http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/giant-memories_b_6052520.html

Peter Dreier

The San Francisco Giants are once again in the World Series. I’ve been watching the games on TV, but I’m not rooting for them. As a kid, I was shattered when my team, the New York Giants, moved to the Bay Area in 1958. I felt betrayed. It must have been similar to what children feel when their parents divorce. This wasn’t the way that adults were supposed to act.

In their early years on the West Coast, the Giants had some outstanding players — Willie Mays (who had played for the team in New York) as well as Juan Marichal, Felipe Alou, Orlando Cepeda, and Willie McCovey. But the Giants left my heart in New York, not San Francisco. I would never again cheer for the Giants.

My memories about the New York Giants were rekindled this week, not only by the World Series, but also by a photograph that my teenage daughter discovered while she was rummaging through miscellaneous files and boxes in our house. It was an 8 ½ by 11 glossy photo of a one-time major league pitcher in a New York Giants uniform, posing as though he had just completed his follow through.

In the upper right hand corner is a fading but still legible autograph written with a dark black pen:

“To Peter Dreier (a future major leaguer) Your friend, Johnny Antonelli” Continue reading →

Charlie Mead an outfielder for the NY Giants has passed. (Thanks to NYGPS Member Perry Barber for the info!) Mead played for the Giants from 1943-1945. There are now only 26 remaining Giants who played in NY.

By Andrew Hendriks
http://www.canadianbaseballnetwork.com/articles/remembering-charlie-mead/
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Charlie Mead of Vermillion, Alta., was one players responsible for keeping baseball alive during the second great war. Signed by the Detroit Tigers he began his pro career with the in 1940 with class-C Hot Springs Bathers and class-C Henderson Oilers. He spent 1941 with class-C Texarkana Twins and the next year with class-B Winston-Salem Twins. He signed with the New York Giants in 1943 and spent 97 games at double-A Jersey City Giants before getting the call.
Suiting up for the New York Giants, Mead appeared in 87 games between the years of 1943 and 1945, belting a total of three home runs and hitting .245 while patrolling the outfield at the famed Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan. He made his debut Aug. 28, 1943 making 34 starts at age 22, going hitless as Van Mungo pitched the Giants to a 12-0 win over the Boston Braves and Red Barrett. Mead had his first hit in the majors of Whitlow Wyatt in a 4-1 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers. His first homer came Sept. 28 when he took Ray Starr deep in a 5-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field. He made the second most starts behind Hall of Famer Mel Ott, the Giants playing manager in right field and three more in centre. On the season he hit .274 with one homer and 13 RBIs in 37 games.
The next year in 1944, he hit .179 with one homer and eight RBIs in 39 games. Mead went deep against Freddy Schmidt in a 10-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in a 10-6 loss and knocked in a pair in a 5-4 win over the Boston Braves. He made 11 starts in left, four in right and three in centre. His third career homer game in 1945 when he homered against Lefty Wallace in a 7-3 loss to the Boston Braves. He batted .270 with one homer and six RBIs in 11 games, as he started 10 times in right. When the troops returned home following an ally victory in 1945, many of the reserve ballplayers were given their release, opting to return to the minors or finding other post-baseball careers outside of the game. Mead, who was a mere 24 years old by the end of the 1945 season, decided to continue his career as a professional, signing on with the unaffiliated Vancouver Capilanos of the Class B Western International League, where he would become a star over the course of the next six seasons, helping the Caps take home league titles in 1947 and 1949 respectively. Continue reading →

Giants win 8th World Championship as a franchise!!

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.
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TWENTY-SEVEN MEMBERS OF THE NY GIANTS REMAIN

FROM WIKIPEDIA: George Elwell Spencer (July 7, 1926 – September 10, 2014) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball. A right-hander, he was primarily a relief pitcher for the New York Giants and the Detroit Tigers.[1] Spencer stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 215 pounds (98 kg).

A graduate of Bexley High School in Columbus and The Ohio State University, where he played quarterback on the OSU varsity football team,[2][3] Spencer was a key member of the 1951 Giants’ pitching staff, leading the club in saves and winning ten of 14 decisions, including a key August start over the front-running Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants would famously overcome a 13½-game, mid-August deficit to tie Brooklyn on the season’s final day, then defeated the Dodgers for the National League pennant on Bobby Thomson’s historic Game 3 home run.

THE TWENTY-SEVEN SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE NY GIANTS
■Joey Amalfitano 1954-55 B:1/23/1934
■Johnny Antonelli 1954-57 B: 4/12/1930
■Jackie Brandt 1956 B: 4/28/1934
■Ed Bressoud 1956-57 B: 5/2/1932
■Pete Burnside 1955, 1957 B: 7/2/1930
■Foster Castleman 1954-57 B: 1/1/1931
■Gil Coan 1955 B: 5/18/1922
■Ray Crone 1957 B: 8/7/1931
■Alvin Dark 1950-56 B: 1/7/1922
■Joe Garagiola 1954 B: 2/12/1926
■Billy Gardner 1954-55 B: 7/19/1927
■Harvey Gentry 1954 B: 5/27/1926
■Monte Irvin 1949-55 B: 2/25/1919
■Joe Margoneri 1956-57 B: 1/13/1930
■Willie Mays 1951-52, 1954-57 B: 5/6/1931
■Windy McCall 1954-57 B: 7/18/1925
■Mike McCormick 1956-57 B: 9/28/1938
■Charlie Mead 1943-45 B: 4/29/1921
■Stu Miller 1957 B: 12/26/1927
■Ron Samford 1954 B: 2/28/1930
■Red Schoendienst 1956-57 B: 2/2/1923
■Daryl Spencer 1952-53, 1956-57 B: 7/13/1929
■Wayne Terwilliger 1955-56 B: 6/27/1925
■Ozzie Virgil 1956-57 B: 5/17/1933
■Bill White 1956 B: 1/28/1934
■Al Worthington 1953-54, 1956-57 B: 2/5/1929
■Roy Wright 1956 B: 9/26/1933
Monte Irvin is the oldest living member of the New York Giants (95), while Mike McCormick turns 76 next week and is the youngest.

By: Paul Post
NEW YORK — John Thorn’s memory is quite sharp, especially when it comes to recalling his first big league ballgame, a 1956 contest between the Giants and Dodgers at the Polo Grounds.

That’s why Major League Baseball’s official historian is so pleased by the restoration and reopening of the John T. Brush Stairway, near the once-hallowed ballpark site.
The steps, which begin atop fabled Coogan’s Bluff, above the site where the Polo Grounds stood, are among the last visible reminders of the Giants’ proud legacy in New York, which includes their 1954 World Series championship, 60 years ago this fall, best remembered for Willie Mays’ dramatic Game 1 play known simply as “The Catch.”
“The symbolic value of this project is enormous,” Thorn said. “It connects the fan to a great deal of baseball history even beyond the New York Giants. That ballpark was the palace for fans in New York in the early 20th century. Remember, Yankee Stadium didn’t open until 1923. Ballparks are repositories of memories. That’s where we congregated. Ballparks do it better than any other structure.”
Brush was an early Giants owner who died in 1912. Harry N. Hempstead, Brush’s son-in-law who followed as Giants owner, had the stairway built and presented it to the city during a ceremony on July 9, 1913.
For the next half-century, the stairs carried countless fans from Edgecombe Avenue down to ticket windows behind home plate. However, the Polo Grounds was razed in 1964, one year after the Mets left upper Manhattan for Shea Stadium, their new home in Queens. Continue reading →

Our final NYGPS Meeting of 2014 will take place on October 1, 2014, at our “home base” the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse with our guest speaker being the incomparable Ed Lucas. Ed has a legendary career in baseball as a sportswriter, broadcaster, and motivational speaker. Ed lost his sight at 12 years of age after viewing the Giants/ Dodgers “Shot Heard ‘Round the World Game. Soon after the game ended, a jubilant Ed went to play baseball with his friends. While delivering a pitch, he was struck right between the eyes and lost his sight forever. This didn’t deter him, as he, with the help of his friend Phil Rizzuto, pursued a career in the game he loved and loves to this day. Ed told me about the friendships he forged with Willie Mays, Bobby Thomson, Monte Irvin, Russ Hodges, Bob Lurie, and others. Hodges in fact bought Ed his first Seeing-Eye dog!! Ed later became the only person to get married at home plate at Yankee Stadium!! Today, his Ed Lucas Foundation offers direct support to individuals who are blind/visually impaired, as well as those with disabilities that are determined to be of financial need. Join us for this most memorable of evening!! Please RSVP ASAP!! Thanks as always to the great Jay Goldberg for “lending” us his beautiful baseball boutique for all of our NYGPS meetings. Here is the link to Jay’s place for the perfect baseball gift!!
http://www.bergino.com/

Here are some great links about Ed and his Foundation:

http://edlucasfoundation.org/

http://www.edlucas.org/video.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Lucas

THE GIANTS, METS, JETS, YANKEES AND BASEBALL GIANTS CHIPPED IN HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO HELP GET IT BUILT
BY FRANK GREEN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, August 5, 2014, 6:32 PM

A legendary flight of stairs has been re-born, thanks to a years-long campaign spearheaded by the Daily News.
The baseball and football Giants joined the Yankees, Mets, Jets and Major League Baseball, along with former Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, now the city controller, to contribute a combined $950,000 to fix the long-decayed John T. Brush Stairway in Highbridge Park.
For 50 years, the stairs carried fans of the five city sports teams to and from the Polo Grounds in Harlem, until they finally rusted away in the years following the stadium’s demolition, in 1964.
Brush was the owner of the Giants baseball team from 1890 until his death in 1912, the year before the team opened the staircase.

Now, 101 years after the New York baseball Giants built and donated them to the city, the stairs are open again to carry people 80 steps from Coogan’s Bluff on Edgecombe Ave. down to the Harlem River Driveway.

Melody Williams, 48, who grew up in the Polo Grounds housing development where the old horseshoe used to stand, was excited about the new construction, which includes fresh landscaping and several new tables at the stairway’s base.
“I might go take a picnic, you never know,” said Christian Lloyd Joseph, 41, a boxer who lives in the neighborhood. “It makes it way easier,” he added of navigating the famously hilly neighborhood.
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A great night was had by all as Hall of Fame Baseball scribe Bill Madden spoke in length about his book 1954 at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse in lower Manhattan. Mr. Madden discussed in length the 1954 Giants with baseball integration at the heart of the book. He mentioned that no book had been written about that season and he was spurred on to write it by his good friend Terry Cashman who is of course the singer/songwriter who penned the baseball classics Talkin’ Baseball and The Catch among others.
Mr. Madden told the audience that he gathered much of his material by speaking to mostly Monte Irvin and Al Rosen. He also spoke in length to Willie Mays and Dusty Rhodes. Mr. Madden then signed his book for many of the NYGPS members in attendance. A Photo Album is available on our Yahoo Page. Here is the link to last nights podcast. A great listen!!

http://berginobaseballclubhouse.podbean.com/e/ny-giants-preservation-society-presents-1954-with-bill-madden/

Thanks go out to Bill Madden and his wife Lillian for making the evening so special. Also a shout out t our most gracious host Jay Goldberg, owner of the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse. If you need any baseball gifts for upcoming graduation gifts, Jay is the guy to contact.

         
My dad was Louis Mintz.  Family man, librarian at the NY Public Library for over 40 years, father, Giants Fan.  Not a day goes by when I don’t think of him.  He was always upbeat with an infectious smile that stayed with him even as cancer ravaged his body.  Nobody ever said a bad word about him, the testament to his greatness.  He loved my mom, loved his 3 boys, and worshipped the ground of his 3 granddaughters (his girlies, my daughters) and his grandson.
          Then there were the Giants.  His love of the NY Giants somehow continued when the orange and black moved to San Francisco.  I, wanting to be like him, started following the SF Giants in 1969.  Up until 2010, I claimed it was the only wrong thing my father ever did.  That all changed of course when Nelson Cruz swung and missed on a Brian Wilson pitch on November 1, 2010.  It was the most compelling moment of my sports life as a fan.  Forty-two years I waited, forty-two years!!  In one night, all the hurt and pain was suddenly gone.  Then viola!! The Giants stun the baseball world by winning it all again in 2012. Two World Championships in 3 years!! UNBELIEVABLE!! My only remorse is that “Sweet Lou” wasn’t around to savor it with me as he passed in 2003.  I wish we could have talked about it, laughed about it and reminisced about it.  When the World Series Trophy Tour stopped in Manhattan in January 2011 & again in January 2013, he surely would have treasured the moments as I did with my wife and my daughters.  To think he would have met and shook hands with his idol Willie Mays.  What a story that would have been!!
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