'Sweet Spot' With Mike Sugerman: Polo Grounds, Home Of NY Giants Baseball
"Sweet Spot," by Mike Sugerman
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- On the corner of 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem there's now a big housing development, but it used to be a ballpark.
The Polo Grounds were home of the New York Giants baseball team.
"The Giants left town September 29, 1957. It's embedded in my heard. I was at that game," Carmine Magazino remembers.
He is now 76 years old. You have to be an older American to remember.
"In 1954, I started to go to the Polo Grounds," says Larry Hans. "I was 11 years old. I always thought they'd just come back."
They are members of the New York Giants Preservation Society. It's run by Gary Mintz, who never made it to the Polo Grounds.
He was born four years after the Giants moved to San Francisco. But he has remained a New York Giants fan, because his dad was one and it helps keep the memory of their relationship alive. He says his dad was his best friend.
Members of the group helped in a cleanup effort around the area of the Polo Grounds, which hasn't been kept up as well as it might have.
The Pernod Ricard liquor group allowed 300 of their employees to take a day off of work on June 1 to come to the area around 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard to take part in the day, which was also sponsored by the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and the nonprofit ground Earthshare.
It's hoped that some day there might be a mural near the site to commemorate the Giants' ballpark, the Polo Grounds. There are already some plaques and a restored stairwell that had been used to get fans down to the park from Coogan's Bluff.
The park, and the team, mean a lot to the history of New York and fans are hoping their memory won't die.
