ED LUCAS: MLB PLAYOFFS ARE FULL OF MAGICAL MOMENTS, JUST ASK BOBBY THOMSON
The NYGPS final meeting of the calendar year took place October 1st with our keynote speaker Ed Lucas. It was truly an unbelievable and awe inspiring night hearing Ed talk about how baseball robbed him of his eyesight and ultimately gave him a a rich and rewarding life. This event happened 63 years ago to the date right after Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round the World!! We thank the entire Lucas Family and Jay Goldberg, owner of the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse http://www.bergino.com/ for making it such a wonderful night. BTW 15 hearty fans stayed as Madbum threw a complete game shutout of the Bucs. GO GIANTS!!
Our organization is heavily mentioned in this article:
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2014/10/lucas_mlb_playoffs_are_full_of_magical_moments_just_ask_bobby_thompson.html
On Oct. 3, 1951, one of baseball’s greatest moments occurred, just a few miles from Hudson County. No, it did not happen, like so many other fall sports milestones, at Yankee Stadium. Instead, it took place at a ballpark that was demolished 50 years ago, directly across the Harlem River from The House that Ruth Built.
The Polo Grounds, on 155th Street in Harlem, was home to baseball’s New York Giants. In mid-August 1951, the Giants were 13 1/2 games behind their rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. They came back, tying the Dodgers on the last day of the season.
The teams split the first two games of a three-game playoff and then headed to the Polo Grounds for the deciding match. In the bottom of the ninth, with the Giants down by two runs and two men on base, Bobby Thomson stepped to the plate at 3:58 p.m. and hit a walk-off home run to send his team to the World Series. “The Shot Heard ’Round the World” was a fitting conclusion to a miracle season.
The day has special significance to me, not just because I was a rabid Giants fan. I was 12 years old at the time, living in Lafayette Gardens. After Thomson’s homer, I ran out to celebrate with my friends by pitching in a sandlot game. As I threw the ball it was hit back to me at tremendous speed, smashing me right between the eyes.
That scuffed-up white ball with the red stitches spinning in the gloam of a fading Jersey City October sunset, 63 years ago, was the last thing I ever saw.
The Giants lost the 1951 World Series to the Yankees but enjoyed success after that. Thanks to their young superstar, Willie Mays, they won the 1954 World Series. Sadly, three years later they followed the Dodgers to the West Coast, setting up shop in San Francisco. Their old ballpark was completely torn down in 1964.
The San Francisco Giants have advanced to the NLDS this year and will have many passionate fans cheering them on. One group will be following its favorite team picturing an orange “NY” on the cap instead of “SF.”
The New York Giants Preservation Society was founded by Gary Mintz in 2012. For a team that doesn’t exist, the group is quite active. They even have their own website and Facebook page, with fans all over the world sharing memories.
I was invited to speak to a gathering of their club Wednesday night, at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse on East 11th Street in New York City, a great spot for baseball fans to visit, just around the corner from Union Square. It was interesting to hear sounds of recognition from audience members as I talked about my days watching the Giants old farm team in Jersey City and how visits to the Polo Grounds helped me get through the depression after I went blind. Some of these guys have been Giants fans longer than I’ve been alive.
Sid Kryshka, an 83-year-old from Queens, was lucky enough to see Hall of Famers like Lou Gehrig and Carl Hubbel play. His memories of those days are still as sharp as ever.
“My family was full of Yankee fans,” reminisced the witty octogenarian, “I was the black sheep of my tribe, but the Giants were special to me. Willie Mays was the greatest player I ever saw.”
Kryshka was there at Willie’s most famous game but missed the whole thing.
“When Mays made his basket catch in the ’54 Series, I was sitting in left center field. Everyone was standing up, so I couldn’t see a thing. I heard the crowd but didn’t know how amazing the play was until the next day when I saw the pictures in the paper. We didn’t have SportsCenter back then.”
The club isn’t just filled with people who watched the Giants at the Polo Grounds. Some were born long after the team disappeared. Clifton’s Brian Lopinto is only 36 years old but is a big New York sports fan and feels a connection to the days of the past.
“I find it amazing that there’s a group like this, keeping the honor and history of the New York Giants alive,” said Brian, who wore a vintage NY Giants cap for the occasion, “I’m in awe of these people, so I joined their group.”
Lopinto was inspired enough to begin his own passion project, an effort to restore Paterson’s old Hinchliffe Stadium, the site of many Negro League games and home to Hall of Famers like Monte Irvin and Larry Doby.
The Polo Grounds site now sits in the middle of a housing project complex just above Harlem River Drive, adjacent to the Macombs Dam Bridge. For many years, there was a staircase for fans to make the trip from the 8th Avenue subway line down the sharp cliffs of Coogan’s Bluff to the ballpark. It fell into disrepair, but the New York Giants Preservation Society led a successful effort to restore it this year, earning the gratitude of locals who use it as a vital shortcut to get around.
As they walk down that staircase, I hope that some of them reflect on the many thrills that occurred right where they live and even imagine hearing the cheers of thousands of ecstatic Giants fans as Thomson’s ball sailed over the fence that day.
This year might produce some great postseason moments, but for me and countless others, nothing will ever match those of Oct. 3, 1951.