June 28, 1911: The Polo Grounds Opens

June 28, 1911: The most familiar version of the Polo Grounds opens.

"Most familiar version"? Let me explain.

In 1880, the New York Metropolitans began playing baseball at a polo field owned by James Gordon Bennett Jr., publisher of the New York Herald, between 110th and 112th Street, and 5th and 6th Avenue. Since baseball fields, like English soccer fields, were usually called "grounds" in those days, it became known as the Polo Grounds.

In 1882, the Metropolitans -- yes, they were called the Mets for short -- joined the American Association. In 1883, the Troy Haymakers of the National League left the Albany area for Manhattan, moved into the Polo Grounds, and became the New York Gothams. In 1886, following a big win, manager Jim Mutrie was overheard calling them "my big boys, my Giants." And they were the New York Giants thereafter.

The Metropolitans won the AA Pennant in 1884, and the Giants won the NL Pennant in 1888. In 1883 and again in 1887, Harvard and Yale played each other in football on Thanksgiving Day at the original Polo Grounds.

In 1886, tired of groundsharing, the Metropolitans and moved to the St. George Cricket Grounds on Staten Island, which, in today's terms, was roughly in the parking lot between the St. George Ferry Terminal and Richmond County Bank Ballpark, where the Staten Island Yankees played. But after the 1887 season, financial concerns led to their demise.

In 1889, New York City -- then consisting of Manhattan Island and part of what is now The Bronx -- decided to extend its 1811 street grid, and chose to extend West 111th Street through the Polo Grounds. The Giants had to get out. They closed that season out at the St. George Cricket Grounds, and won the Pennant again.

Then they moved Uptown, to a new stadium that they called the Polo Grounds, at the terminus of the Ninth Avenue Elevated line, at 155th Street and 8th Avenue, at the foot of Coogan's Bluff.

But this was 1890, and the Players' League challenged the established leagues. They established a team they called the New York Giants, and built a new, better ballpark right next-door, which they named Brotherhood Field. That league folded after just 1 season, and the NL Giants moved in. The 1890 NL ballpark was renamed Manhattan Field, and Brotherhood Field became the Polo Grounds.

At this Polo Grounds, the Giants hired John McGraw as manager, traded for pitching icon Christy Mathewson, won the NL Pennant in 1904, won the Pennant and the World Series in 1905, and blew the 1908 Pennant on Fred Merkle's "Boner" and the subsequent replay against the Chicago Cubs.

This ballpark burned down on April 14, 1911, at the dawn of a new season. As a friendly gesture, the American League's New York Highlanders offered the Giants the use of their home field, Hilltop Park, while the Polo Grounds was rebuilt in fireproof concrete and steel.

On June 28, 1911, the Polo Grounds as most of the world would know it opened. The Giants faced the Boston Rustlers, and won, 3-0. Naturally, Mathewson started, and while he allowed 9 hits, he didn't walk anybody, and kept the shutout. A home run was hit by "Laughing Larry" Doyle, a man who once said, "It's great to be young and a Giant." With a little bit of irony, the home plate umpire was Hank O'Day, the former pitcher whose call overturned the Giants' win in the "Merkle's Boner" game 3 years earlier.

(The Rustlers were named for their owner, William H. Russell, who died right after that season ended. They were bought by James Gaffney, who held the rank of "Brave" in New York's Tammany Hall "political machine," and the team's name was changed to the Boston Braves.)

The Giants won the Pennant in 1911, but lost the World Series to the Philadelphia Athletics. They won the Pennant again in 1912, but lost the World Series to the Boston Red Sox. They won the Pennant again in 1913, but lost another World Series to the A's. That's 3 straight World Series lost. The only other team ever to do that has been the 1907-08-09 Detroit Tigers. The Giants won another Pennant in 1917, but lost the World Series to the Chicago White Sox.

In 1913, noting that the Highlanders, who had just officially changed their name to what people were already calling them, the Yankees, had their 10-year lease at Hilltop Park ended, the Giants offered them a 10-year lease at the Polo Grounds, as a way of thanking them for the use of Hilltop in 1911.

But in 1920, the Yankees signed Babe Ruth, and started bringing a lot more fans into the Polo Grounds than the Giants. The Giants said that, when the lease was up after the 1922 season, there would be no new lease. McGraw said, "The Yankees will have to move to Queens, or some other faraway place, to wither and die." Little did he know that, one day, the New York team in the National League would move from the Polo Grounds to play in Queens, and, usually, not well.

To make matters worse for the Yankees, they won their 1st Pennant in 1921, and again in 1922, but lost the World Series to the Giants both times. The Giants remained the greatest franchise in baseball.

But Jacob Ruppert, the owner of the Yankees, was just fine with leaving the Polo Grounds. He wanted a ballpark he could control. And, despite McGraw and Giants owner Charles Stoneham using their political connections to try to prevent them from getting land for a ballpark, Ruppert got it, and built Yankee Stadium right across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds, at 161st Street and River Avenue in The Bronx. It dwarfed the Polo Grounds. Stoneham expanded the Polo Grounds to 55,987 seats, and it was still over 11,000 seats smaller.

That Autumn, the Polo Grounds hosted the Heavyweight Championship fight in which challenger Luis Firpo knocked Jack Dempsey out of the ring, but Dempsey got back in before the count of 10, and knocked Firpo out. And it hosted another World Series. This time, the Yankees beat the Giants.

In 1924, the Giants won another Pennant, but lost the World Series to the Washington Senators. Later that year, the football team at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York hosted the University of Notre Dame, and Notre Dame won. Nationally-syndicated sportswriter Grantland Rice covered the game, and named Notre Dame's backfield "The Four Horsemen," after the Biblical riders of the Apocalypse.

In 1925, a football team named the New York Giants began playing at the Polo Grounds. They won the NFL Championship in 1927, won the NFL Championship Game there in 1934 and 1938, and lost it there in 1944. They moved to Yankee Stadium in 1956.

The Polo Grounds hosted the Army-Navy game 9 times: 1913, 1915, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1925 and 1927. In 1924, it hosted the game where Notre Dame beat Army, leading the country's leading sportswriter, Grantland Rice, to write a column calling Notre Dame's backfield "The Four Horsemen," comparing them to characters in the Bible's book of Revelation.

On May 1, 1926, a team of American Soccer League all-stars beat the all-Jewish Austrian team Hakoah Wien, 3-0, in front of 46,000 fans. It would remain the largest crowd to attend a soccer game on American soil until 1977.

The baseball Giants won the 1933 World Series, beating the Senators, but lost to the Yankees in the World Series in 1936 and 1937. This team featured slugging right fielder Mel Ott and the great pitcher "King Carl" Hubbell. In 1951, they came from 13 1/2 games behind their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, to win the Pennant in a Playoff game, on what we would now call a walkoff home run by Bobby Thomson. But they lost the World Series to the Yankees.

In 1954, they won the Pennant again, led by Willie Mays, who won the NL batting title. Game 1 of the World Series against the Cleveland Indians featured Mays making a catch that has gone down as the most famous defensive play in the history of sports, and a walkoff home run in the 10th inning by Dusty Rhodes. The Giants swept the Series.

But the stadium and its surrounding neighborhood had begun to fall apart. The Giants left for San Francisco after the 1957 season. Their last game was as 9-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 29.

In 1960, the American Football League was founded, and the New York Titans began play at the Polo Grounds. They would become the Jets in 1963. Also in 1960, the stadium hosted one last title fight, with Floyd Patterson regaining the Heavyweight Championship from Ingemar Johansson.

In 1962, a National League expansion team was placed in the Polo Grounds, the New York Mets. They played 2 terrible seasons there before moving into Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadow, Queens. The Jets joined them. The Mets played the last baseball game at the Polo Grounds on September 18, 1963, losing 5-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies. The last event was the Jets' game on December 14, 1963, a 19-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

On April 11, 1964, just 6 days before Shea Stadium opened, the Kratter Company, the same company that had demolished the Dodgers' home, Ebbets Field, 4 years earlier, used the same wrecking ball, painted to look like a baseball, to demolish the Polo Grounds. In 1968, Polo Grounds Towers opened on the site. It includes a playground known as Willie Mays Field. Across 155th Street is Rucker Park, one of New York's most famous basketball sites.

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June 28, 1911 was a Wednesday. In professional terms, football, basketball and hockey barely existed, and were out of season, anyway. These were the other games played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* A doubleheader was split at Griffith Stadium in Washington, which had also just reopened after a fire at the previous ballpark on the site. The Washington Senators won the opener, 4-3. The Philadelphia Athletics won the nightcap, 16-9.

* The Cincinnati Reds played the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. They were tied 3-3 after 9 innings, when the game was called due to darkness.

* The Cleveland Naps swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox at League Park in Cleveland, winning the 1st game 6-4, and the 2nd game 6-3. The home team was named for their 2nd baseman and manager, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. After he left in 1914, they were renamed the Cleveland Indians, and they became the Cleveland Guardians in 2022.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Browns, 3-2 at Bennett Park in Detroit. At the end of that season, Bennett Park was torn down, and a new ballpark was built on the site. It was named Navin Field. In 1938, it was expanded, and renamed Briggs Stadium. In 1961, it was renamed Tiger Stadium.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-1 at Robison Field in St. Louis.

* And the New York Highlanders and the Boston Red Sox were supposed to play each other at Fenway Park in Boston, but got rained out. The game was made up the next day, as part of a doubleheader. The Y ankees-to-be won the 1st game 3-1, and the Red Sox won the 2nd game 3-2.