Jim Mutrie, center, surrounded by
"my big boys, my giants"
There were 6 players on this team who would end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Slugging 1st baseman Roger Connor, shortstop John Montgomery "Monte" Ward, outfielder Jim "Orator" O'Rourke, catcher William "Buck" Ewing, and pitchers Tim Keefe and Michael "Smilin' Mickey" Welch.
Not in the Hall of Fame is manager Jim Mutrie. He managed the 1st team known as the New York Metropolitans -- and, yes, they were called the Mets for short -- to New York City's 1st professional Pennant, in the American Association in 1884. He was then hired away by the New York Gothams, but, in 1886, proud of his player, he publicly called them "my big boys, my giants." And Giants they have been, in New York (from 1886 to 1957) and San Francisco (since 1958), ever since.
Not in the Hall of Fame is manager Jim Mutrie. He managed the 1st team known as the New York Metropolitans -- and, yes, they were called the Mets for short -- to New York City's 1st professional Pennant, in the American Association in 1884. He was then hired away by the New York Gothams, but, in 1886, proud of his player, he publicly called them "my big boys, my giants." And Giants they have been, in New York (from 1886 to 1957) and San Francisco (since 1958), ever since.
The following year, the City of New York launched a construction project that rendered the Polo Grounds, so named because newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett owned it and used it for polo matches, unusable. The Giants played the remainder of the 1889 season at the St. George Cricket Grounds, adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry, roughly where SIUH Community Park (formerly Richmond County Bank Ballpark), home of the Staten Island FerryHawks, now stands.
In 1890, they moved to 155th Street and 8th Avenue in Upper Manhattan, where the northern edge of Harlem meets the southern edge of Washington Heights. That ballpark was named the Polo Grounds, although polo was never played there. It burned down in 1911, and was quickly rebuilt, lasting until 1964.
The title of 1888 was the 1st of 17 Pennants the Giants would win before moving to San Francisco. Between the 2 cities, they now have 23.
The Brooklyn Dodgers, who became the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958, won 13 Pennants in New York City. The New York Mets, who arrived in 1962 as a replacement for both the Dodgers and the Giants, have won 5 Pennants. So that's 35 National League Pennants won by teams in New York City.
The New York Yankees have won the American League Pennant 40 times. That's 75 total Pennants for New York from 1888 onward -- 75 out of 259, or 31 percent of all Pennants won, nearly 1 out of 3.
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October 4, 1888 was a Thursday. These other major league games were played on that day. In the National League:
* The Detroit Wolverines beat the Boston Beaneaters, 3-0 at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Wolverines had won the Pennant in 1887, but rising salary demands led to them losing money, and they went out of business after this season. The Beaneaters were the forerunners of the Atlanta Braves.
* The Philadelphia Quakers beat the Indianapolis Hoosiers, 17-7 at National League Park in Philadelphia. The Quakers were the forerunners of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Hoosiers went out of business after the 1889 season.
* The Washington Nationals beat the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, 5-0 at the Swampoodle Grounds in Washington. After this season, an off-season transaction would be called "nothing but piratical," leading to the Alleghenys being renamed the Pittsburgh Pirates. So they still exist. But these Nationals do not, and are not the current team with that name: They were also contracted out of existence after the 1899 season.
In the American Association:
* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-8 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Both teams were later invited into the NL: Brooklyn in 1890, Baltimore in 1892.
In the 1886-87 off-season, several Brooklyn Grays players had gotten married, so they were called the Bridegrooms. They started using the name Dodgers in 1911. These Orioles are not the current team with the name: They're another franchise that ceased to exist after the 1899 season.
* The Cleveland Blues beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 8-6 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. These Athletics were not the American League team that adopted the name: They went out of business after the 1890 season. The Blues became the Cleveland Spiders, were admitted to the NL in 1892, and were the 4th and final team contracted out of existence by the NL after 1899.
* The Cincinnati Red Stockings beat the Louisville Colonels, 7-3 at Eclipse Park in Louisville. These are not the same Cincinnati Red Stockings that became baseball's 1st professional team in 1869. They were, however, the forerunners of the Cincinnati Reds. The Colonels were dissolved after the 1899 seasons.
* And the Kansas City Cowboys beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-7 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. That ballpark was one of several built on the same site using the same name, the last of them going up in 1909, being renamed Busch Stadium in 1953, and being torn down in 1967. These Browns were invited into the NL in 1892, became the Cardinals, and eventually shared Sportsman's Park with the AL's Browns. The Cowboys weren't so lucky, going out of business after the 1899 season.
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