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bobmc

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Love this shot - greatest catch of its time! Love the look into the stands, the heads in the clubhouse windows, the plaques most probably for Christy Mathewson and Mel Ott or John McGraw, packed Polo Grounds. Those were the daze! I was a mere lad of 11 and loving life as a NYG fan! Black and Orange!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today in 1954 ... <a href="https://t.co/98HRHb9pS3">pic.twitter.com/98HRHb9pS3</a></p>— Sporting News MLB (@SN_Baseball) <a href="

">September 29, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Iconic. Did anyone ever hit one out in CF at Polo Grounds? It was 500+ right?

Dead center in that configuration? No. It was variously 450+ to 505 there and the whole clubhouse was (at least in theory, no one ever tested this) in play. About 80' to the top of the Longines clock, so 505 from the plate, 80' up... nobody ever even hit the CF clubhouse wall on the fly as far as I know. Maybe not even on a roll.

IIRC Joe Adcock and Lou Brock hit the only homers to the stands in LC/RC. (Looking it up... seems Luke Easter also did it in a Negro League game in the 40s, and Hank Aaron did it the game before/after Brock).

If I ever own a ballfield, even if its softball or Little League, it's going to have a 505' sign.

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Dead center in that configuration? No. It was variously 450+ to 505 there and the whole clubhouse was (at least in theory, no one ever tested this) in play. About 80' to the top of the Longines clock, so 505 from the plate, 80' up... nobody ever even hit the CF clubhouse wall on the fly as far as I know. Maybe not even on a roll.

IIRC Joe Adcock and Lou Brock hit the only homers to the stands in LC/RC. (Looking it up... seems Luke Easter also did it in a Negro League game in the 40s, and Hank Aaron did it the game before/after Brock).

If I ever own a ballfield, even if its softball or Little League, it's going to have a 505' sign.

Thanks for this. I knew it was an oblong bathtub shaped park, but wasn't sure of the exact dimensions or if it ever changed. The few times I visited the old (and new) Yankee Stadiums, I made a point to cross the river to see where the Polo Grounds used to be. I love the old arial photos showing how close the parks actually were (within sight of each other).

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Thanks for this. I knew it was an oblong bathtub shaped park, but wasn't sure of the exact dimensions or if it ever changed. The few times I visited the old (and new) Yankee Stadiums, I made a point to cross the river to see where the Polo Grounds used to be. I love the old arial photos showing how close the parks actually were (within sight of each other).

I saw quite a few games there both for the Giants baseball and football clubs. What was amazing was the left and right field foul poles were 294 feet in left (where Bobby Thomson hit his iconic homer) and right (where Don Mueller, Dusty Rhodes and Whitey Lockman hit theirs) but 483 to dead center. The bullpens were so far out, you almost couldn't see the pitchers from the infield stands. There were no barriers in front of them, but they were so far out, there was no problem. Hoyt Wilhelm pitched for the Giants in the early '50s working on his knuckler that he brought to the Orioles. I remember Adcock hitting one out there but forgot or never knew that Flood and Aaron did. Thanks for that Drungo!

Two more shots of center field:

250px-Mays_19540929.JPG

250px-Polo_Grounds_circa_1952.jpg

I saw this in the Wiki entry:

"In the 1992 book The Gospel According to Casey, by Ira Berkow and Jim Kaplan, it is reported (p. 62) that in 1963, Mets manager Casey Stengel, who had bittersweet memories of his playing days at the Polo Grounds, had this to say during a rough outing to pitcher Tracy Stallard, whose greatest claim to fame had been giving up Roger Maris' 61st homer in 1961: "At the end of this season, they're gonna tear this joint down. The way you're pitchin', the right field section will be gone already!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo_Grounds

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The bullpens were so far out, you almost couldn't see the pitchers from the infield stands. There were no barriers in front of them, but they were so far out, there was no problem.

I was in Tampa with some guys from work in May, pretty big baseball fans, and the Rays' park has bullpens down the line in foul ground. They were talking about how no park should have the pens there, too much of a hazard. I mentioned that the Polo Grounds had bullpens in play, in fair territory, and they thought I was kidding.

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I was in Tampa with some guys from work in May, pretty big baseball fans, and the Rays' park has bullpens down the line in foul ground. They were talking about how no park should have the pens there, too much of a hazard. I mentioned that the Polo Grounds had bullpens in play, in fair territory, and they thought I was kidding.

That is so fricking amazing. Am I imagining it or were there sometimes batting cages way out there, too? The kind they have for BP. I thought I saw some pics somewhere.

By the way, Bob - that Casey quote was hilarious!

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