"The single most historic modern stadium in the world"

Whatever became of those plaques visible in the shot of the well at the Polo Grounds?

For those who aren't aware, it's amazing how close together the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium were:

 

Screw that. How did they get the roads that empty?

EDIT: I wasted post 3k on that? Gaack.

 

I'll nominate Griffith Stadium, DC. It had a beer garden past the centerfield fence!

 

There were a lot less cars in the '50s




(The 1850s) [/allyouassholeswhomakeagejokes]

 

Good point on the older Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. I should have said, deepest in the last 20-25 years or so.

 

What an awesome picture of those two New York stadiums. I had no idea they were that close to one another.

Not being a New Yorker, does that mean the Polo Grounds were in Harlem? That is the Harlem River in the middle of the picture, right?

And that little rise behind the home plate side of the Polo Grounds, is that the famous Coogan's Bluff?

Like I said, awesome.

 

Right on all counts Double J....
Polo Grounds was 155th St (Coogan's Bluff) in Manhattan, Yankee Stadium 161st St in Bronx...

The smaller bridge (closer to Polo Grounds) is the Macombs Dam Bridge. Large bridge near Yankee Stadium is Madison Ave. Bridge.

 

LA Coliseum configured for baseball:

 

The monument in center field of the Polo Grounds was a tribute to "Harvard" Eddie Grant, a Giant who was killed in WWI.

The plaque was stolen after the last Giants' game in the Polo Grounds, then returned to a nearby police precinct, from whence it disappeared.

The Eddie Grant Memorial plaque, originally anchored to a stone monument at New York’s Polo Grounds and dedicated to the first major league ballplayer killed in action in World War I. The plaque, whose whereabouts remained shrouded in mystery for over 40 years, was recently discovered in the attic of a Ho Ho Kus, New Jersey home formerly owned by a New York City police officer.


Two excellent sources: "The Giants of the Polo Grounds," by Noel Hynd, and a history of the Polo Grounds book whose autoor I can't remember.

FYI, Jack Kemp threw the final TD pass there, in 1962 or 1963 against the New York Titans.

 

Apparently the same wrecking ball was used on both Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds. Fitting, isn't it?

This makes me long for the days of the Mistake By The Lake, officially known as Exhibition Stadium and the only major league ballpark where the outfield bleachers were covered but the rest of the seats weren't.

It was also the site of the only game in MLB history where the field was completely covered by snow -- April 7, 1977, the day the Toronto Blue Jays were born. Here's what the field looked like. They brought a Zamboni down from Maple Leaf Gardens to clear the snow away until it finally stopped falling.



And here's the stadium during times of more pleasant weather.



Ah, the memories. A few years ago, before his tragic suicide, one of the Toronto papers took original hero Doug Ault down to the site of the stadium and had him pose where home plate had been, the spot where he hit the first two home runs in franchise history on that magical day.