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!!!!!

Our third meeting of the year will be held on July 17, at 6:30PM, at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse. Our guest speaker will be Robert Murphy, who authored the book, After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball.

The book has recently come out in paperback. Mr. Murphy will be chatting with us about his wonderful book and the reasons behind the two NY teams leaving for the West Coast. The book will be available for purchase and autographing as well.

Thanks in advance to Robert Murphy!!

Please RSVP ASAP if you plan on attending, or even if you don’t plan on it. I will give Jay Goldberg our numbers by July 1st, so in essence that is the deadline. This way Jay can invite people from his email list as well. If you tell me you are coming and then change your plans, please have the courtesy to inform me as early as possible as it isn’t fair to those who might have wanted to attend but couldn’t because of space issues. Remember the Clubhouse is not a tremendously large venue.

Finally, if you can email me your RSVP on a separate email, I would appreciate it.

Once again thanks to Jay, the owner of the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse for allowing us to have his meeting there. Please support him if you need a special “Baseball “gift.

http://www.bergino.com/

Happy Father’s Day to all who are Dads!!-Gary Mintz

Those interested in next weekend Giants Theme Weekend, here is the schedule for
Saturday & Sunday. Thanks to Steven Light from the Hall of Fame for providing
this information.

Schedule of Programs for Saturday and Sunday are the same unless noted:

9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Giants 2012 World Series Trophy
(3rd Floor, Baseball Card Exhibit)
The 2012 World Series trophy will be on display and museum visitors will have
the chance to take photographs commemorating the experience.

10:30 am – A Guided Tour through Giants Baseball History
(Membership & Museum Services Desk, 1st Floor)
Join a Hall of Fame staff member on a 40-minute guided tour of the museum
focused on the storied Giants franchise. Fans of the current San Francisco
Giants and of the legendary New York Giants of yesteryear will enjoy seeing team
highlights on display throughout the museum.

11:00 am – 1:00 pm –Make Your Own Panda Mask
(Learning Center, 1st Floor)
Children and families are encouraged to stop by the LearningCenter for our craft
station. Inspired by Pablo Sandoval, make your own panda mask and wear it
proudly!

1:00 pm – Authors Series – So Many Seasons in the Sun (SATURDAY ONLY)
(Bullpen Theater, 1st Floor)
Author Larry Hogan drops by the Hall of Fame to discuss his new book, So Many
Seasons in the Sun: A Century and More of Conversation with Baseball’s Greatest
Clubhouse Managers. A book signing will immediately follow the program outside
of the Bullpen Theater. The book is available for purchase in the museum’s
bookstore.
Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL J. FEENEY / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
One wants a street near legendary center fielder’s old home. Another wants a highway service road near where the old Polo Grounds used to stand.
Thanks to NYGPS Member Greg Prince for finding this!!

Somehow, an easy can of corn has become a political hot potato in Harlem. There are currently two completely different proposals before the City Council to co-name a street for legendary New York Giants slugger Willie Mays — one at the 82-year-old Hall of Famer’s St. Nicholas Pl. home and the other on a highway service road near the Polo Grounds. Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez favors the service road location, but found himself stranded at third when Councilman Robert Jackson later pushed the 80 St. Nicholas Pl. location because, as he put it, “Willie Mays did not live on that service road.” And the baseball giant’s son knows which proposal is the better one: “It’s historically correct that he lived on St. Nicholas Pl.,” said Michael Mays, 54. “That would be the proper place (to honor him).” Under Jackson’s plan, the stretch between W. 153rd and W. 155th Sts. would be co-named “Willie Mays Place.” The other location — which would be called “Willie Mays Drive” — is located along a Harlem River Drive service road starting at Edgecombe Ave. and W. 155th St. Michael Mays said he was not sure why the service road was even suggested. “I don’t know what it has to do with anything. I don’t really know where that idea came from,” the Washington Heights resident said, referring to the desolate service road. That location was initially approved by Community Board 10 in 2008, but it has been stalled. Jackson and Michael Mays now hope to get the name change approved before Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, which will be played at Citi Field on July 16. Rodriguez issued a statement late Tuesday trying to toss a tarp over the controversy, saying both locations should be named for Mays.

Sat, 22 Jun, 2013 – Sun, 23 Jun, 2013

Celebrate the World Champion San Francisco Giants at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. June is Giants’ month at the Hall, and on Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, June 23 the Hall of Fame will celebrate the rich history of the Giants organization and their 2012 World Series Championship. Throughout the day visitors can learn about the history of the Giants through guided tours and artifact spotlights. Trivia contests and craft stations will round out the program offerings. As a special treat, the 2012 World Series trophy will be on display for photo opportunities on both days. On Saturday, June 22, the Hall of Fame will welcome author Larry Hogan to talk about his new book, So Many Seasons in the Sun: A Century of Conversations with Baseball’s Greatest Clubhouse Managers.
This from the Hall of Fame website:
For the second time in three years, a green summer will turn orange with Giants fans as the World Series trophy visits the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. The San Francisco Giants’ 2012 World Series trophy will be on exhibit at the Museum June 22-23 as part of Giants Weekend and a celebration of the Hall of Fame’s Autumn Glory exhibit.The Giants made history with their first World Series championship in San Francisco in 2010. Their predecessors, the New York Giants, had already achieved mythical status as one of the powerhouse teams of the first century of play in the National League – winning five World Series crowns before moving to the City by the Bay in 1958.
Continue reading →