The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in New York City used by Major League Baseball's New York Giants from 1883 until 1957, and by the New York Mets in their first two seasons of 1962 and 1963.
The original Polo Grounds was built in the 1870s for the sport of polo, thus accounting for its name. It was converted to a baseball stadium in 1880, and the name stuck for each subsequent stadium of the Giants. The fourth and final Polo Grounds, which the Giants used until they moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, and which the Mets used until Shea Stadium was completed in 1964, was the most famous, and the one most people mean when they refer to the Polo Grounds. The park was noted for its distinctive bathtub shape, with very short distances to the left and right field walls, but an unusually deep center field.
The original Polo Grounds was located at 110th Street and Sixth Avenue (now Lenox Avenue), just outside the north edge of Central Park. The other three were all located at 155th Street and Eighth Avenue. The latter site, on which a public housing project now stands, is overlooked to the north and west by a steep promontory known as Coogan's Bluff. The ballpark itself was thus in the bottomland, or Coogan's Hollow.
The New York Yankees sublet the fourth Polo Grounds from the Giants during 1913-1922 after their lease on Hilltop Park expired. After the 1922 season, the Yankees built a stadium of their own directly across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds.
In football, both the New York Giants and New York Titans/Jets also used the Polo Grounds. It was also used for many games by New York-area college football teams such as Fordham and Army. It was the site of many famous boxing matches, as well.
The final stadium was demolished in 1964, and a public housing project was erected on the site. The Polo Grounds had once been held in the kind of fame and esteem that later gravitated to Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately, the life of the Polo Grounds ended on a couple of sour notes, first when its beloved Giants abandoned it to move to the West Coast, and then when the newly-formed and woefully inept Mets resuscitated it for two seasons before opening Shea Stadium.
In the 1992 book The Gospel According to Casey, by Ira Berkow and Jim Kaplan, it is reported that in 1963, the Mets manager Casey Stengel had this to say to Tracy Stallard during a rough outing, a pitcher whose greatest claim to fame had been giving up Roger Maris' 61st homer in 1961: "At the end of this season, they're gonna tear this joint down. The way you're pitching, the right field section will be gone already!"
Timeline and teams
- Polo Grounds I
- Polo Grounds II (otherwise known as Manhattan Field)
- Polo Grounds III (originally called Brotherhood Park)
- Polo Grounds IV (also known as Brush Stadium in the 1920s)
- Giants (NL), 1911-1957
- Yankees (American League), 1913-1922
- Giants (NFL), 1925-1955
- Titans/Jets (AFL), 1960-1963
- Mets (NL), 1962-1963
Dimensions
Compiled from various photos, baseball annuals, and Green Cathedrals by Phil Lowry.
1923-1957
- Left Field Line - 279 ft. (not posted)
- Left Field Upper Deck Overhang - about 250 ft.
- Shallow Left Center - 315 ft.
- Left Center 1 - 360 ft.
- Left Center 2 - 414 ft.
- Deep Left Center - 447 ft. left of bullpen curve
- Deep Left Center - 455 ft. right of bullpen curve
- Center Field - approx. 425 ft. (unposted) corners of runways
- Center Field - 483 ft. posted on front of clubhouse balcony, sometimes 475 ft.
- Center Field - 505 ft. (unposted) sometimes given as total C.F. distance
- Deep Right Center - 455 ft. left of bullpen curve
- Deep Right Center - 449 ft. right of bullpen curve
- Right Center 2 - 395 ft.
- Right Center 1 - 338 ft.
- Shallow Right Center - 294 ft.
- Right Field Line - 257 ft. 3 3/8 in. (not posted)
- Backstop - 65 ft. sometimes also given as 74 ft.
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