Great article by Jerry Izenberg
http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/izenbergcol/index.ssf/2014/02/izenberg_happy_95th_birthday_m.html#incart_river

The last Eagle will be 95 years old this morning. Monte Irvin broke the New York Baseball Giants’ color line in 1949 and played in two World Series for them. He was the first African-American to work as an aide in the office of the Commissioner of Baseball. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
That’s for the résumé.
But for me, he will always remain a Newark Eagle.
They played for and against great ballplayers who were born too soon to play for the Dodgers or the Yankees or any of the baseball teams that called themselves the major leagues. They knew in baseball’s racist world the Dodgers and the Yankees and the others were all white men and they expected it to stay that way.
So Monte, the oldest and probably the last survivor of those days, and Larry Doby and Josh Gibson and so many great players whose names you never heard, followed the sun when their all-black league seasons ended. They followed it to Mexico and Venezuela, to Puerto Rico and Cuba, to any place where the sun was shining and a man was judged not by the color of his skin but the speed of his fastball.
Once, when I asked him about his nomad days with the Newark Eagles, the bus trips, the ridiculously low salary of $125 a month and later $150, the greatness of teammates like Doby and Ray Dandridge and Willie Wells and Leon Day that surrounded him, and the icons like Gibson and Satchel Paige and Buck Leonard who played against him, he smiled and then said:
‘‘I played in three countries. I played in two World Series. But I never found anything to match the joy and the laughter those years with the Eagles brought me. The city (Newark) and county (Essex) loved us. We’d go out to hear jazz or to dinner and our fans were always grabbing the check. We were young and the world was new to us. We had never traveled.
‘‘They were the happiest times of my life.
‘‘And we still had this game … this marvelous, beautiful, blessed game … and nobody and nothing could take that away from us, so we just went out and played it. Wherever and whenever we could.”
Played it?
Right.
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NYGPS Member Moe Resner spoke on NYGPS Member Sam Maxwell’s Bedford & Sullivan Podcast to discuss catching on film the last game the Giants played in the Polo Grounds as a New York team, a film he calls, “An End of an Era.” Moe recently had Willie Mays endorse his film and added Mays’ picture on the cover. To purchase the DVD contact Moe through me if you like. Here is the link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bedfordandsullivanbrooklyn/2014/01/19/ep-39–moe-resner-filmmaker-of-end-of-an-era

Author and NYGPS Member John McLaughlin spoke on NYGPS Member Sam Maxwell’s Bedford & Sullivan Podcast to discuss the book he’s working on about the New York Giants’ departure from New York, a topic that has gotten less fanfare over the years than the Dodgers own exit from the town. as well as his own baseball foundation. A Great listen!!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bedfordandsullivanbrooklyn/2014/01/18/ep-38–author-john-mclaughlin

1954: THE YEAR WILLIE MAYS AND THE FIRST GENERATION OF BLACK SUPERSTARS CHANGED MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FOREVER
New book by Bill Madden due on Willie Mays’ birthday.

Jackie Robinson heroically broke the color barrier in 1947. But how—and, in practice, when—did the integration of the sport actually occur? Bill Madden shows that baseball’s famous “black experiment” did not truly succeed until the coming of age of Willie Mays and the emergence of some star players—Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks—in 1954. And as a relevant backdrop off the field, it was in May of that year that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation be outlawed in America’s public schools.

Featuring original interviews with key players and weaving together the narrative of one of baseball’s greatest seasons with the racially charged events of that year, 1954 demonstrates how our national pastime—with the notable exception of the Yankees, who represented white supremacy in the game—was actually ahead of the curve in terms of the acceptance of black Americans, while the nation at large continued to struggle with tolerance.

Wednesday night, January 8, was our first meeting of the NYGPS for 2014. NY Post columnist Ken Davidoff gave his insights to his Hall of Fame ballot and the electees as well. Ken spent about an hour answering all the great questions asked by the group regarding steroids, AROD, Bonds, Clemens, Piazza, and his baseball insights in general. It was a great way to start talking and thinking about baseball on a frigid night in NYC. Ken took out some time on a day for us when he was probably getting many requests for his reaction to the Hall of Fame voting results. Many thanks go to Ken and his family for making this a night to remember. Of course we thank Jay Goldberg owner of the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse for always making the NYGPS feel at home!! Make sure to see all of the wonderful baseball items Jay sells at
http://www.bergino.com/
You can read Ken’s columns on line at
http://nypost.com/author/ken-davidoff/
Here is the podcast:
http://berginobaseballclubhouse.podbean.com/2014/01/10/new-york-giants-preservation-society-winter-2014-meeting-with-special-guest-ken-davidoff/

Our first meeting of 2014 will take place on Wednesday, January 8 at 6:30PM with NY Post Writer Ken Davidoff. Ken spent 11 years at Newsday before moving to the NY Post in 2012. He covers the Mets, Yankees, and all of baseball. He was the former President of the Baseball Writers Association of America (2010-2011). Ken also appears on Fox’s Sports Extra during the year and is frequently heard on WFAN with Richard Neer on Saturday mornings. Ken is a tremendously knowledgeable baseball man and just a great guy as well. If you don’t already read his column your are missing something.

Here is a link:
http://nypost.com/author/ken- davidoff/

The meeting will take place the day the 2014 Hall of Fame Members will be announced and Ken will be able to discuss the electees and non-electees as he has a vote. He will also be discussing hot stove news, spring training, history of the game, etc. His dad will be accompanying him and the elder Davidoff is and was a huge Willie Mays fan attending the SF Giants January 2013 Trophy presentation which we were specially invited to.

The meeting will take place at our “home base” the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse. Jay Goldberg always welcomes us with open arms. If you need that perfect baseball gift for the holidays, birthdays, etc., Jay is your guy and his store is the place. Here is his link:
http://www.bergino.com/
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After a brief hiatus, the Bedford & Sullivan podcast picks back up the research process with its 33rd episode!

The founder of the NY Giants Preservation Society, Gary Mintz, joins to discuss how the Society got started, some of the highlights so far for the group since its inception, and stories Gary’s late father told him regarding the Upper Manhattan ballclub.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bedfordandsullivanbrooklyn/2013/12/09/ep-33–ny-giants-preservation-society-founder-gary-mintz

WITH OCTOBER 3RD SOON ARRIVING…………………
This will be released next week.

From Amazon:
On October 3, 1951 Ralph Branca became a legendary figure in baseball history. The 26 year-old Brooklyn Dodger pitcher became infamous for losing the National League Pennant to the bitter rival New York Giants, by giving up the game winning homerun termed The Shot Heard Round the World. Jeered by once adoring fans and labeled a scapegoat for the rest of his life, Ralph never reclaimed his career. From Executive Producer Bobby Valentine, BRANCA’S PITCH follows 86 year-old Ralph Branca’s journey to pen a memoir that finally tells his side of the story, to try and restore his fascinating, yet overlooked legacy in baseball’s Golden Age of the ’40s and ’50s. The documentary features a mixture of verite, and archival materials including many of Branca’s own films and photos such as a recently discovered and restored color 16mm film of the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

Let’s just say “What a Night”!! A SRO crowd attended our meeting this past Thursday. Mr. Peter Magowan was our key note speaker and had the audience in the palm of his hand. He discussed his love of the team as young boy all the way up to his “retirement” as the CEO of the team. Magowan spent much of the night reveling about the history of the team here in NY and his subsequent purchase of the team in the early 1990’s when it appeared they were moving to Tampa Bay. He told wonderful stories about the purchasing group that saved the team, the Barry Bonds signing and the building of AT&T Park. He truly loved the Q & A with members of the NYGPS.

The entire night’s program can be heard here thanks to Jay Goldberg on his podcast:

http://berginobaseballclubhouse.podbean.com/2013/09/20/peter-magowan-the-ny-giants-preservation-society/

Robert Garratt who wrote an amazing expose on Horace Stoneham captivated the audience with his perspective on the former owner of the team. Garratt explained how Stoneham was a true trailblazer of an owner and broke the second barrier in the game by signing many Latinos to contracts with the Giants. He explained that Stoneham and his scouts were concerned with putting the best team on the field and race had no barring as the Giants started the first All-African American outfield of Mays, Irvin, and Hank Thompson in the early 1950’s. Garratt also spoke of Stoneham’s spearheading a move out west regardless of the Dodgers when it appeared the Giants were going to Minneapolis. Garratt left us stating that Stoneham belongs in the Hall of Fame for all his noteworthy contributions to the game. A movement to do so appears imminent with Peter Magowan on board.
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SEPTEMBER 18, 1963-
FROM THE BOWERY BOYS NEW YORK CITY HISTORY

http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-polo-grounds-final-game-50-years.html

Thanks to NYGPS Member Ed Logan for finding this article which explains the last baseball game played at the Polo Grounds between the Mets and the Phillies., 50 years ago last week.

Fifty years ago today, the final game was played at the Polo Grounds, the legendary sports field that had once been home to the New York Yankees, the New York Giants (both baseball and football), and the New York Mets in their debut season.

The last game at the Polo Grounds was hardly memorable. The Mets were in their second season, almost as forgettable as their first. The team went 40-120 in its inaugural season, one of the worst results for a season in baseball history. In their second season, they fared marginally better (51-111). The Mets last home game of their second season — and the last game ever here — was a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1.

Hardly anyone cared. No, really, that’s how the New York Times put it. “Hardly anyone cared”

“The smallest crowd to watch the Mets at the Polo Ground — 1,752 paying customers — turned out for this finale at the Harlem ball yard. Maybe the fact that there had been two previous major league ‘last games’ at the Polo Grounds took a bit(e) from the occasion.”

The writer is referring to the last game by baseball’s New York Giants in 1957 and the Mets last game from the 1962 season, when there were supposed to move into their new digs at Shea Stadium. But Shea wasn’t ready, and the Mets remained at the Polo Grounds for a final season, apparently to an audience of crickets.

“There wasn’t too much fuss and bother about the affair yesterday,” the Times lamented.

The Mets first game at Shea Stadium was in April 17 the following year. The brand-new stadium dazzled; the Mets did not. They lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3. One week earlier, April 10th, their former home was torn down