CO-FOUNDER & CO-PRESIDENT OF THE NYGPS STEVE ROTHSCHILD

SPEAKER & FORMER NY GIANTS BATBOY ED LOGAN

SPEAKER & STADIUM CONNOISSEUR FRANK DANIEL

Surprise, Arizona 4/10/13
What better time to have the first West Coast Meeting of the New York Giants Preservation Society Meeting? Yesterday marks 50 years that the last opening day was held at the Polo Grounds.It was not the Giants but the New York Mets.They had their second opening in their history at a stadium filled with history but really neglected.In addition we are only a short while away from the dedication of the John T. Brush Staircase.

Steve Rothschild, Frank Daniel (he was at the Polo Grounds for the final NY Giants Home Game on 9/29/57) and Former Batboy Ed Logan handled the meeting and displayed quite some memorabilia.Frank had some amazing large framed photos from the late 1940s and early 1950s.Ed Logan had some fantastic items as did Steve.

Frank showed us where he was in that famous photo from 9/29/57 with everyone leaving towards the famed clubhouse in CF.Frank was in the photo under the 483′ sign about to remove the sign when a cop told him to get lost!!
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BY KEN BELSON OF THE NY TIMES 4/9/13

Ebbets Field is in the spotlight this year because the long-departed home of the Brooklyn Dodgers is in the centennial of its birth. But this is also a significant month for the Polo Grounds, the other New York home for National League baseball that succumbed to the wrecking ball decades ago.
After all, it was on April 9, 1963, that the Polo Grounds hosted the last opening day in its long history.
The Mets — not the Giants, who left for San Francisco after the 1957 season — were the home team that day, 50 years ago. And the Mets were reluctant tenants. They had hoped to move into Shea Stadium at the start of that season, their second in the major leagues, but delays in the construction of Shea forced the team to play an extra year in Upper Manhattan.
By then, the final incarnation of the Polo Grounds, which opened in 1911, was on its last legs. There was limited parking, the locker rooms were cramped and the concession stands outdated. Maintenance and restoration work had all but ceased.
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You can never get enough of looking at these two pictures!!

These are the three known calls of the most famous home run in MLB history. Thanks to Joshua Prager for having all 3 on his website and sharing them for all to enjoy. Everyone has heard the Hodges… call, a few the McLendon call, but I believe very few the Red Barber call. Enjoy!!
http://www.joshuaprager.com/books/echoing-green/audio-book/
More on the calls at wikipedia:

Several television and radio[14] broadcasters captured the moment for baseball fans in the New York City area and nationwide.[15] Some sources claim additional radio broadcasts were done by Al Helfer for the Mutual network, by Buck Canel and Felo Ramírez for a Spanish language network, and by Nat Allbright in a studio re-creation for the Dodgers’ secondary network in the South. Harry Caray was in the Giants’ radio booth with Hodges and may have also participated in the broadcast.[16][17]
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BY TOM EDWARDS
Found this at Sports Collectors Digest @
http://www.SPORTSCOLLECTORSDIGEST.COM

Thanks to NYGPS member Keith Remland for spotting it!!
Looks like a great site for collectors!! Happy Passover & Easter to you all!!

My interest in baseball memorabilia began shortly after a visit to Ebbets Field to see my hometown Brooklyn Dodgers play the Milwaukee Braves. Watching a team with rookie manager Walter Alston and players such as Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider and Gil Hodges made it easy to become a fan of the game.
In those days, my collection consisted of baseball cards, yearbooks and magazines. Over the years, I have enjoyed adding tobacco cards, press pins, autographed baseballs, bats, lithographs, books, postcards and seats to my collection.
Of those, I would put the seats at the top of the list of memorabilia that provides the biggest fun factor. Having spent a lot of my youth at Ebbets Field, Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, I set a goal years ago of adding seats from those classic ballparks to my collection.
In the 1980s, I saw an ad in a memorabilia publication for a row of three seats from the Polo Grounds. The owner lived about two hours from where my wife and I lived at the time, so we drove up to take a look. After a very brief negotiation, it was a done deal. One park down, two to go. Although I had those seats from the home of the New York Giants, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to add a row of four floor standing seats with the N.Y. logo on both ends, so that row was added to our sports room.
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Found this great article from some years back by Allan Barra that appeared in Sports Illustrated. Spoke to the artist Thom Ross and suggested he contact NYC Parks Department to get his work displayed at the redidcation of the Brush Stairway. Enjoy!!

-It has been said that baseball is the only thread that ties America together over three centuries. If so, as artist Thom Ross has discovered, it is a slender and fragile thread.

Ross, who lives in Seattle, came to New York five years ago to commemorate the most famous defensive play in baseball history, on its 50th anniversary. As every baseball fan knows, on Sept. 29, 1954, in Game 1 of the World Series, the Cleveland Indians’ Vic Wertz slammed a ball deep into the Polo Grounds center field, traveling an estimated 450-460 feet from home plate. There it landed in the glove of the Giants’ young phenom Willie Mays, who, running furiously with his back to home plate, caught the ball, wheeled around and fired it back into the infield to complete a play that, in the words of Birmingham News sports editor Alf Van Hoose (who had covered Mays since he played for the Birmingham Black Barons), “you had to see not to believe.”

It may have been true, as Mays later insisted, that he made better catches during his career, but no one has ever argued that no greater play has been made in all of World Series history.
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New York Giants Preservation Society Meeting (Surprise, AZ)
New York Giants Preservation Society Meeting
9:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Sun City Grand Chaparral Center (Pima Room)
19781 N. Remington Drive, Surprise, AZ 85374

Unlike the San Francisco Giants move from New York, the New York Giants Preservation Society remains physically entrenched in New York. On April 10, 2013, however, we are heading west … sort of. Co-President Steven Rothschild has scheduled a meeting in Surprise, Arizona, on April 10, 2013. It should be a terrific time for all.

Come meet Eddie Logan, 1957 Giants batboy whose father and grandfather were both clubhouse managers for the Giants at the Polo Grounds, and Frank Daniel, a ballparks expert who attended the final game at the Polo Grounds.

Our previous two meetings with Joshua Prager and the World Series Trophy Tour in NY were terrific events. Hope to see you there!-Steve

Our 2nd meeting of the year will take place on April 23rd at Berginos Baseball Clubhouse (67 East 11 Street New York, NY 10003 (212) 226-7150, at 6:30PM. This is a Tuesday Night. I am pleased to announce th…at Dr. Lawrence Hogan will be our guest speaker. He has penned SO MANY SEASONS IN THE SUN: A Century and More of Conversation with Baseball’s Greatest Clubhouse Managers. Books will be available to be purchased and signed. If you are interested in attending and are not on my regular email list, please RSVP ASAP. Last day to respond is by March 23. Should be a wonderful and entertaining evening. Come early and check out the Clubhouse for great baseball gifts and hobnob (Wizard of Oz all over the place these days!) with other NYGPS members.

by: Brandon Loomis The Republic | azcentral.com

By day, the lights are about the least obvious visual attractions at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. But what else around the Cactus League shouts louder about ba…seball’s hopeless devotion to the past?

The rusty sandstone buttes of Papago Park loom large beyond the outfield, and a perfectly groomed lawn is center stage on game days. The posts that raise the lights 100 feet above the playing field have shined down on all of this and much more.

The park, built in 1964 and updated twice since, is the oldest active home to Arizona’s spring-training circuit, now that Tucson’s Hi Corbett Field is no longer in the mix. But as anyone walking the concourse behind the stands along the third-base line may have read in a concrete inscription added a decade ago, it’s those 10 tall, steel cylinders that really speak to the good old days.

Willie Mays watched his drive float past them when he hit the park’s first home run. But even that wasn’t the beginning.
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The Hall of Fame in Cooperstown will be honoring the San Francico Giants Organization, and it NY roots, the weekend of June 22 and June 23rd. Throughout the weekend Giants fans can learn abo…ut the history of the Giants through guided tours and memorabilia. The Hall will also offer a special live video conference tour of AT&T Park. To top it off the 2012 World Series Trophy will be available for picture taking both days. I have called the Hall of Fame for verification and they told me a formal program release will be out shortly and I will post it as soon as available. Thanks to NYGPS member Paul Kocak and his friend Dennis for the tip. Sounds like a wonderful weekend!!