled behind center-field. It was a serviceable venue with one goal in mind: to host baseball games.

Although it was officially known by a different name, the locals referred to the ballpark as "Hilltop Park" due to the misconception that it was perched on the highest peak of Manhattan Island.

On April 30, 1903, "the American League Park of New York" officially opened to the masses. The Highlanders won that day as future Hall of Famer Jack Chesbro beat the Washington Senators 6-2 in front of a packed house of 16,243.

Construction continued on Hilltop Park throughout much of the 1903 season. Whenever the Highlanders were away, crews were able to raise the grandstand roof, work on the bleachers along the third-base line and smooth out the rough edges of the playing surface.

One area that couldn't be fixed until the next year was deep right-field. A tremendously deep depression made that area too hazardous to play. As a result, the Highlanders erected a fence just in front of the hole, thus making anything hit in right-field automatic doubles and shrinking right-field from a cavernous 400 feet down to just 316.

By 1904, the depression had been filled in and right-field had been moved back to 385 feet while left-field was extended to 420 feet (from an original 365) and center-field shrunk from a monstrous 542 feet to 424. and bleachers had been added to left-field. With standing-room-only, Hilltop Park's capacity limit had been stretched to 25,000. It was a number that the ballpark would almost never threaten.

One of the few times capacity was threatened occurred on October 10, 1904 in a winner-take-all double-header between the Highlanders and the Boston Pilgrims. With Jack Chesbro on the mound, the Highlanders felt confident going into Game 1. After all, he had just set a century-best record of 41 wins, an absurd number in any era. With 28,584 fans crammed into the cozy confines of Hilltop Park, Chesbro stumbled at the last moment, throwing a wild pitch that gave Boston the critical 3-2 victory. Although the Highlanders won game 2 1-0, it was for naught. They had lost the AL pennant to their eventual eternal rivals.

In total, the Highlanders finished second in the league three times during their ten year stay at Hilltop Park. While they only drew 211,808 in 1903, they managed to draw decent crowds, topping out at 501,000 in 1909.

On April 13, 1911 the Polo Grounds burned down, leaving their tenants homeless. Located less than ten blocks from the site, the Highlanders offered Hilltop Park for their neighbors. the giants adjusted quite well in their temporary home. They won their first seven games there and went 20-8 during their stay. Incredibly, the Polo Grounds was rebuilt before the end of the season, so the Giants spent just 11 weeks there. They would go on to lose the World Series to the Philadelphia A's.

By 1912, the Highlanders were growing restless in their ballpark. It was just too small for a growing game and they were having trouble attracting attention. On October 5, the Highlanders beat the Washington Senators 8-5 to not only end a nine-game losing streak but also their stay at Hilltop Park. They moved to the Polo Grounds the next year and promptly changed their name to the Yankees. Today, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital now stands where Hilltop Park once stood and a plaque marks home plate's spot.

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