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In a post to the outstanding Loge 13, Kingman puts up a great photo of Polo Grounds, where the Mets played prior to Shea.
…great picture, guys…i understand Fred Wilpon was a huge Dodgers fan…i get it, and i respect that…however, speaking as a Mets fan, if Citi Field was going to be a bit of a throwback to the old New York parks of yesteryear, it would have been nice to incorporate parts of the Polo Grounds as well, not just Ebbetts, which gives Citi a Dodgers-only feel…and the Mets are not the Dodgers…
Greg, from Faith and Fear in Flushing, recaps Lenny Dykstra’s spot on HBO’s Real Sports – in case you missed it.
Check out Faith and Fear in Flushing later today for the latest Flashback Friday post.
At Mets Geek, John Peterson introduces you to Bill James, Ken Tremendous and Joe Posnanski.
Lastly, at Hot Foot, Andrew Beaton returns with another edition of Beaton’s Banter.
Conceptually I agree about the Polo Grounds…although there was not alot about that building from everything I’ve seen and read that would be inspiring enough to mimic.
Do you have any insight into the museum that was always listed among the features of Citifield? Will it be a nod to just Mets history or NL-NY baseball as well? Is it even still in the plans?
The Dykstra piece on HBO Real Sports was one of the most interesting (and entertaining) segments I’ve seen in quite some time.
Hearing the origin of his brawl with Rick Dempsey — why it happened, what was said, etc. make me love “Nails” even more.
If you haven’t caught it yet, definitely check it out.
That’s definitely the Mets rather than the Giants in the photo . . Rheingold. Giants had Chesterfield cigs or Knickerbocker beer in centerfield.
If the Wilpons don’t pay adequate homage to the Polo Grounds and the people who got us the Mets - I’m going to call the new yard Shea. It has been done before. Polo Grounds for instance.
The overhanging bleachers in RF as enviosned at Citifield are designed to be a Polo Grounds-ish feature.
Coincidental. Read a quote by Jeff W. saying Tiger Stadium was inspiration for that feature. I like the field dimensions at Citi. Un-Ebbets like. The seating capacity will be a problem before long.
When I was a kid, my Dad took me to two games in the Polo Grounds: the next-to-last game in 1962 (the 9th place Cubs beat the Mets 10-1, for the 119th loss of that season; if my memory serves, it was the first mlb appearance of a 17 year old first baseman out of Erasmus High–Ed Kranepool), and a game in May 1963 (I still have that ticket stub, but couldn’t figure out how to put it into this Comment box; I’ll send it to Matt by email.
The Polo Grounds was one wierd baseball field. As Loge 13’s picture shows, centerfield was miles from home plate. What this doesn’t show is that the outfield walls cut in dramatically from there, so the the left and right field walls were absurdly short distances from home (not that much over 200 feet, as I recall). In 1962, Frank Thomas (the earlier white version) hit 32 HRs because he was a dead pull hitter and got a bunch of “homeruns” from routine flies to left. It would be cool to take some element of the Polo Grounds as a nod to history, but other than its odd dimensions, I don’t think it had a lot of distinguishig features, it was pretty nondescript.
IIRC, Krane went to James Monroe H.S. - Bronx.
There is a collection of 1957 baseball newsreels out there called “Summer of 1957″. You can get dizzy following camera angles at Polo Grounds.