The Polo Grounds was the name given to five different stadiums
in New York City used by Major League Baseball's New York Giants from 1883
until 1957, New York Metropolitans from 1883 until 1885, the New York
Yankees from 1912 until 1922, and by the New York Mets in their first two
seasons of 1962 and 1963.
1911-1922:
LeField Line - 277 (not posted)
Center Field - 433 (not posted)
Right Field Line - 258 (not posted)
1923:
LeField - 279.67
Left-Center - 250 (to second deck)
Left-Center - 447 (right of bullpen)
Center Field - 483
Right-Center - 449
Right Field - 257.67
Foul territory - Very large
The original Polo Grounds was built in the 1870s for the sport of polo,
thus accounting for its name. The field was originally referred to in
newspapers simply as the polo grounds, and over time the
designation became a proper name. It was converted to a baseball stadium
when leased by the New York Metropolitans in 1880. The Mets of the
American Association played in what is now referred to as the
"Southwest Diamond" of the polo grounds during the 1883 season.
While this was at the same location as the first polo grounds, it had its
own set of stands and its own diamond separate from the "Southeast
Diamond" of the first polo grounds.
Note: The Southwest Diamond is
referred to as the Polo Grounds II on this website, but many others do
not differentiate between these two parks, which is why we have a Polo
Grounds V and others have nothing higher than a Polo Grounds IV. We
believe we are sacrificing consistency for the sake of accuracy.
The stadium was used jointly by the Giants (then known as the Gothams)
and Metropolitans from 1884 until 1885, and the name stuck for each
subsequent stadium of the Giants. The fifth and final Polo Grounds, which
the Giants used until they moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season,
and which the Mets used until Shea
Stadium was completed in 1964, was the most famous, and the one most
people mean when they refer to the Polo Grounds. It hosted many events
over the years, though never an actual polo match.
Fly
to the site of the Polo Grounds!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of the Polo Grounds. Of course
the stadium is no longer there, but you can see the old
neighborhood. (If you do not have it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
The park was noted for its distinctive bathtub shape, with very short
distances to the left and right field walls, but an unusually deep center
field.
Left field also had an upper deck which extended out over the field
(after its 1923 extension), reducing the distance from 279 feet (85
meters) to about 250 feet (76 meters). That meant it was technically
rather difficult to hit a home run into the lower deck of the left
field stands, unless it was a line drive such as Bobby
Thomson's famous home run in 1951.
Not surprisingly, no fly ball ever reached the 483-foot (147-meter)
distant CF wall which fronted a part of the clubhouse which overhung the
field. Given that overhang, it was not inherently clear what the actual
"home run line" would have been in straightaway center. Some
sources used to list the center field distance as 505, which suggests that
was where the true home run line would have been, at the back of the
clubhouse overhang. But if there were any ground rules governing such a
situation, they never had to be applied.
Chronology
The original Polo Grounds was located at 110th Street and Sixth Avenue
(now Lenox Avenue), just outside the north edge of Central Park and
occupied by buildings for several generations now. The other three were
all located at 155th Street and Eighth Avenue (now Frederick Douglass
Boulevard). The latter site, on which a public housing project now stands,
is overlooked to the north and west by a steep promontory known as
Coogan's Bluff. The ballpark itself was thus in the bottomland, or
Coogan's Hollow. The land remained in the Coogan estate. The Giants were
renters for their entire duration at the ballpark.
Polo Grounds!
A very early view
of the Polo Grounds.
Courtesy
of LCPC
The first two Polo Grounds' were at the same location with two
grandstands. The first (technically Polo Grounds I) was the
"southeast diamond" and the second (technically Polo Grounds II)
was the southwest diamond. The New York Giants and played at the southeast
diamond (Polo Grounds I) from May 1, 1883 to October 13, 1888 while the
Metropolitans (of the American Association) also used the southeast
diamond from July 17, 1884 - October 1, 1885. The original Mets
played also used the southwest diamond (Polo Grounds II) from May
12-October 25, 1883. As the Giants were the more popular team, the Mets
headed elsewhere.
The third Polo Grounds was at the northwest corner of the 155th and
Eighth intersection. Its grandstand had a conventional curve around the
infield, but the shape of the property left 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. After one season alone at that
site, the new Players' League team built their "Brotherhood
Park" directly to the north, bordering the third Polo Grounds and
otherwise bounded by rail yards and the bluff. As with the first two Polo
Grounds, if the teams played on the same day, fans in the upper decks
could watch each others' games, and home run balls hit in one park might
land on the other team's playing field (in fact Mike Tiernan did just that
on May 12, 1890). This amusing situation lasted for just one season, the
Players' League being a one-year wonder, and the Giants moved into the
more spacious neighboring field, taking the "Polo Grounds" name
with them (thus technically Polo Grounds IV). The original ballpark (Polo
Grounds III) was then referred to as "Manhattan Field", and was
converted for other sports such as track-and-field. It still existed as a
structure for nearly 20 more years. Even in the early 1920s, one of Babe
Ruth's deeper blasts was said to have landed "in Manhattan
Field". The field was a vacant lot by then. Some years later, it was
paved over, to serve as a parking lot for the Polo Grounds that we all
think of when we hear the term.
The fourth Polo Grounds burned on April 14 and 15, 1911, with only the
bleachers in the outfield escaping destructions. The fire came just after
renovations were made for the 1911 season. The Yankees allowed their
rivals to play in Hilltop Park
until the new Polo Grounds (Polo Grounds V, if you're keeping score at
home) reopened with concrete (instead of wood) stands in July of 1911.
This final version of the Polo Grounds 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 respectively, but there was a
21 foot overhang in left field, which often intercepted fly balls which
would otherwise have been catchable and turned them into home runs.
Contrasting with the short distances down the lines were the 450 foot
distances in the gaps, with straightaway centerfield 483 feet distant from
home plate; the catch that Willie Mays made in the 1954 World Series
against the Cleveland Indians would likely have been a home run in almost
any other ballpark of the time. Only four players have hit a home run into
the CF bleachers: Luke Easter (when he was in the Negro Leagues), Joe
Adcock, Lou Brock, and Henry Aaron. The bullpens were actually in play, in
the left and right centerfield gaps. The outfield was lower than the
infield, and people in the dugouts often could only see the top half of
the outfielders.
The New York Yankees sublet the Polo Grounds from the Giants during
1913-1922 after their lease on Hilltop Park expired. After the 1922
season, the Yankees built Yankee
Stadium directly across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds, a
situation which spurred the Giants to expand their park to reach a seating
capacity comparable to the Stadium, to stay competitive. However, since
nearly all the new seating was in the outfield, the Stadium still had a
lot more "good" seats than did the Polo Grounds, at least for
baseball. At that point, the Polo Grounds most notably became better
suited for football than it had been previously.
In football, both the New York Giants and New York Titans/Jets used the
Polo Grounds as their home field until moving on to other sites. It was
also used for many games by New York-area college football teams such as
Fordham and Army. It was the site of many famous boxing matches as well,
most notably the legendary 1923 heavyweight championship bout between Jack
Dempsey and Argentine Luis Firpo.
Polo Grounds!
Inside the Polo
Grounds.
Postcard
courtesy of LCPC
On September 14, 1947 the Polo Grounds hosted the final of the All-Ireland
Senior Gaelic Football championship between Cavan and Kerry. This novel
location for the game was chosen for the benefit of New York's large Irish
emigrant population. It was the first, and only, time that the game has
been played outside of Ireland.
FIRSTS
at POLO GROUNDS
Game
06/28/1911
Rustlers (Braves) 0, Giants 3
Umpires
Ralph Frary, Hank O'Day
Managers
John McGraw, Giants
Fred Tenney, Rustlers
Starting Pitchers
Christy Mathewson, Giants
Al Mattern, Rustlers
Ceremonial Pitch
(None)
Attendance
10,000
Batting
Batter
Bill Sweeney (single)
Hit
Bill Sweeney (single)
Run
Larry Doyle
RBI
Larry Doyle
Single
Bill Sweeney
Double
Buck Herzog
Triple
Al Kaiser (06/29/1911)
Home Run
Larry Doyle
Grand Slam
Chief Meyers (06/03/1912)
IPHR
Josh Devore (07/01/1911)
Stolen Base
Bill Sweeney, Doc Miller
(06/29/1911)
Sacrifice Hit
Bill Sweeney
Sacrifice Fly
Christy Mathewson
Cycle
Mike Mitchell (08/19/1911)
Pitching
Win
Christy Mathewson
Loss
Al Mattern
Shutout
Christy Mathewson
Save
N/A
Hit by Pitch
Doc Crandall hit Buck Herzog
(06/29/1911)
Wild Pitch
Al Mattern
Balk
Rube Marquard (07/08/1911)
No-Hitter
Rube Marquard (04/15/1915)
Primary
research by Jim Herdman & David Vincent
Courtesy of Retrosheet.
In Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Giants outfielder Willie Mays made
a sensational catch of a fly ball hit by the Cleveland Indians' Vic Wertz
into deep center field, a catch which in the words of radio announcer Jack
Brickhouse, "Must have looked like an optical illusion to a lot of
people", and which turned the tide of that Series in the Giants'
favor.
After the 1923 remodeling, only four players ever hit a home run into
the center field stands:
Luke Easter in a Negro League game in 1948
Joe Adcock in 1953
Hank Aaron and Lou Brock on consecutive days in 1962.
The final stadium was demolished in 1964, and a public housing project
was erected on the site. The Polo Grounds had once been held in the kind
of fame and esteem that later gravitated to Yankee
Stadium. Unfortunately, the life of the Polo Grounds ended on a couple
of sour notes, first when its beloved Giants abandoned it to move to the
West Coast, and then when the newly-formed and woefully inept Mets
resuscitated it for two seasons before opening Shea
Stadium.
In the 1992 book The
Gospel According to Casey, by Ira Berkow and Jim Kaplan, it is
reported that in 1963, the Mets manager Casey Stengel had this to say to
Tracy Stallard during a rough outing, a pitcher whose greatest claim to
fame had been giving up Roger Maris' 61st homer in 1961: "At the end
of this season, they're gonna tear this joint down. The way you're
pitching, the right field section will be gone already!"
Timeline and teams
Polo Grounds I
Giants (NL), 1883-1888
Mets (American Association), 1883-1885
Polo Grounds II
Mets (American Association), May 12-October 25, 1883
Polo Grounds III (otherwise known as Manhattan Field)
Giants (NL), 1889-1890
Polo Grounds IV (originally called Brotherhood Park)
Giants (Players' League), 1890
Giants (NL), 1891-1911
Polo Grounds V (also known as Brush Stadium in the 1911-1919)
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POLO GROUNDS
Shows the Polo Grounds in 1922 (top) and after the 1923 remodeling (bottom) before lights were installed.
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