On Sunday, September 29, 1957, a crowd of 11,606 came to the Polo Grounds to see Willie Mays play his last game for the New York Giants. Based on the illustrious baseball legacy of the New York Giants, you’d think that all 54,555 seats in the old Polo Grounds on Coogan’s Bluff in the Bronx, just across the ravine from Yankee Stadium, would be filled. Instead, the stands seemed virtually empty, less than a quarter of capacity. After all, the Giants were stuck in sixth place and fans were angry about the move to San Francisco. The Giants lost 9-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Giants had endured a lackluster (69-85) season, and, with their move to California a done deal, the fans’ lack of enthusiasm was understandable. Although the team’s performance failed to stir emotions, the end of the old stadium was another story altogether.
After that last out, a come-backer to the pitcher, the team sprinted towards the cover of the clubhouse beyond center field to the safety of the team locker room. Suddenly, virtually all 11,000 fans were on the field searching for souvenirs from the field. The easiest relics were handfuls of infield dirt stuffed easily into pockets or scooped up with empty stadium cups. Some lucky fans grabbed the infield bases. Others tore piece down from the outfield walls. Many simply sat in their seats and watched as the crowd became a mob. It took hours for the Polo Grounds to empty that day.
The ballpark then sat largely vacant for nearly three years until the newly formed Titans (present-day New York Jets) of the upstart AFL began play there in 1960. Giants fans hopes were rekindled when Major League expansion came to town on Oct. 17, 1960 as the newly formed National League Mets announced they would play games at the old Polo Grounds in 1962. Those same hopes were dashed though when it was announced that the Mets were only using the Polo Grounds as an interim home while Shea Stadium was being built.
The last game played at the Polo Grounds was hardly memorable. Casey Stengel’s New York 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, going 51-111. The Mets last home game of their second season, the last game ever for the Polo Grounds, was a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1. Judging by the attendance, Mets fans were not sorry to see the old ballpark go as only 1,752 witnessed that Sept. 18th drubbing. The New York Times summed it up with the headline: “Hardly anyone cared.”
Interestingly enough, that was the last Major League game played at the old stadium, but it wasn’t the LAST game ever played there. On Sunday, Oct. 13, 1963, one week after the World Series concluded, a Latin-American All Star Game charity event benefiting the Hispanic-American Baseball Federation holds that honor. The contest pitted the National League against the American League. Pedro Ramos of the Cleveland Indians gave up four runs in the first four innings. The American League managed to tally two runs off the Mets’ Ed Bauta in the ninth inning, but it was too little, too late as the National League prevailed by a 5-2 score.
A number of names in the box score are well known even today. There are Hall-of-Famers like Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Clemente, and Juan Marichal. Other big names included Felipe Alou, Minnie Minoso, Vic Power, Zoilo Versalles, Tony Oliva, Manny Mota, Hector Lopez, Tony Taylor, Tony Gonzalez, and Ruben Amaro. Juan Marichal was named the game’s top Latin pitcher. That was a fairly easy choice to make, but one wonders about Orlando Cepeda being named “the most popular Latin American player.” A crowd of 14,235 — almost 10 times the fans who saw the last big league game a month earlier — showed up at the Polo Grounds on that Sunday afternoon in October of 1963.
In 1961, the city of New York moved to claim the land under eminent domain, for the purpose of condemning the stadium and building a high-rise housing project on the site. The Coogan family, which still owned the property, fought this effort until the city won in 1967. Seems you just can’t fight city hall. The site is now home to the Polo Grounds Towers, a public housing project that includes four 30-story skyscrapers with 1,616 units that opened in 1968 and is managed by the New York City Housing Authority.
The only part of the Polo Grounds that still remains as of 2013 is the “John T. Brush Stairway,” which runs down Coogan’s Bluff from Edgecombe Avenue to Harlem River Drive at about 158th Street. The stairway, named for the owner of the Giants from 1890 to 1912, first opened in 1913 and led to a ticket booth overlooking the stadium. The stairway reportedly offered a clear view of the stadium for fans who did not purchase tickets to a game. On game days, fans would stand on Coogan’s Bluff to watch games for free. By building the staircase, the Giants were trying to coax a few more fans into buying tickets. A marker on the stairway reads: “The John T. Brush Stairway Presented By The New York Giants.” The broken stairway leads nowhere today except to an overgrown stretch of Highbridge Park.
And here’s the Indy connection, folks. John Tomlinson Brush (1845-1912) not only owned the New York Giants franchise but also owned the Indianapolis Hoosiers in the late 1880s, and the Cincinnati Reds from 1891 to 1902. Brush was orphaned at age 4, raised by his grandfather, entered business college at age 17 and enlisted in the New York Artillery during the Civil War at age 18. After the war’s end he went into business running clothing stores in Albany, Troy and Lockport, New York. He moved to Indianapolis in 1875, eventually opening a department store, and became involved in local baseball as a means of promoting his store. He built a ballpark in 1882, and it became home to the Indianapolis Hoosiers (or, according to some sources, the Indianapolis Blues) of the American Association for their only major league season in 1884.
The team was affiliated with the Western League before that circuit folded after the 1885 campaign. They played games at the Seventh Street Park, or Tinker Park, named for Tinker Street, its adjacent street to the south, which was later renamed Seventh Street and then 16th Street. Other names for the ballpark were Athletic Park and Seventh Street Park. Other bordering streets were Mississippi Street (now Senate Avenue) to the west and Capitol Street to the east. The ballpark was used for weekday games. Due to blue laws, Sunday games were staged outside the city limits, in Bruce Grounds (1887), and Indianapolis Park (1888-1889). The ballpark site is now occupied by Methodist Hospital.
When the National League put the St. Louis Maroons franchise up for sale after the 1886 season, Brush bought it and relocated the team to Indianapolis. He renovated his ballpark, adding a special celebrity box which attracted such figures as President Benjamin Harrison, poet James Whitcomb Riley, and future novelist Booth Tarkington. In 1888 he offered a tryout to African-American Bud Fowler, but ultimately decided not to challenge the sport’s color line. Brush also devised a salary scale system which was designed to curtail player salaries, a move which helped contribute to the breakaway Players’ League in 1890.
When the Indianapolis team folded after the 1889 season, Brush was compensated with $67,000 and a share of the Giants franchise, along with a promise of the next available team; he quickly acquired the Reds club after its financial collapse during the three-league competition of 1890. Instead of relocating, he kept the team in Cincinnati, and at the same time retained ownership of the New York Giants. Always a frail, sickly man, Brush died in 1912 and was buried in the Brush family plot in Crown Hill cemetery. Pallbearers included John McGraw, Ban Johnson, Yankees owner Ed Barrow, White Sox owner Charles Comiskey and Brooklyn Dodgers owner Charles Ebbets. He was one of 11 executives elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.
Ironically, in November 2011, the Polo Grounds John T. Brush stairway underwent a $950,000 restoration, over 6 times what the city paid to tear the entire stadium down. The restoration funds came from the New York Giants football team which donated $200,000, the Mets and Yankees who donated $100,000 each, and the Jets, the San Francisco Giants and Major League Baseball each donated $50,000. The Manhattan Borough president’s office paid the rest. The restoration was completed in late 2013 and the stairway is now considered a city historic landmark and a historical baseball shrine. Like the stadium and its fans, the stairway maintains its unique character.
John T. Brush is not the only Hoosier connected to the Polo Grounds. Many Indiana born players called Coogan’s Bluff home during their careers including: Hall of Famer Edd J. Roush as well as players Ken Trinkle, Cy Bowen, Rae Blaemire, Dick Buckley, Grover Hartley, Charlie Babb, Butch Henline, Art Nehf, Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons, “Rifle Jim” Middleton, Vic Aldridge, Amos Rusie, Bil Rariden and many more.
But my favorite story connected to the ultimate demise of the Polo Grounds comes courtesy of New York Mets manager Casey Stengel in 1963, who had the unique distinction of both playing and managing at the Polo Grounds. During a particularly rough outing by one of his Mets pitchers, Tracy Stallard, (whose greatest claim to fame had been giving up Roger Maris’ 61st homer in 1961) Stengel walked to the mound and said to Stallard, “At the end of this season, they’re gonna tear this joint down. The way you’re pitchin’, the right field section will be gone already!” A few months later, the Polo Grounds were gone. And it happened 50 years ago this month.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
