"It's the only ballpark built against a cliff - Coogan's Bluff - so that a patron could walk downhill to a seat. You came slowly down the John T. Brush stairs to the cool of the evening, looking down at the flags and the tiers of brilliant floodlights on the stands and, beyond them, at the softer shimmer of lights on the Harlem River." - Roger Angell, Quote taken from Project Ballpark
Although the wanderlust bug has bitten me hard a time or two, I'm not a 25-Places-I-Must-See type of person. On the other hand, there is a baseball mecca I've always wanted to take, a visit to the site of the old Polo Grounds.
Of course, such a visit to Manhattan would involve two places, the original Polo Grounds just north of Central Park and the second across the Harlem River from Yankee Stadium. I'd like to see both but the first site seems like it would be disappopinting, as all that is there now is a public school and no plaques.
The journey most Giants fans are interested in is that patch of land between the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff where Giants roamed from 1890 to 1957. A trip there could easily conjure up images of McGraw and Matty, Ott and Hubbell, Say Hey patrolling center field. The walk would center around three physical connections to the games played there - a brass historical marker located on the Polo Grounds Tower Houses, Willie Mays Field, an asphalt playground where center field used to be, and the John T. Brush Stairway (Brush was the Giants owner from 1902-1912). The decrepit stairway and the inscription at the bottom which reads "The John T. Brush Stairway Presented by the New York Giants," are the only thing left of the long gone ballpark.
Hopes of making this journey were raised the other day when I visited the New York Giants gang at their spot at Baseball Fever (Giants and Jets to save Polo Grounds stairs -- with the baseball and football Giants it does get confusing sometimes).
The New York Daily News, who first called for the stairs to be repaired this summer (as they noted, they would "serve as a convenient passageway between the upper and lower tiers of Highbridge Park"), is reporting that the five New York teams who used the horse-shoe shaped stadium have donated money to the cause.
(Giants $50,000, Mets $100,000, Yankees, $100,000, NFL Giants $200,000, and the Jets $50,000).
The half million will be added to $400,000 donated by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. The estimated cost is $1.2 million. The Parks Commissioner has begun to arrange for the repair which will become "a vital link between two elevations in Highbridge Park."
The stairway is located at 157th Street and Edgecombe Avenue and has been closed due to its poor condition. The team formally presented it to the city in July 1913 as a memorial to Brush who passed away in 1912, and as "an accommodation to the people going to and from the Polo Grounds." Brush had presided over the re-building after a fire destroyed the wooden stadium in 1911. When it was built, the new Polo Grounds stadium was recognized as surpassing all others. One writer seemed to some it up by lauding its "massive beauty." Another wrote, "the mightiest temple ever erected to the goddess of sport."
This past September, Alex Belth wrote a nice piece for SNY.tv. (For some, Giants not forgotten, New York's third team has devoted group that reminisces). He does as good a job as any I have seen trying to explain why the Dodgers have flat out beat the Giants in the nostalgia and memory games. One issue, no doubt still touchy today, is how safe it was or wasn't at each of the ballparks. Roger Kahn is quoted as saying, "By the middle 50s, there was a sense that it wasn't safe around the Polo Grounds."
Other than a trip to Yankee Stadium, I've never been to that part of New York City. From what I have read, perceptions over its safety, fair or unfair, have lingered. With the John T Brush Stairway being given back to the people of New York City, and the other improvements, perhaps more people will take those steps to where Giants once roamed.
Notes:
Jonathan Mahler visited the Polo Grounds site in March 2001 (My City; Mythic Fields Where Giants and Dodgers Made Miracles, March 30, 2001, New York Times). He writes:
"a blue-and-orange sign posted by the New York City Housing Authority footnotes the history: ''This development was built on the location that Willie Mays and the Giants made famous, Let's Keep it Beautiful.''
"Mays himself was on hand for the dedication ceremony; the rental management office is filled with black-and-white photographs of the event."
Additional Reading
New York City Walk has photos including one marked for where the stairway was located in relation to the Polo Grounds. Nice job!
Uptown Flavor has photos and a link to the New York Daily News report in August.
Loge 13 has a photo of the welcome sign to the Polo Grounds Tower, which I have not seen before.
Yankees and Giants Step Up
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