Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-08-21
WIN, LOSE OR
NNAHV By FRANCIS STANN
Where Giants Once Walked
IF AN ARENA COULD possess a hea

tongue if it could talk and remnisce then the Polo
Grounds could provide endless delight for the most ardent
sports listener For 81 years there has been magic
to the sound Polo Grounds"
Now, barring the shift of another National League
ball club to New York in the future, there be
Polo Grounds 1t will be diSmantled, with the rocky
heights of CooganS Bluff echoing the noises Of bull
dozers and great iron balls that level edceS of steel and
concrete housing project will be established the site
The Giants have fed Where not the
Yankees the Dodgers seriously challenged their popu
larty and loyalty, the are taking off for new
pastures on the West Coast
The Giants longer able to match the pennant
pace of the Yankees 2S pennants counting this years.
since 1920 They trailed the Dodgers in ability
lowing sx pennantS in 10 years. NOT counting this year.
The Giants now have given up the ghost.
They've won five remnants since 1888 This is better
than Senators, true but the Washington club
bucking the Yankees and Dodgers.
OLD TIME NEW WORKERS will regret the close of
the 81 baseball and the Giants departure Maybe
the present generation has not followed the Giants
favoring the Yankees and Dodgers But there
boards to whom the Polo Grounders the most
In the heyday of the Giants before the Yankees
the Hghanders the Giants THE team Throngs
tumbled down from the elevated railroad and climbed
from the subway tunnel to cheer the Giants From the
rocks of Coogans Bluff they caught brief gmpses of
players and with the advent of portable radios they
little and heard little
They binoculars and munched on sandwiches
these pre-TV free-loaders the cliffs They gmpsed
some great Giants beginning with Muggsy McGraw and
going down the line There McCinnity and
Chrisy Mathewson frankie Frsch and Henie Groh Ross
Youngs and Art Nehf Casey Stenge Beauty Bancroft
Bill Terry and Mel Off, Carl Hubbell and OH a score
or more of others
The Dodgers across the river were bufoons The
Yankees did buy big guy named Babe Ruth in 1920 and
he stepped his pace his way toward knocking
home and definitely established the American League
team competition. With Ruth a guarantee of loyalty,
the Yankees ceased paying rent to reluctant landlord
McGraW, and built their sta
the river.
MANY OF THE GREAT fighters slugged it out in the
Polo Grounds, snguarly shaped field that used for
almost sport except polo That Sugar Ray
Robinson first reganed his mddeweght title by stopping
Randy Turpn in the 10th round when another two or
three minutes of action might have resulted in Robnson
being technically kayoed because of eye cut.
1t seems like only yesterday perhaps but happened
September H. 1851
Many Of the greats of the football world college
and pro, played at the Polo Grounds which actually was
better suited architecturay football than baseball The
Giants of the National Football League began to play
there in 1925 and it under the shadow OF Coogan
Blum that the Giants caused the surrender of the ALL
American Conference upstairs owned by Dan Topping,
president of the Yankees and at that time partowner of
the Stadium, where the AAC teams played
1t had been bitter and costly pro football war the
one between the National League and the Conference
with New York focal point Ironically last season the
Giants moved from the Polo Grounds i. +. to Yankee
Stadum
TWO BIG EVENTS KEPT the Giants from going out
OF business in New York until 1851 there was what
Willard Muln, gifted cartoonst, labeled the Little
Miracle Of Coogans Bluff"
On August II the Giants were trailing the Dodgers
by 1872 1t breeze for Brooklyn Even when
the Giants, managed by Leo Durocher won 16 in row
in September it was conceded to be the Dodgers pennant
But the Giants forced three-gam playon The teams
split the first two games and 1t Brooklyn, AL with
the apparently beaten Giants coming up in the ninth
inning Fans who leaving tell Of how two singles
and double set the scene for Bobby Thomson to hit the
nome run that made 1t 5-4, pennant and defeat in
the World Series by the Yankees in six games
The swan song of for the Giants, as one
writer has put it, came in 1854 They took the lead
on June Is and although sharing 1t briefly never lost II
This was not rated real good Giant team but it is
the one that tipped the Cleveland Indians who had
Just set an American League record OF III wins
They licked the Indians four straight beating Bob
Lemon Early Wynn, Mike Garcia and all the rest of the
renowned Cleveland pitching staff.
Oddly the Giants lost interest The team dropped to
third place in 55 and fans began to stay away Last year
the customers steered shy OF sixth place club Next year
California, here we GOMEZ