Appears to be a great new read from author Joe Konte. (Thanks to NYGPS Member Barry M. for the find) Brian Wilson’s signing with the Bums will only add to the fire. Here is the synopsis from Amazon.com:
Games between the Dodgers and Giants are never just another day at the ballpark. Dating back to the late nineteenth century—when the teams embodied the competitive spirit of rival metropolises of New York and Brooklyn—the Giants-Dodgers rivalry gained intensity throughout the early twentieth century. The cheering and jeering continued unabated until 1957, when the clubs backed the moving vans up to the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field, and took their rivalry to new venues in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Indeed, Brooklyn–New York baseball was a tough act to follow, but the West Coast version didn’t take long to fire up the emotions. Only six games into the first West Coast season, the clubs had their first beanball dustup. The venue had changed but the venom remained, and the rivalry became author Joe Konte’s obsession. Fifty-five years ago, he attended one of the first Giants-Dodgers games ever played outside of New York. A longtime newspaper editor and baseball fiend, Konte understands what is so special about what is one of the most significant rivalries in American sports. And so—via statistical analysis, game summaries, roster scrutiny, manager matchups, season recaps, and more—he has put together a rivalry bible. Focusing primarily on the California years, but also providing background on the origins and the New York years, The Rivalry Heard ’Round the World captures the spirit and intensity of one of the greatest rivalries in American sports.

Thanks to NYGPS Member and Mets Blogger Extraordinaire Greg Prince

for posting this.

New book on the NYG Hall of Famer by David King.

Description:
Though Ross Youngs has been enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame since 1972, few have given his remarkable career its due. Born in Shiner and raised in San Antonio, Youngs played his first game as a professional at the age of sixteen, and just three years later, his contract was purchased by the New York Giants, one of baseball’s elite teams in the early twentieth century. Tragically, his promising career ended when he died from an illness at age thirty in 1927. Join author David King in a journey to discover the amazing Youngs as he was and the incredible legacy he left behind. Visit our Facebook page for ordering details!!

Found this on the net!!The Hall of Fame career of Mays starts with this letter.

Posted: Wednesday, 07/17/13
THE TRENTONAIN
By Jay Dunn
jdunn@trentonian.com

Fred Snodgrass, Hack Wilson, Mickey Owens and Bill Buckner were all good ball players. Yet every one of them had the misfortune to misplay a ball at a critical moment in a World Series game. No matter how good they were, their critical misplays will always be part of their legacies.
In baseball parlance, such players are called goats.Curiously enough, however, none of them would rank at the top of anyone’s list of being the most notorious goat of all time. Not even close.
A player named Fred Merkle put himself at the top of baseball’s all-time goat list in 1908. In the past 105 years no one has challenged his status.
Unlike the other famous gaffes, Merkle’s defining moment did not come in a World Series, and it did not involve a misplayed ball. It involved a base running mistake that actually was quite common in his era.
Merkle was the runner on first base when teammate Al Bridwell delivered what appeared to be a game-winning hit, scoring a runner from third, in a crucial September game. All Merkle had to do was run down to second and tag the base, but instead he ran straight to the clubhouse. That mistake cost his team, the New York Giants, the 1908 National League pennant.
Merkle was a teenager and seldom-used reserve on that team. He started at first base for the only time all year Sept. 23 when the Giants hosted the Chicago Cubs in a critical afternoon game. The teams were in a virtual tie for first place, and each led the third-place Pittsburgh Pirates by only one game.
To fully understand what happened that day, there are some facts you need to know.
The game was played in the Polo Grounds, an oval-shaped ballpark with a very deep center field and both clubhouses positioned beyond the centerfield wall. The moment a game ended it was traditional that the spectators were allowed to run onto the field while the players made a desperate dash for those clubhouses. Understand, also, that in 1908 every manager was his own third-base coach. The first-base coach was a player not in the lineup, usually a pitcher. On this day Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity was coaching first for the Giants. Continue reading →

JAY GOLDBERG AND ROBERT MURPHY

Another classic night at the Clubhouse—-Bergino Baseball Clubhouse at 67 East 11th Street in the East Village. Owner Jay Goldberg was again a most gracious host supplying cold beer and water for the crowd that attended the Robert Murphy book talk regarding his, AFTER MANY A SUMMER.

Murphy spoke for quite a while on the Legend of Horace Stoneham. Although Stoneham was a much more stoic figure than O’Malley, never the less there was still much information for all of us in attendance to swallow…This topic from 1957 and the years leading up to the departure of the two storied franchises from NYC will never go away. More and more information continues to come out and with the internet we can find out so much.

Murphy was able to sell a number of books and signed them as well. .Some people already had the book and brought it for him to sign. He was most gracious in doing so and fielded numerous questions after his lengthy presentation. Many of the audience were senior members and added to what Murphy needed to fill in which delighted him for sure.

Senior NYGPS Member Perry Barber, who was in attendance, presented Murphy with a shirt bearing the logo of his book.. (See photo).He was very happy with that gift as well as a NY Giants mini-desk batting helmet which were both given on behalf of the NY Giants Preservation Society. As usual Gary organized this event and did a short talk promoting the organization which is still in its infant stage but growing in leaps and bounds.

I am so glad that I could make this meeting and share some stories about this historic topic of the evening. (having come in from Arizona)

Steve Rothschild

BY ROBERT DOMINGUEZ / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Thursday, July 18, 2013, 5:21 PM

It was the all-star game few baseball fans witnessed, and fewer today know it was ever played at all. Fifty years ago, on a warm and sunny autumn afternoon in New York, two teams comprised of Latino players from the Major Leagues squared off at the Polo Grounds for an exhibition game billed as a charity event to benefit a new Latin American Hall of Fame. Held on Oct. 12, 1963 – a week after the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the New York Yankees in the World Series – it would be the last baseball game ever played at the ramshackle Polo Grounds, which had housed the expansion Mets in their first two seasons while Shea Stadium was being built in Queens. It was also the first – and only – time baseball’s Latino players would be squarely in the spotlight, especially in an era when a Spanish surname was still a rarity in the Major Leagues. “It was historic,” says Juan Marichal, the Dominican Republic-born star pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
“There was a lot of emotion among all the players, and you could tell the fans were excited about it, too.”
Too bad there weren’t all that many in the stands. Unlike the televised, three-day hoopla surrounding next week’s All-Star game at the Mets’ Citi Field, this all-star tilt was played in near anonymity. An official crowd numbering just 14,235 – the Polo Grounds fit 56,000 – saw players from the American League pitted against their counterparts from the National League.

STAIRWAY BUILT BY PRO SPORTS 100 YEARS AGO IS BEING REBUILT BY PRO SPORTS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013, 4:05 AM

One hundred years ago, at 2 p.m. on July 9, 1913, the New York Giants baseball team donated to the city an 80-step stairway that millions of New Yorkers used to reach the Polo Grounds from a bluff that rose above the playing field and stands.
The Seventh Regiment Band played as the Giants passed title to “The John T. Brush Stairway,” named in honor of the team’s late owner, who had died seven months earlier. The passageway is today the last artifact of the stadium where so much New York sports history was made.
The Giants played at the Polo Grounds until moving in 1957 to San Francisco. Bobby Thomson hit his 1951 shot heard ’round the world there. In the 1954 World Series, the greatest Giant of all, Willie Mays, made “The Catch” there, on the run, over his shoulder, with graceful ease.
For a decade after 1913, the city’s American League club played in the Polo Grounds and took the name “Yankees.” The football Giants were born there in 1925 and played 30 seasons. The Jets (then the Titans) started there in 1960 and the Mets made their debut there in 1962. Continue reading →

NY POST-JULY 2, 2013
By YOAV GONEN
Willie Mays hit 523 doubles in his Hall of Fame career. Forty years into retirement, he just got another.

The city is naming two streets in honor of the New York and San Francisco Giant legend, who’s now 82.

Mayor Bloomberg signed legislation yesterday creating Willie Mays Place on St. Nicholas Place from 153rd to 155th streets, not far from the Say Hey Kid’s old home.

The bill, which co-named 52 streets citywide, also created Willie Mays Drive on Harlem River Driveway from 155th to 163rd — near the Giants’ old stadium, the Polo Grounds.

Giants Weekend in Cooperstown was wonderful. Fans got to take photos with the trophy, albeit not close enough!! Stephen Light, of the Hall of Fame, gave all Giants fans a tour of the Giants memorabilia from the Giants inception to their World Series victory in 2012. NYGPS Members Ed Logan and Lawrence Hogan spoke abut Dr. Hogan’s book, So Many Seasons in the Sun.. Highlight of the trip was former batboys Ed Logan and Rich McCabe reuniting after 58 years!!!!!