Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (138 page)

Polo was played at the original Polo Grounds during the 1870s. That first park also served as home of the New York Gothams, who would later come to call themselves the Giants. By 1883 baseball emerged victorious at the field located at 110th Street and Sixth Avenue on the northern end of Central Park. The Giants’ first World Championship came in 1888, when they defeated the St. Louis Browns of the American Association. The next year, they left the original Polo Grounds for a parcel of land in the southern half of Coogan’s Hollow, where they built Manhattan Field at 155th
Street and Eighth Avenue. This ballpark became known as the Polo Grounds, too. The upstart Players Association had first dibs on the choice land in the northern half of the hollow, where it erected Brotherhood Park. Located at 157th Street and Eighth Avenue, Brotherhood’s elongated shape was the result of needing to squeeze in between the second Polo Grounds and Coogan’s Bluff, which arose next to it. Though the double-decked outfield bleachers had not yet been built, the trademark rounded double-deck grandstand behind home plate was in place from the beginning.

After just a single season, the Players Association folded, and the Giants benefited by moving into the larger facility in 1891. Again they named their ballpark the Polo Grounds. The outfield was open to the Harlem River, and many folks would stand or park their carriages along the river to watch the game.

The Giants’ second title came in 1894, when they bested the National League incarnation of the Baltimore Orioles (the American Association version of the team had met its end two years earlier). Christy Mathewson, the team’s ace during the era, threw his first no-hitter and what many experts consider to be the first no-hitter of the modern era on July 15, 1901. Though the Giants finished the 1901 season in seventh place, a new reign of excellence began for them in 1902 led by one of baseball’s greatest legends, the iconoclastic and famously aggressive manager John McGraw. In a move that today boggles the imagination, McGraw declined the opportunity to participate in the newly created World Series in 1904, arrogantly insisting that the recently minted American League was only a “minor” league.

Kevin:
McGraw was right.

Josh:
Yeah, but the American League team from Boston won the first World Series ever played the year before.

Kevin:
I know, against Pittsburgh!

McGraw lessened his stance by 1905 and agreed to play the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series that year, after his team once again dominated the NL. Behind Mathewson, who threw three shutouts in the Series, the Giants added World Series champs to their already impressive list of accomplishments.

A play at the Polo Grounds near the end of the 1908 season became one of the most famous blunders in the history of baseball. It is known mythically to this day as the “Merkle Boner.” The score was tied in the bottom of the ninth when Al Birdwell’s single appeared to bring home Harry McCormick with the winning run. But rookie Fred Merkle, who was on first base at the time of the hit, never touched second base. Instead, he headed for the Giants’ clubhouse as fans flooded the field. Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers retrieved the ball, though, and touched second, prompting umpire Hank O’Day to rule Merkle out. Later, the NL president upheld O’Day’s ruling and declared the game a tie. Since the two clubs had identical records at the end of the season a few weeks later, a one-game playoff took place on October 8, which the Cubs won 4-2. The Cubs went on to win the 1908 World Series, while the Giants read about the October Classic in the newspapers.

Kevin:
What are you giggling at?

Josh:
The Cubs owe their last World Series appearance to Merkle’s Boner.

Kevin:
Good Lord, you can be juvenile.

In 1911 tragedy struck the Polo Grounds as a fire destroyed the grandstands. Afterwards, the Giants shared the Yankees’ Hilltop Park until June, before the Polo Grounds was rebuilt and deemed suitable for play again. Despite all the season’s adversity, the Giants won the NL pennant, but lost in the World Series against the Philadelphia A’s. The team John McGraw had callously dubbed “White Elephants” six years earlier had become a force. Who knew that one day these two rival teams would be located a few miles from one another on either side of San Francisco Bay?

A full renovation of the Polo Grounds was completed before the 1912 season, and this time the ballpark reflected the team’s championship status. Decorated with Roman Coliseum frescoes on the facade, the new structure was regal. The coats of arms of all the National League franchises were displayed above the grandstand facade and gargoyles perched on the roof near flags and banners that flapped in the wind. This park fit for champions also became home to the Yankees, as McGraw leased space to the Junior Circuit upstarts. While the younger franchise struggled to survive, the Giants struggled in their success, making it to three successive World Series (1911–1913) without garnering another title. It wouldn’t be until 1921 that the Giants would reclaim the championship, defeating the Yankees. It was the first time in World Series history that all seven games were played at the same ballpark. The next year the Giants repeated the accomplishment, downing the Yankees 4–0–1 in the 1922 Fall Classic. That Series couldn’t be called a true sweep because Game 2 ended in a tie, when it became too dark to finish.

But the fortunes of the Giants had begun to change by that time. The Yanks had begun to outdraw their landlords, due to an exciting young hero named Babe Ruth. McGraw’s reaction to losing the attendance race in his own park was to evict the Yankees. And the Pinstripers responded by
building a ballpark that better suited the talents of their home run king. The home-field advantage the Yankees enjoyed at The House that Ruth Built proved too much for the Giants to overcome in 1923. Though they faced the Yankees in the World Series as two-time defending champs, the Giants lost to the upstarts in six games.

After the Yankees’ departure, the Polo Grounds was renovated again. It was at this time that it took on the shape most people associate with it. The double-decked grandstands were extended all the way down the lines so that only the outfield bleachers remained single-decked, divided by a sixty-foot-high building in center that housed the team offices, clubhouses, and, later, the famous Longines Clock.

But the Polo Grounds was awkward for baseball. The narrowness and length of the horseshoe made for very short porches at both the right and left corners, which offered pull hitters an enormous advantage. A poke of 257 feet would clear the right-field wall, and an even shorter shot could reach the second deck in left. Yet it took a tremendous blast to reach the fence in either power alley, as right-center stood 449 feet away and left-center was 455 feet from home. In fact, only four balls ever reached the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds; the first was hit by Luke Easter of the Homestead Grays in 1948, the second by Milwaukee’s Joe Adcock, and the next two came in 1962 by Milwaukee’s Hank Aaron and Chicago’s Lou Brock. No ball ever hit the clubhouse building in straightaway center.

An example of knowing your ballpark well and pitching accordingly came in the first game of the 1954 World Series, when the Giants’ Don Liddle threw a meatball across the center of the plate that was tattooed by Cleveland’s Vic Wertz. The 460-foot shot would have sailed out of any ballpark today, but to Cleveland’s dismay, a fantastic catch by center fielder Willie Mays turned the blast into a long out. Surely the expansive center field of the Polo Grounds was a perfect spot to display the talents of Mays. In the 10th inning of the same game, Indians starter Bob Lemon allowed Dusty Rhodes to hit what should have been a routine fly out into the upper-level seats for a game-winning dinger. The tale of the tape: 261 feet.

A hitter who took full advantage of the Polo Grounds’ dimensions was Mel Ott, who hit 323 home runs at the park. He clubbed his first, five-hundredth, and final dinger—his 511th—at the yard, spending twenty-two seasons in a Giants uniform.

Kevin:
I’m a tremendous pull hitter. I wonder if—

Josh:
You’d have to make contact first, slugger.

Plenty of other quirks could be found at the Polo Grounds as well. The outfields were sloped and so crowned that managers in the dugout depths could only see the tops of their outfielders’ heads. The bullpens were in fair territory in the power alleys. A five-foot statue was erected in center field of Captain Eddie Grant, who was killed in World War II. And fans sitting atop the rocks of Coogan’s Bluff could look into the park and watch games for free.

Bobby Thomson’s famous “Shot Heard ’Round The World” was hit at the Polo Grounds, of course. The moment is considered one of the most exciting in baseball history. After being thirteen and a half games out of first on August 11, the Giants went on a sixteen-game winning streak and wound up tied for first with their archrivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. In a one-game playoff the Dodgers carried a 4–1 lead into the bottom of the ninth. The Giants got one run across before Thomson came to the plate with one out and two men on base. Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen brought in Ralph Branca to face Thomson, who took a strike, then made history.

We can still hear Russ Hodges with the call: “Branca throws … there’s a long drive. It’s going to be … I believe … the Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” Though the Giants lost the World Series to the Yankees in six games, nothing could tarnish their comeback. For a superb and interesting rendering of the events of that game, read the first chapter of
Underworld
by Don DeLillo. Despite this and other great moments, though, the same wrecking ball that brought down Ebbets Field leveled the Polo Grounds on April 10, 1964.

While the move to the Left Coast transformed the “bums” of Brooklyn into a clean-cut, winning franchise, the reverse was true of the Giants. Finally, in 2010, though, they returned to championship form, and lived up to their reputation as the first franchise to reach ten thousand wins. Will this rekindled glory blaze brightly for years to come in the new century? No one knows for sure, other than the baseball
gods themselves. But two things are certain—whether they win or lose, the Giants possess an amazing ballpark and a devoted fan base to support them.

It would probably be easier to get a pair of scissors through Tim Lincecum’s hair than it is to get your hands on a good ticket to AT&T Park. San Francisco’s love affair with baseball means tickets to AT&T will cost you, but the experience is one you’ll never forget. This park is one of the very best in the Major Leagues, so don’t be a cheapskate. About the only thing they didn’t get right was the name, so please forgive us as we continue to refer to this ballpark as AT&T Park, because no suitable nickname seems to stick.

Josh:
How about Ma Bell Park?

Kevin:
No.

Josh:
Big Phone Park

Kevin:
No.

Josh:
Phone Field?

Kevin:
No.

Josh:
Worst Corporately Named Ballpark Ever?

Kevin:
No, that belongs to the O.co Coliseum, across the Bay.

We love these Club seats, mostly because AT&T Park also offers far more desirable Premium Club seats. This further division of the good seats into more elite and premium-seating choices makes these lesser club folks feel second class.

Kevin:
Now you know how we usually feel!

Josh:
No, we can only aspire to be second class.

The grade of the lower bowl is fairly gradual and all seats angle toward the action. It’s best to avoid rows 37 and higher, as the overhang will affect views of fly balls. But the only seats that have perfect sight lines are in Sections 113–115. All others on the first level lose one of the outfield corners to a slight obstruction.

Sections 105–106, 125–126, and the middle rows of 107–124, make up the Premium Lower Boxes and go for a bit more. Sections 105–106 and 125–126 extend all the way down to the field and are the best for the buck in this price range.

Sections 101–104, the uppermost sections of 107–112 and 119–124, and Sections 127–135 make up the Lower Box Seats. The seats down near the field in Sections 127–135 are preferable to any of the upper seats in Sections 105–126. The vantage point is closer to the field, plus they are cheaper. Seats above Row 31 in Sections 123–125 and 107–108 are blocked by a photographer’s perch that hangs down from the second level. These seats cost far too much to be obstructed.

The uppermost seats in Sections 130–135 are called the Left Field Lower Boxes and are fairly poor. You can do better.

Our friend Matthew Schmitdz, who provided wonderful insights into this ballpark during both of our visits, recommends these sections, if you can get the tickets via StubHub. Matty thinks the views are good and the food is better than in other parts of the park. An additional advantage: With Club seating, you have a place to head if the temp drops in the later innings, which, though it may sound a bit weenie, is a plus during early or late season games.