Land of the Giants: New York's Polo Grounds [Hardcover]

Stewart Thornley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2000

More than thirty years after its demolition, the Polo Grounds - like some other urban neighborhood parks such as Ebbets Field, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, and Wrigley Field - still holds a place in the hearts of baseball fans. The Polo Grounds was the home of the New York Giants from John McGraw and Christy Mathewson to Carl Hubbell and Mel Ott to Willie Mays and Leo Durocher. It was also home to the Yankees when Babe Ruth's home run production was soaring (which led to i??the House that Ruth builti??') and home to the Mets in their painful early years. From i??Merkle's Boneri??', which cost the New York Giants a pennant, to Bobby Thomson's homer, which won them one, Stew Thornley retells the legendary events of the park and its legendary personalities. He reveals little-known facts, too. When the championship Giants and Yankees played in the 1921 and 1922 World Series, it wasn't a i??subway seriesi??', because the two teams shared the same ballpark. The team Mays was playing for when he hit his first home run in the Polo Grounds was not the Giants, but the Birmingham Black Barons. The Polo Grounds was also the site for two Negro World Series games in 1946 and 1947. Fans cherish not only the historic moments and team traditions of these stadiums, but treasure their physical peculiarities. Like the i??Green Monsteri??' at Fenway Park, the unusual horseshoe shape of the Polo Grounds made the park a special place to play. Stew Thornley analyzes the effect of the very short porches along the foul lines and a cavernous center field on home run production and hitting in general. Baseball wasn't the only sport played in the Polo Grounds. The football Giants played here from 1925 to 1955, but the stadium was better known for some of the great college games, including the 1924 Army-Notre Dame game in which the i??Four Horsemeni??' of Notre Dame were christened. Numerous boxing title bouts were held at the Polo Grounds, and it also hosted tennis, rodeo, midget auto racing, outdoor opera, ice skating, and religious rallies. Author note: Stew Thornley is a health educator with the Minnesota Department of Health. As a freelance writer and a former radio sportscaster, he has published a variety of books on baseball and other sports.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I think Stew Thornley's book on the Polo Grounds is a worthy one. There are other books on old ball parks...but I don't think anything else is as definitive on this historic ball park. Thornley brings to life not only the various Polo Ground sites but the significant figures in Giants lore--John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott, and Willie Mays among others. I think I know more than a little about the Giants and the Polo Grounds, but I found myself learning more about the team and the ball park. Thornley has done exhaustive research... I would want this book in my library for sure." --Stan Isaacs, National Headliners Award-winning sportswriter, former columnist for Newsday, and co-author (with Marty Glickman) of The Fastest Kid on the Block "I went to high school at Boys High in Brooklyn and after classes we ran to Ebbets Field to try to sneak in before game time. But on weekends I took the subway to my true love, the Polo Grounds, to root for my heroes--Mell Ott, Carl Hubbell, and the great Jo-Jo Moore from Gausse, Texas. Thanks, Stew, for bringing it all back so vividly." --Larry Ritter, author of The Glory of Their Times

From the Publisher

A rich history of one of the most hallowed of former baseball parks.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (September 29, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566397960
• ISBN-13: 978-1566397964
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #620,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Big Green Bathtub, December 23, 2000

By 

Dennis Mincin (Belleville, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Land of the Giants: New York's Polo Grounds (Hardcover)

1963 - my first look at the Polo Grounds as a child. All I remember is that the seats, the facade, and the grass was green. Little esle did I remember Stew Thornly brought it all back. Stew delves into how the stadium grew into that weird horseshoe shape and does a great job highlighting all the great events that took place there. Its an easy read but I wish he included more pictures and blueprints. Nonetheless, its the best work I've ever seen of the big green bathtub in Harlem.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Once there were Giants, September 15, 2002

By 

Jack Maybrick (Shuttling between the streets of Whitechapel and the shadow of Coogan's Bluff) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Land of the Giants: New York's Polo Grounds (Hardcover)

This is a concise but thorough story of one of baseball's most fabled stadiums. As many of the old classic ballparks go the way of the wrecking ball, such accounts become more and more necessary.

The Polo Grounds met its demise as long ago as 1964, but it is likely to continue to have a hold on baseball fans long after some of the newer monstrosities which were built and/or abandoned afterwards (I.e., Riverfront Stadium, Houston Astrodome, Three Rivers Stadium) have been long forgotten.

Many of those who pick up this book will already know that the New York National League baseball team (which was known as the "Mutuals" before it became the "Giants") actually played in four different ballparks known as the Polo Grounds and that polo was never played in any but the first one (the succeeding ones simply kept the name for familiarity's sake).

But this book will add some breadth and scope to that knowledge. The author, Stew Thornley, has nothing new to add concerning the most famous events that took place there. At this late date, what more is there to be said about Merkle's Boner, Zimmerman's Boner, Snodgrass's Muff, Merkle's Second Boner, Hubbell's 1934 All Star Game performance, The Shot Heard Round the World, or Willie's Catch?

On the other hand, would you believe that Willie Mays's first Polo Grounds home run took place before his 1951 rookie season with the Giants? How and when? I didn't know before reading this book.

Thornley also seems to have swallowed the myth that a vengeful Brooklyn Dodgers team beat the Giants in 1934 to spoil their pennant chances and get even for the slight that Bill Terry inflicted when he asked, "Is Brooklyn still in the league?" The story is part of Giant-Dodger lore, and all of those events took place, except that it is likely that Terry's question was really an innocent response to a rumor circulating over that franchises's future.

Thornley's principal contribution concerns the political and business history of the four ballparks, as well as their dimensions and how they affected baseball as it was played there. But while there are some wonderful photographs in the centerpieces of the book, Thornley fails to integrate them with his technical descriptions of the ballparks' dimensions. Some maps of old New York and some diagrams of the four ballparks facing the pages containing the descriptions would have been helpful.

There were not only once baseball giants at Polo Grounds IV but football giants too. Boxing and other athletic events also took place, and, in a separate chapter, Thornley dutifully pays homage to the Grounds's non-baseball history.

Regarding Polo Grounds I, where the Giants played from 1883 to 1888, it is described as a "difficult place to hit home runs". As Thornley states, "Total Baseball lists the home run factor for the east diamond as 71, with 100 being average; this means that home runs were reduced by nearly 30 percent...because of the characteristics of the ballpark itself."

Thornley continues, "However, the Giants had a slugger capable of reaching not just the outfield fences but the property fences that provided the outside border to the stadium itself." The slugger was Hall of Famer Roger Connor, described by another historian as "the premier power hitter of the `Gaslight Era'", and Thornley recapitulates a contemporary description from 1886 of a Connor home run traveling majestically over the right field stands and into a field across 112th Street.

A Giants baseball team playing its home games in a pitcher's ballpark, stingy with home runs, but having in its lineup the premier home run hitter of the era, a left-handed slugger and future Hall of Famer capable of overcoming the park's dimensions by muscling baseballs entirely out of it.

Thornley deserves thanks for reminding his readers that after 116 years and a move to the West Coast, the more baseball changes, the more it remains the same.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Historic Horseshoe on the Harlem, March 3, 2002

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Land of the Giants: New York's Polo Grounds (Hardcover)

One ballpark that has fascinated me more than any other has been the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants. This is due to my interest in reading books about John McGraw and Christy Mathewson. My only two visits to the site came long after the stadium had been demolished. Author Stew Thornley provides the reader with a concise history of all four arenas called the Polo Grounds. Polo Grounds I was located at 110th Street and 5th Avenue and was the only location that polo was acutally played. Polo Grounds II was located on the site of Manhattan Field where the parking lot for the future arenas was to be located. Polo Grounds III had a short life as fire destroyed the park and the team moved into Hilltop Park after accepting an invitation from the Highlanders (Yankees) to play there while Polo Grounds IV was being rebuilt on the same location. I enjoyed the pictures that were in the book which included a couple views I hadn't seen before and also the history of the plaques in center field. I've often wondered what happened to the Eddie Grant memorial and I've found I'm not alone in this respect. Also of interest to me was the information provided on the Putnam Bridge near center field outside the park and the Macombs Dan Bridge that crosses the Harlem River. Of additional interest is the information provided on groundskeeper Matty Schwab and his family that lived in an apartment in the left field area and his son who had friends who would sleep over with him on the outfield grass. The area around Coogan's Bluff has history dating back to the days of George Washington and the Revolutionary War and two of baseball's most memorable moments in the 1950's took place there, Thompson's homer off Branca in '51 and Mays's catch off Wertz in '54. I remember writing to Tom Meany who worked for the New York Mets in the 1960's, asking him if he could provide me with a piece of concrete from the stadium when it was to be demolished. He sent back a picture with a note saying, "Sending you a piece of concrete would necessitate my using a chisel and I've never been a chiseler in all my life." The history of the Giants and Mets provided in this book can be found in any number of other baseball books, but some of the things I mentioned above I was not familiar with. Thanks, Stew Thornley, for an interesting book.