Polo Grounds [IV] / Brush Stadium (1911-1963)

[Lefty Bunter]

Was any baseball played at the PG in the time between the Giants' departure and the Mets' arrival?

I know that Ebbets Field was used for some high school and college games after the Dodgers left and before demolition began in 1960.

[chinese home run]

Yes- the Hearst Sandlot Classic was held at the Polo Grounds in 1958. For those unaware of the game, it pitted a group of players from the NY Metropolitan area against a group of players from the rest of the country. It was sponsored by the New York Journal American, which was one of two Hearst newspapers in NY at the time. 1958 would be the thirteenth and last year the game would be played there- it moved across the river to Yankee Stadium from 1959 to 1965. I'd have to dig out my notes, but I do remember that Joe Torre was on the NY team and the late Ron Santo played for the "visitors."

[StanTheMan]

Well, maybe because he is retiring too.

Probably here before, if so, here it is again.

Attachment 107006

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stan-Musial-...d#ht_500wt_854

Great pic! Love it...

[StanTheMan]

Surely we have posted these? (I might have posted it myself, lol).

The city seals from the ornate upper deck frieze of yesteryear.

[SultanOfWhat]

That's something I did a while back. Forget exactly where it is in the thread. Such a shame they took those city seal decorations down before the 1922 season.

This thread, like the Yankee Stadium thread, is now so large that it's hard to remember what has been posted. I came across these images below on my computer, checked the date I saved them, and then checked this thread around the date. They weren't posted then, so might as well post 'em now.

Two familiar figures on Opening Day, April 13, 1921:

[Lpeters199]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-York-Cit...1#ht_500wt_717

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1957-Polo-Gr...#ht_3874wt_925

[alpineinc]

"NAUGHTY BOYS. New York---A group of Brooklyn Dodgers leave the bench to go to the clubhouse, Sept. 2 (1951), after being tossed out of the Brooklyn-New York fracas for arguing and heckling. Umpire Al Barlick ordered five Brooks off the field. Giants whipped the Dodgers, 11-2."

ebs51dodgerpressphoto-giants.jpg

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1951-Orig-DO...#ht_824wt_1034

[kfeser]

Surely we have posted these? (I might have posted it myself, lol).

The city seals from the ornate upper deck frieze of yesteryear.

I find it amazing that the Polo Grounds has been photographed so often, yet there are no clear pictures of the shields. I have searched for years and can't find anything clearer than what you posted here. Nice work by the way. Thanks

[StanTheMan]

To be fair, they had been posted previously. As for clearer images... Cameras of the day were about 0.1 megapixels and it took an awfully wide angle photo to include them, no?

I don't know about the rest of them - but my city, STL ... Clearly a riverboat. It works for me.

[jimm]

Great photos, thanks for sharing!

[mjrbaseball]

Surely we have posted these? (I might have posted it myself, lol).

The city seals from the ornate upper deck frieze of yesteryear.

What the actual seals look like today:

NLseals.jpg

[Los Bravos]

At 1:40 of this clip, Joe Adcock belts one off the left field roof from a similar angle. On full screen, you can follow the ball all the way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4CK3hld-yg

That was profoundly cool.

[alpineinc]

Hey guys, I posted this about 500 posts ago, #2792, from a great find by LP, but the links had been dead for some time. They're now updated, and now with the newer larger pic size allowed within the forum here, more glorious than ever, so I decided to quote it to make it current, since no one would find the updated pics otherwise. Enjoy.

9/5/52, Friday day game, Giants win 5-4, with 3 in the bottom of the 8th on two HRs by Thomson and Hartung. Still left them 6 behind the Brooks.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1...050NY11952.htm


Larger link here


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Original link here, 19 pics in all, can post more full size here if requested -> http://www.metmuseum.org/collections...90036655?img=0

[Lpeters199]

http://barnstormingwithfrankbarning....q=Polo+grounds

[Joe Barrie]

Hey guys, I posted this about 500 posts ago, #2792, from a great find by LP, but the links had been dead for some time. They're now updated, and now with the newer larger pic size allowed within the forum here, more glorious than ever, so I decided to quote it to make it current, since no one would find the updated pics otherwise. Enjoy.

9/5/52, Friday day game, Giants win 5-4, with 3 in the bottom of the 8th on two HRs by Thomson and Hartung. Still left them 6 behind the Brooks.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1...050NY11952.htm


Larger link here


Larger link here


Larger link here


Larger link here


Larger link here


Larger link here


Larger link here


Larger link here

Original link here, 19 pics in all, can post more full size here if requested -> http://www.metmuseum.org/collections...90036655?img=0

The last photo in the set is of particular interest. Leo is arguing with an umpire after the third out has been made, but one can also see Jim Gorey, the PA announcer standing next to the home plate umpire. He always pronounced "Giants" with the "A' sound, so there was only one syllable. He also furnished the new baseballs to the umps.

[SultanOfWhat]

Those are some great color images. Sixty years ago, in brilliant color and sunshine.

On the city seals in the roof frieze, it is hard to believe we can't get any better views than those I posted about 18 months ago (from the Library of Congress images).

Here's the link to my original post in this thread (page 86), with the comparison:

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showth...78#post1788078

Comparison pics posted then:










Hopefully a better view will eventually turn up. Part of the problem is that the roof frieze was only in place from mid-1911 to late 1921. Portions of the city seals frieze were peeling off and falling into the stands below, which is one reason they were removed. The lion motif frieze on the facing of the upper deck was in place for a few years more.


Here is an article snippet from the NYT of 1921 Oct 23 regarding the intended removal of the "fresco work":



Full article:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstrac...o+grounds&st=p


One nice thing to figure out would be the total number of frieze panels for the city seals roof frieze and the lion frieze.


Came across another article of interest, regarding the paving of the Speedway for automobile traffic (1922 March 5):

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstrac...o+grounds&st=p

[mjrbaseball]

Hey guys, I posted this about 500 posts ago, #2792, from a great find by LP, but the links had been dead for some time. They're now updated, and now with the newer larger pic size allowed within the forum here, more glorious than ever, so I decided to quote it to make it current, since no one would find the updated pics otherwise. Enjoy.

9/5/52, Friday day game, Giants win 5-4, with 3 in the bottom of the 8th on two HRs by Thomson and Hartung. Still left them 6 behind the Brooks.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1...050NY11952.htm


Larger link here

•
•
•

Original link here, 19 pics in all, can post more full size here if requested -> http://www.metmuseum.org/collections...90036655?img=0

These are great. Thank you for posting them.

I especially like the first one as I am a scoreboard buff, and this is the first photo I have seen that shows the entire PG board in one image — and in color yet! And the resolution is large enough that I can make a crop for my scoreboard pic collection.

[fishermanjim]

I wish my Dad was still here so he could see this pictures. He spent many days & nights of his youth at the Polo Grounds watching both the baseball & football Giants. He also saw the Titans play at the Polo Grounds several times....he and the other 75 people that bothered to show up for the games.

[SultanOfWhat]

Should have posted a direct comparison image in the first place. This one includes a different Pittsburgh city seal (the old one, from 1876, which seems to have been the one still in use in 1911 when the decorations for the Polo Grounds were made, as the next Pittsburgh city seal I can find was created in 1916).




Here is a view with the colors inverted. Gives a different view.

[Lefty Bunter]

alpineinc,

Thanks for those splendid photos of the Phils-NYG 1952 game.

They rank with the best I've seen on the web.

[alpineinc]

These are great. Thank you for posting them.

I especially like the first one as I am a scoreboard buff, and this is the first photo I have seen that shows the entire PG board in one image — and in color yet! And the resolution is large enough that I can make a crop for my scoreboard pic collection.

Yeah, the larger resolutions on these are over 3000 pixels across, so there's a wealth of details that can be seen from these. Here's a crop of the scoreboard in its entirety that you referenced. Like all the guys in the upper deck just hanging with their shirts off in the blazing sun, many of them older. Wouldn't catch me doing that at Citi Field, lol.

DP44243a.jpg

[alpineinc]

alpineinc,

Thanks for those splendid photos of the Phils-NYG 1952 game.

They rank with the best I've seen on the web.

The credit goes to LPeters, who discovered the original site, and yes, they are glorious, probably my favorite overall PG set as well. Glad to bring them back to light.

[Lpeters199]

The credit goes to LPeters, who discovered the original site, and yes, they are glorious, probably my favorite overall PG set as well. Glad to bring them back to light.

Thanks, alpineinc. Let's hope there are other treasures out there waiting to be found.

This is a Felix the Cat silent cartoon from 1922. It has a couple short crowd scenes filmed at the Polo Grounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G8BjJmU4lE

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WORLD-SERIES...#ht_4563wt_936

[milladrive]

The Polo Grounds [IV] thread is now opened for business, as are all four individual Polo Grounds threads.

Special thanks to alpineinc for his detailed help with the project.

[alpineinc]

September 1956











http://images.google.com/hosted/life...c54d8c3af.html