Now a housing complex, the stadium that once stood on 155th Street was home to the New York Giants baseball team — and an MLB legend.
By Nikki M. Mascali
Published : June 02, 2017 | Updated : June 02, 2017
http://www.metro.us/…/revitalizing-harlems-historic-polo-gr…
The history of Harlem is so vast, it could be the city’s sixth borough, but sadly over time, many of its once-notable areas have disappeared, replaced by endless skyscrapers or long forgotten altogether.
Such is the case of the former Polo Grounds, a stadium that was on 155th Street in Harlem and was home to MLB’s New York Giants from 1883 to 1957, before the team moved to San Francisco in 1958.
In what was known as “The Bathtub” for its unique shape, Bobby Thomson made his game-winning “shot heard ’round the world” against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951, and Willie Mays made “the catch” in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.
In an effort to remind New Yorkers of that storied MLB lore while also revitalizing portions of the landscape that was demolished in 1964 to make way for the Polo Grounds Towers and Rangel Houses complexes, hundreds gathered Thursday under the 155th Street Viaduct to take part in Pernod Ricard’s annual Responsib’all Day.
For the second year in a row, the global beverage company partnered with environmental nonprofit EarthShare and the New York Restoration Project to revitalize several acres of land for the more than 7,000 residents living in nearby public housing.
“I live about 10 blocks from here, and it’s kind of isolated from the rest of Harlem,” state Sen. Marisol Alcantara said. “One in seven kids has asthma in this area, and there is not a lot of green space. What you’re doing today is going to make a difference in many kids’ lives.”
Among the work included in the daylong project was clearing vegetation on the complex property, planting wildflowers, assisting with a neighborhood garden and working in nearby Highbridge Park, where Responsib’all Day took place last year.
“This has been a dumping ground for 30 years. I hope this is the beginning of a destination,” Barbara Williams, president of the resident association at the Polo Grounds Towers, added.
For many diehard Giants fans, like those in the New York Giants Preservation Society, the site has always been a destination.
“I’m a San Francisco Giants baseball fan, but I live in New York. Willie Mays was my idol, and Willie’s origins are here,” member Paul Ellis-Graham said.
“It’s a storied history, a storied franchise, and we want people to not forget that there was a team here,” added Gary Mintz, the society’s president, who began the organization in 2011 to honor his father, a longtime Giants fan.
Though the main portion of The Bathtub is long gone, little reminders do exist, like the John T. Brush Stairway. Built in 1913 and named after the man who owned the Giants from 1890 until his death in 1912, the stairway still leads down into the Polo Grounds Towers property from Coogan’s Bluff. It was restored in 2014 using donations from the NFL’s New York Giants and Jets and the MLB, Yankees, Mets and San Francisco Giants.
On one of the Polo Ground Towers buildings is a faded sign that reads, “This development was built on the location that Willie Mays and the Giants made famous.” A little further into the complex on another building is a weathered bronze plaque that commemorates where home plate used to be — and serves as a reminder that the Giants shared the field with the Mets and Yankees for several years as well.
“New York doesn’t really celebrate the history of this city enough, but this needs to be preserved,” Mintz said. “But today is not about baseball, it’s about restoring neighborhood pride.”
To watch a video about the Pernod Ricard’s and NYRP’s work at the Polo Grounds site as part of its Responsib’all Day, click here.

June 2, 2017

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — On the corner of 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem there’s now a big housing development, but it used to be a ballpark.
The Polo Grounds were home of the New York Giants baseball team.
“The Giants left town September 29, 1957. It’s embedded in my heard. I was at that game,” Carmine Magazine remembers.
He is now 76 years old. You have to be an older American to remember.
“In 1954, I started to go to the Polo Grounds,” says Larry Hans. “I was 11 years old. I always thought they’d just come back.”
They are members of the New York Giants Preservation Society. It’s run by Gary Mintz, who never made it to the Polo Grounds.
He was born four years after the Giants moved to San Francisco. But he has remained a New York Giants fan, because his dad was one and it helps keep the memory of their relationship alive. He says his dad was his best friend.
Members of the group helped in a cleanup effort around the area of the Polo Grounds, which hasn’t been kept up as well as it might have.
The Pernod Richard liquor group allowed 300 of their employees to take a day off of work on June 1 to come to the area around 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard to take part in the day, which was also sponsored by the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and the nonprofit ground Earthshare.
It’s hoped that some day there might be a mural near the site to commemorate the Giants’ ballpark, the Polo Grounds. There are already some plaques and a restored stairwell that had been used to get fans down to the park from Coogan’s Bluff.
The park, and the team, mean a lot to the history of New York and fans are hoping their memory won’t die.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/…/06/02/sweet-spot-polo-grounds/

Our next NYGPS meeting will be on June 21 at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse at 6:30PM, with author Robert Garratt, who will be talking about his new book entitled: HOME TEAM: THE TURBULENT HISTORY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS, a great new book on the Giants that NY fans will very much enjoy if they have kept their fandom when the team moved westward.

Here is the synopsis:
In 1957 Horace Stoneham took his Giants of New York baseball team and headed west, starting a gold rush with bats and balls rather than pans and mines. But San Francisco already had a team, the Seals of the Pacific Coast League, and West Coast fans did not immediately embrace the newcomers.
Starting with the franchise’s earliest days and following the team up to recent World Series glory, Home Team chronicles the story of the Giants and their often topsy-turvy relationship with the city of San Francisco. Robert F. Garratt shines light on those who worked behind the scenes in the story of West Coast baseball: the politicians, businessmen, and owners who were instrumental in the club’s history.
Home Team presents Stoneham, often left in the shadow of Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, as a true baseball pioneer in his willingness to sign black and Latino players and his recruitment of the first Japanese player in the Major Leagues, making the Giants one of the most integrated teams in baseball in the early 1960s. Garratt also records the turbulent times, poor results, declining attendance, two near-moves away from California, and the role of post-Stoneham owners Bob Lurie and Peter Magowan in the Giants’ eventual reemergence as a baseball powerhouse. Garratt’s superb history of this great ball club makes the Giants’ story one of the most compelling of all Major League franchises.

This should be a terrific meeting following the ones with Dan Taylor, Jerry Liebowitz & Hal Bock, and our impromptu session at the Polo Grounds with Mark Melacon. Please RSVP ASAP as we expect a full house. Books can be purchased for $26 that night. (Hard-covered)

On, May 25th, the NYGPS held its second meeting of the year at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse in lower Manhattan. Jerry Liebowitz and Hal Bock shared the program with close to 30 members in attendance. Liebowitz, batting lead-off, displayed many of his one of a kind pieces of NY Giants memorabilia via a video presentation. His collection is truly remarkable. Bock, the highly acclaimed author, spoke about his new book, Banned, which details players who have been banned from the National Pastime for various infractions. Bock spoke of the NY Giants players and personnel who were “banned”. Liebowitz and Bock both took questions from the crowd. The NYGPS would once again like to thank Jay Goldberg for making the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse www.bergino.com our home base!!

For more information and other stories check out our FB Page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-Giants-Preservation-Society-BASEBALL/160353950762500

Citing a desire to find out more about the NY Giants and the history of the Giants franchise, Mark Melacon met some members of the NYGPS on Monday, May 8th, prior to the Mets/Giants game. Melancon spoke, asked questions, and signed autographs for almost 2 hours. He was so pleasant to all! We can’t thank Mark, John Fuller, Anica Chavez, Katy Batchelder, Iman Rodney,and Staci Slaughter for setting this very special day up. Here is a short video

2ND NYGPS MEETING OF 2017-MAY 25
The second NYGPS meeting of 2017 will take place on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at 6:30PM at our home base the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse. We will have 2 guest speakers for the evening. Leading off will be NYGPS Member Jerry Liebowitz who is a NYG and SF Giant memorabilia collector with over 2,000 pieces of Giants history/memories many of which he will share with us on this day. Jerry’s collection is second to none and he has talked about and displayed the pieces at many events. Jerry is pictured with a John J. McGraw Bronze plaque. It was awarded to John McGraw on March 12, 1927, at a Silver Jubilee Dinner at the Hotel Venice in Venice, Florida, in honor of his 25th consecutive year as Manager of The New York Giants. He also owns the original dinner program and a number of photos of the event and two different photos of Mrs. McGraw posing in front of the plaque in the McGraw apartment.
Provenance: John McGraw, Mrs. McGraw, Barry Halper and Liebowitz.
Concluding the evening’s festivities will be author Hal Bock. Hal Bock was an award-winning sports writer at The Associated Press for 40 years covering 30 World Series, 30 Super Bowls and 11 Olympic Games. He grew up a Giants fan and spent many happy days with his father at the Polo Grounds. Oct. 3, 1951 remains a highlight of his childhood.
He has written 16 books including the narratives for The Associated Press Pictorial History of Baseball and Willard Mullin’s Golden Age of Baseball Drawings. His latest book is “Banned Baseball’s Blacklist of All-Stars and Also-Rans,” and it includes some tales about our favorite team. Here are a few:
Willie Kauff was a star in the Federal League and then for McGraw’s Giants. Unfortunately, he went from stolen bases to stolen cars, leading Judge Landis to suspend him for life.
Shufflin’ Phil Douglas had an affinity for liquid refreshment causing frequent clashes with McGraw. Angered by his manager’s repeated fines and lectures, he wrote a letter to an opposing player, offering to disappear in order to cost the Giants the pennant. When Landis found this out, he shuffled Douglas out of baseball.
Dr. Joseph Creamer tried to bribe umpire Bill Klem before the 1908 playoff game between the Cubs and Giants. He is the only team physician ever banned from baseball.
Bock will discuss these and other episodes in his book at our May 25 meeting at Bergino’s Baseball Clubhouse. His book will be available for sale/autographed that evening.
Please RSVP ASAP as this event will surely be well attended. Once again, we thank Jay Goldberg for allowing his Bergino Baseball Clubhouse www.bergino.com to be our home base for the evening.

MYSTERY OF THE POLO GROUNDS-
By Bill Francis (a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) This article was in the Memories and Dreams Magazine published by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Opening Day 2017. Thanks for sharing this Bill!!
“Monument to Eddie Grant graced the Giants’ home for decades before going missing after the team left for San Francisco.”
Big league third baseman Eddie Grant’s death took place almost 100 years ago, one of the thousands of United States casualties in the war to end all wars. Today, a missing plaque honoring his sacrifice remains one of the game’s most enduring unsolved mysteries.
Grant, nicknamed “Harvard Eddie” because he was one of the few ballplayers of the time who had attended college, spent 10 years in the majors, making his big league debut with the Cleveland Naps in 1905, then splitting the seasons between 1907 and 1915 with the Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants. Steadier with the glove than the bat, the Massachusetts native ended his career with a .249 batting average.

But it was his selfless character that distinguished Grant in the game of life. Prior to the start of the 1916 season, the Harvard graduate announced he was quitting the game in order to devote more time to his law practice, first in Boston and then in New York. And while he remained part of baseball, serving as a part-time scout with the Giants, the 34-year-old Grant, past the age when he might be drafted, responded when the United States joined its allies to fight in World War I in April 1917.
“I am going to try to be an officer,” Grant wrote to a friend while attending a military training camp in Plattsburgh, N.Y. “I don’t know how much of a success I shall make of it. I had determined from the start to be in this war if it came to us, and if I am not successful as an officer I shall enlist as a private, for I believe there is no greater duty that I owe for being that which I am – an American citizen.”

By April 1918, Grant had landed in France as a captain with Company H of the 307th Infantry Regiment in the 77th Division. But only a few months later, on October 22, 1918, newspapers across America announced that Grant had died in action two weeks earlier, on October 5, the first big league ballplayer to make the supreme sacrifice for his country in the Great War in Europe. A month after Grant’s death, the armistice was signed ending World War I. Continue reading →

After spending 60 years in SF, Giants officials announced that they will be returning to NY for the 2018 season. The Giants will be playing in a brand-new ball park that Governor Andrew Cuomo approved. The Stadium will be called The Polo Grounds V and reside on the Upper West Side of NYC. The NY Giants fans who have all along claimed the team was on “vacation” now appear to have their team back. Giants officials at a hasty press conference revealed the team’s new logo, the NY skyline with a bold GIANTS and script New York in black and orange. The team also will be wearing special patches on both sleeves. It appears the Giants “left their heart” in NY after all!! Giants fans were told to remember the special date today (April 1) as well!! Baseball fans were reminded about this story that appeared in Sports Illustrated over 30 years ago on this date. http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/15/curious-case-sidd-finch
Thanks to the Knuckler for his wonderful logo and Brian’s ballparks!!!!

Last night, 1/18/2017, the NYGPS held its first meeting of the year with our gust speaker, author Dan Taylor. Dan co-authored a fabulous book on George Genovese, A Scout’s Report: My 70 Years in Baseball, and spoke about the book as well as his wishes about Genovese getting into the Hall of Fame in the future. Dan spoke for 50 minutes on everything having to do with both NY and SF Giants scouting, in particular Jack Schwarz and George Genovese in front of more than 2 dozen members of the NYGPS. Dan is truly a walking encyclopedia on Giants scouting, with unsurpassed knowledge and an amazing memory. Hearing him rattle off the names that Schwarz and Genovese brought to the Giants was truly a history lesson of some of the greats (or memorable) of the franchise. Those including: Mays, McCovey, Ken Henderson, Bobby Bonds, Matthews, Maddox, Jack Cark, Chili Davis, Jim Barr, George Foster, etc. He also went into details regarding the scouting department in general in regards to Marichal, Cepeda, and the Alou Bros. We thank Dan for a tremendous evening and also thank Jay Goldberg, for letting his house, The Bergino Baseball Clubhouse, http://www.bergino.com/
be our home base!!

The first NYGPS meeting of 2017 will take place on Wednesday, January 18, 2017, at 6:30PM at our home base the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse. Our guest speaker will be author and huge Giants fan Dan Taylor. Dan was also a former award-winning television sportscaster. Dan talk will focus on “The Unsung Heroes of the Giants Organization.” He will delve into their scouting and development program dating back to 1937 and the work of Jack Schwarz and his scouts. Schwarz was the longtime director of player development for the New York and later San Francisco Giants,
Dan will also discuss his book, “A Scout’s Report: My 70 Years in Baseball” which he co-wrote with super-scout George Genovese. Genovese signed many great SF Giants In three decades with the Giants, Genovese signed some 40 players who made the major leagues, including Giants George Foster, Jack Clark, Bobby Bonds, Chili Davis, Gary Matthews, Matt Williams and Royce Clayton. Here is Amazon’s synopsis of the book.

“Many in baseball consider the scout to be the most important figure in any organization: It is the scout’s work in the high school and college bleachers that unearths future legends. Few have achieved more–and in such grand style–than George Genovese.
In a game that values numbers, Genovese’s are staggering. No other scout has been responsible for more players in a single lineup, more home runs by players signed or more All-Star and World Series highlights than Genovese.

Genovese’s eye for talent is unmatched, his advocacy for the players he discovers is unrivaled, and the investment he makes toward their success is a difference maker. This autobiography is the story of his seven decades in baseball as a player, manager and scout.”

Please RSVP ASAP as this event will surely be well attended. For those interested the book will go for $30 and Dan will gladly autograph it.