Polo Grounds - Polo Grounds II

Polo Grounds II

The original Polo Grounds ceased to exist in 1889 when New York City, in the process of turning the theoretical street grid that had existed on maps for years into a reality in its uptown reaches, extended West 111th Street through the grounds of the park. City workers are said to have shown up suddenly one day and began cutting through the fence at the appropriate point for the new street. There was significant sentiment in the city against this move (the Giants had won the National League pennant the year before and had a very enthusiastic following), and a bill was even passed by the state legislature to give the Giants a variance on the grid extension and allow the park to stand; but sitting governor David B. Hill, who had campaigned for office on a "home rule" pledge, vetoed the bill on the grounds that whatever he might think of the forced destruction of the park, the will of the city government was to be respected. The loss of their park forced the Giants to look quickly for alternative grounds.

The Giants opened the 1889 season at a ballfield in Jersey City called Oakland Park, playing their first two games there. Four days later, they moved to the St. George Cricket Grounds (where the Metropolitans had continued to play until their demise in 1887), as an interim home for the next couple of months.

The Giants finally located another site within Manhattan, and moved uptown to the far terminus of the then Ninth Avenue Elevated at 155th Street and Eighth Avenue. After closing out the St. George Grounds on June 14, the Giants played on the road for the next three weeks, and finally opened their new facility on July 8. Despite their vagabond existence in 1889, the Giants managed to win the pennant and the World Series for the second consecutive year.

All the later Polo Grounds were located on the northwest corner of 155th Street and Eighth Avenue (now Frederick Douglass Boulevard). The 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. Because of its elevation, fans frequently watched games from Coogan's Bluff without buying tickets. Polo Grounds II was located in the southern portion of Coogan's Hollow. The land remained in the Coogan estate, and the Giants were renters for their entire duration at the ballpark. The grandstand of the second Polo Grounds had a conventional curve around the infield, but the shape of the property left the center field area actually closer than left center or right center. This was not much of an issue in the "dead ball era" of baseball.

The Brooklyn Dodgers played a pair of home series at this ballpark in late July and early August 1890.

After the National League version of the New York Giants moved into Polo Grounds III in 1891, Polo Grounds II was referred to as Manhattan Field, and was converted for other sports such as football and track-and-field. It still existed as a structure for nearly 20 more years. Babe Ruth's first home run as a Yankee, on May 1, 1920, was characterized by the New York Times reporter as a "sockdolager" (i.e. a decisive blow), and was described as traveling "over the right field grand stand into Manhattan Field". Bill Jenkinson's modern research indicates the ball traveled about 500 feet in total, after clearing the Polo Grounds double decked right field stand. Manhattan Field was a playground or vacant lot by then. Some years later, the area was paved over, to serve as a parking lot for the Polo Grounds.