The Polo Grounds

The Polo Grounds was once synonymous with sports and interwoven in America's fabric. It was here, not the Bronx, where the seeds of the New York Yankees great dynasty was first spread. It was here where both Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi got their first real shots at proving themselves in the NFL. The Polo Grounds was much more than just a single Shot Heard 'Round the World, there was a time when it was the face of sports in America.

Polo Grounds I (1880-1889)

Of all the versions of the venue, it was only the first one where the sport of polo was actually played. In 1880, baseball enthusiast Jim Mutrie began a team that was backed by wealthy merchant John B. Day and found a suitable location just north of Central Park on 110th Street and 5th Avenue. At the time, it was no more than a wide open lot that often hosted polo matches but eventually, newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett and financier August Belmont Sr. built a grandstand that the newly born New York Metropolitans would call "home" for the next seven years.

The first game on September 29, 1880 almost didn't happen as the Washington Nationals showed up late. But thankfully, they showed up just on time and 2,000 fans were treated to a show as Hugh "One Arm" Daily led the Metropolitans to an 8-3 victory in a game thta lasted just six innings due to darkness. Since it was still used for polo, the Metropolitans were sometimes forced to play at Brooklyn's Union Grounds. By the next year, Day worked out a plan with the Manhattan Polo association to secure the field for baseball during the season.

In 1883, the Troy Haymakers of the National League left Albany for Manhattan, moved into the Polo Grounds and became the New York Gothams. Just four years later, the Metropolitans moved out and eventually folded, ceding control of the venue to the Gothams.

Later that year, Yale beat Harvard 17-8 in the schools' annual football match. In 1889, the city decided to move 111th Street straight through the Polo Grounds, turning the area underneath its double deck grandstand into a traffic circle. Thus, the Gothams were forced to move.

Polo Grounds II (1889-1890)

Day found a suitable site at the foot of Coogan's Hollow across the Harlem River. To attract customers, he called his new home the "New Polo Grounds" and made sure that it was the finest in the land. Aside from the double-deck grandstand and large clubhouse behind first base, it also had horse stables under the stands behind third base.

Still, the ballpark had an issue. There was an unsightly embankment that ran from center-field all the way to right-field that was steeper than all other ballparks with that same quirk. Rain made the slope impossibly muddy and treacherous and in one game, Giants outfielder Gorge Gore could only stand and watch as Chicago's Adrian Anson trotted home while his batted ball sat idly bye in center-field.

By 1890, the Brotherhood of Players League opened for business and built their own ballpark across the street from the New Polo Grounds. This set off quite a rivalry, one of which Day couldn't compete with. He ended up selling his beloved Giants to the Player's League and watched as his team moved into Brotherhood Park. The New Polo Grounds would stay standing for another decade and would be referred to as Manhattan Field while it hosted mainly cricket matches and served as a parking lot for its neighbor.

Polo Grounds III (1891-1911)

When the National League Giants first moved into the third version of the Polo Grounds, the structure immediately shrunk with left field being reduced from 335 feet to 277 and right field from 335 to 258. Center-field remained at a daunting 500 feet while two small bleacher sections were added just beyond and other bleachers were added to extend the double-decked grandstand. Oddly enough, some of the grandstand protruded from foul territory and into fair territory forcing the ground's management to get creative. Thus, a white line was painted on the front fence of the curved grandstand with a pole erected at the far edge of the stands to display the foul and fair territories.

The first National League game at the new Polo Grounds was on April 22, 1891. Just before the first pitch, the Giants of the N.L. and those who had wandered over to the Players League lined up on opposite sides before walking towards each other to shake hands, signaling a new era in the game. The Giants ultimately finished third that year before finishing out the century falling flat on their faces while swirling around in the league cellar.

By the time John McGraw arrived from Baltimore in July 1902, the Giants had been directionless for much of the past decade. McGraw could have ran after the team finished 1902 48-88-5, but he decided to seize the moment and embrace the ballclub as his own. The Giants won 84 games in 1903 and with Christy Mathewson standing on the pitcher's mound, they knew that better days were ahead.

They won the N.L. pennant the following year, but McGraw refused to play Boston in what would have been the second World Series. Instead, the Giants waited a year to claim their first World Series title. Mathewson was beyond sensational in that series, recording three complete game shutouts while giving up just 14 hits and a single walk in 27 innings of pure dominance. It only made sense that he clinched the World Series in Game 5 at the Polo Grounds, beating the Athletics 2-0 in front of 24, 187 fans.

In 1908, the Giants and Cubs engaged in one of the greatest pennant races. Late in the season, the two teams met at the Polo Grounds and managed a 1-1 tie late in the ninth inning. Giants shortstop al Bridwell hit a single to drive in the winning run. Or so they thought. With a crowd beginning to submerge onto the field, Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers began searching for the ball.

Through a wild turn of events, he and his teammates eventually retrieved the ball and Evers triumphantly stomped on second base, claiming that Merkle had never touched it. While that practice was common in that era, the rule was rarely enforced. Still, this was a very close pennant race and with darkness converging onto the Polo Grounds, the N.L. wanted to get that pennant race right. So a one-game playoff was tentatively scheduled in case both teams finished duplicate records.

Sure enough, they were tied at season's end. The Cubs beat an exhausted Christy Mathewson 4-2 in that game at the Polo Grounds in front of a crazed crowd estimated to havfe been anywhere from 80,000 to 100,000 strong. Giants fans were furious with the outcome and paddy wagons had to be used to move the Cubs out of Coogan's Bluff and away from the angry mob.

All was going well for the Giants when disaster struck. On April 14, 1911 began in the lower timbers of the grandstand. As a strong wind picked it up, the fire quickly engulfed much of the Polo Grounds as the flames shot up as high as 100 feet into the air. the Giants moved to Hilltop Park for the next 11 weeks as owner John T. Brush consulted with Osborn Engineering on a new stadium.

Polo Grounds IV (1911-1963)

Incredibly, the latest and final version of the Polo Grounds opened just 11 weeks after a fire incinerated its predecessor. While Brush had originally intended to name the stadium after himself (which was quite common in that era), the townsfolk of New York City wanted the site to keep its name.

Brush decided to keep the ballpark's unique horseshoe shape while making the stadium more expansive. Using Forbes Field, League Park, Shibe Park and Comiskey Park as inspiration, Brush set out to build the very best version of the Polo Grounds.

Indeed, it was. Reinforced concrete piers held up the second level of the double-deck grandstand and above the first tier was open an open steel framing with a cantilever roof. While the famed architectural designer Henry B. Harts accused Manhattan's latest attraction of being "utilitarian", the art was within the aisles. On every seat was emblazoned with a figural iron scrollwork with a Giants "NY" emblem. The only things that remained from the Polo Grounds III was moveable opera chairs and roof sheathing, both made of wood.

While the speedy construction was impressive, technically, the new ballpark could only sit 16,000 in the lower bowl by the time it opened on June 28, 1911. Christy Mathewson led the Giants to victory that day, beating the Boston Rustlers 3-0.

That year was the beginning of bad fortune for the Giants. While they dominated the N.L. they just couldn't find a way to win the World Series. Even though they won two out of three at home, they still lost to the A's in six games to end that very long year. The following year, the Giants again lost the clincher at their opponent's home, losing to the Boston red Sox in eight (Game 2 was called for darkness).

What's more, the Giants managed to win just once at home in that series, beating the Red Sox 5-2 in Game Six. Their bad luck continued the following year as they were again beaten by the A's, never once winning at home. Four years later, they lost to the White Sox in six. After losing Game 6 in front of 33,969 fans at the Polo grounds, the Giants wandered off the grounds with their shoulders slumped, wondering if they would ever get over the hump.

Beginning in 1921 and through much of 1923, the Pollo Grounds underwent a much needed renovation that would mold it into its final appearance. In short order, it was expanded from a capacity of 38,000 to 50,000 and its double-deck grandstand was extended on both sides of the field all the way to center-field where an uncovered bleacher section and clubhouses for both teams would be sandwiched between.

In the early years, even the stairs leading up to the clubhouses was fair territory. With the shape of a bathtub, the Polo Grounds truly looked like a unique ballpark. Its right-field (258) and left-field (279) would remain permanent while center-field would haggle between 505 feet and 430 feet.

In 1921, with renovations well underway, the Giants returned to the World Series. Ironically, they faced off against their tenants, the New York Yankees. After the Yankees' lease ran out at Hilltop Park in 1913, the Giants generously offered them the Polo Grounds as way of thanking them for their hospitality back in 1911. For much of their stay, it was the Giants who often attracted the biggest crowds as the Yankees just were not relevant in the A.L. pennant race back then.

That all changed in 1920 when the Yankees bought Babe Ruth. Suddenly, massive crowds came to watch the Bambino swing his mighty bat just when the Dead Ball Era was coming to an end. for the next two years, every game of the Fall Classic would be played at the Polo Grounds as the Giants managed to repeat as champions. Along the way, John McGraw grew distasteful of the Yankees, hating the fact that they often outdrew the Giants at the gate.

So the Yankees were evicted in 1923 and built their own ballpark directly across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds. It was only sweet justice on the Yankees' end when they beat the Giants 6-4 in Game 6 at the Polo Grounds to win the first of many World Series.

The Polo Grounds was much more than a baseball stadium. Just 11 weeks before the Yankees beat the Giants in the World Series, Jack Dempsey and Louis Firpo met in a massive brawl. At one point, Firpo knocked Dempsey out of the ring, only to watch as Dempsey clawed his way back in to knock Firpo out.

In 1925, Tim Mara brought the NFL to the Big Apple when his Giants began playing at the Polo Grounds. The New York Football Giants wasted no time, winning titles in 1927, 1934 and 1938.

In the 1934 title match against the undefeated and heavily favored Chicago Bears, the New York Football Giants were met with a fierce cold that froze the Polo Grounds solid. Giants captain ray Flaherty recalled a game at Gonzaga College in similar conditions where they had performed well enough in sneakers. So, lockerroom attendant Abe Cohen was sent to retrieve sneakers from Manhattan College just before kickoff.

Down 13-3, the Giants ends and backs swapped their cleats for sneakers, hoping that the added traction would help. It was and the Giants pulled away to win handily 30-13. Right after the game, Cohen was sent again to Manhattan College to return their sneakers. Their basketball team needed them.

The baseball Giants weren't done winning. In 1933, they returned to the World Series where they won both home games before winning Game 5 in Washington.

In 1951, the Giants found themselves facing a 13.5 game deficit against their hated rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. But once their pitching found it stride, the Giants began to win right when the Dodgers started to lose. It took the rest of the regular season and forced a three game playoff, but the Giants only got stronger as the season went along.

Finally, on October 3, 1951, the Giants were looking down the barrel of a 4-2 deficit when Bobby Thompson came to bat against Ralph Branca. All it took was a single pitch and when Bobby Thompson smacked the ball, the crowd rose in anticipation as it plopped down in the left-field bleachers. All of the sudden, the old bathtub at the foot of Coogan's Bluff shook in ecstasy and exuberance. The Giants won the pennant, 5-4. The fact that they lost to the Yankees in the World Series hardly mattered

Three years later, the Giants returned to the World Series, undaunted by the 111-win Cleveland Indians. Although Cleveland kept things interesting in Game 1, once Willie Mays miraculously caught a fly ball in the Polo Grounds' deep-center field and threw it almost in one motion to second base to pick off a runner, the series was basically over. The Giants swept Cleveland to win their last World Series in New York.

The Polo Grounds lost a tenant when the New York Football Giants moved across the Harlem River and into the spacious confines of Yankee Stadium in 1956. That same year, the Giants won their first championship since 1938, driven by the sound minds of offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi and defensive coordinator Tom Landry, both having begun their NFL coaching careers in the Polo Grounds just two years earlier

As the decade crawled along, both the Dodgers and Giants sought opportunities to build new ballparks. Stonewalled by their respective municipalities, both decided to move to California in 1958. The Giants last game at their longtime home was a listless 9-1 loss to Pittsburgh on September 29 1957. Just 11,606 people bothered to attend.

The stadium sat vacant for the rest of the decade until. the AFL's New York Titans moved in. the Titans were very much a trainwreck in those days. Attendance was laughable as the team struggled to stay at .500 with forgettable names. While the Titans were mired in their own misery, the New York Mets baseball team was born. Led by famed Yankees manager (and onetime New York Giant) Casey Stengel, The Mets won 91 games in two years at t he Polo Grounds while Shea Stadium was being built. The Jets officially closed the Polo Grounds for good on December 14, 1963, losing to Buffalo 19-10.

The Polo Grounds was soon demolished and apartment buildings were soon constructed in its place. A commemorative plaque rests on one of the walls, siting the very spot where homeplate once stood.

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