1.
Polo Grounds
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The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963. The third Polo Grounds, built in 1890 and renovated after a fire in 1911, is the one generally indicated when the Polo Grounds is referenced. It was located in Coogans Hollow and was noted for its distinctive shape, very short distances to the left and right field walls. As the name suggests, the original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876, in baseball, the original Polo Grounds was home to the New York Metropolitans from 1880 until 1885, and the New York Giants from 1883 until 1888. The Giants played in the second Polo Grounds for part of the 1889 season and all of the 1890 season, and at the third and fourth Polo Grounds from 1891 through 1957. The Polo Grounds was also the field of the New York Yankees from 1913 until 1922. It hosted the 1934 and 1942 Major League Baseball All-Star Games, in football, the third Polo Grounds was home to the New York Brickley Giants for one game in 1921 and the New York Giants from 1925 to 1955. The New York Jets of the American Football League played at the stadium from the inaugural season of 1960 through 1963. Other sporting events held at the Polo Grounds included soccer, boxing, the last sporting event at the Polo Grounds was a football game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills on December 14,1963. Shea Stadium opened in 1964 and replaced the Polo Grounds as the home of the Mets and Jets, the Polo Grounds was demolished over a period of four months that year and a public housing complex, known as the Polo Grounds Towers, was built on the site. The original Polo Grounds stood at 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, directly across 110th Street from the northeast corner of Central Park. The venues original purpose was for the sport of polo, and its name was merely descriptive, not a formal name. For this purpose the ownership built a second diamond and grandstand at the park, dividing it into eastern and western fields for use by the Giants and Metropolitans respectively. Polo Grounds I thus hosted its first Major League Baseball games in 1883 as the stadium of two teams, the American Association Metropolitans and the National League Gothams. George Cricket Grounds on Staten Island in 1886, the original Polo Grounds was used not only for Polo and professional baseball, but often for college baseball and football as well—even by teams outside New York. The earliest known surviving image of the field is an engraving of a game between Yale University and Princeton University on Decoration Day, May 30,1882. Yale and Harvard also played their traditional Thanksgiving Day game there on November 29,1883, New York City was in the process of extending its street grid into uptown Manhattan in 1889. Plans for an extended West 111th Street ran through the Polo Grounds, City workers are said to have shown up suddenly one day and begun cutting through the fence to lay out the new street
2.
John McGraw
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John Joseph McGraw, nicknamed Little Napoleon and Mugsy, was a Major League Baseball player and long-time manager of the New York Giants. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, while primarily a third baseman throughout his career, he also played shortstop and the outfield in the major leagues. Much lauded as a player, McGraw was one of the standard-bearers of dead-ball era baseball, even with his success and notoriety as a player, he is best known for his managing, especially since it was with a team so popular as the New York Giants. His total of 2,763 victories in that capacity ranks second overall behind only Connie Mack, McGraw is widely held to be the best player to become a great manager in the history of baseball. McGraw also held the MLB record for most ejections by a manager until Bobby Cox broke the record in 2007, McGraws father, whose name was also John, and his older brother Michael immigrated from Ireland in 1856. Their last name is spelled McGrath but pronounced McGraw and he and his brother had arrived in time for the Civil War, and were drawn into the conflict as part of the Union army. Shortly after the war, he married and McGraws older half-sister was born, John McGraw, Sr. s first wife died, and he began moving around looking for work—a search that ultimately led him to Truxton, New York, in 1871. It was there that the elder John McGraw married young Ellen Comerfort and they had the younger John McGraw on April 7,1873. The younger John McGraw was named John after his father, even as a baby, young Johnny had raven hair, and eyes so dark that many people thought they were black. The boys birth was the first of many to the family, the sheer number of children, combined with the paucity of well-compensated work led to hard times for the large family. It was often a struggle simply to have food for everyone. Tragedy struck the family in the summer of 1883, when a debilitating fever swept through the family, johnnys half-sister Annie,13, was the first to succumb, and his mother died shortly thereafter. By the time September 1883 had passed, three more McGraw children had died, the devastated family moved from their house in the country into a hotel in town. Johnnys father, understandably bitter, heaped even more responsibility on the boys shoulders. He became abusive toward the boy, and later on in 1885, from that day onward, he was raised by a kindly neighbor, Mary Goddard, under whose care he did quite well. He quickly became the best player on his school team, shortly after his 16th birthday, he began playing for his towns team, the Truxton Grays, making a favorable impression on their manager, Albert Bert Kenney. While he could play any position, his ability to throw a big curveball made him the star pitcher, McGraws relationship with Kenney precipitated his professional playing career. In 1890, Kenney bought a portion of the new professional franchise in Olean
3.
Christy Mathewson
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He was among the most dominant pitchers in baseball history, and ranks in the all-time top ten in several key pitching categories, including wins, shutouts, and ERA. In fact, he is the only pitcher in history to rank in the top ten both in career wins and in career ERA, if taking 19th century pitchers statistics into account. Mathewson grew up in Factoryville, Pennsylvania, and began playing baseball when he was 14 years old. He played in the leagues in 1899, recording a record of 21 wins. He pitched for the New York Giants the next season but was sent back to the minors and he would eventually return to the Giants and go on to win 373 games in his career, a National League record. He led the Giants to victory in the 1905 World Series by pitching three shutouts, Mathewson never pitched on Sundays, owing to his Christian beliefs. Mathewson served in the United States Armys Chemical Warfare Service in World War I and his respiratory system was weakened from the exposure, causing him to contract tuberculosis, from which he died in Saranac Lake, New York. Mathewson was born in Factoryville, Pennsylvania and attended school at Keystone Academy. He attended college at Bucknell University, where he served as class president and he was also a member of the fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta. His first experience of baseball came in 1895, when he was just 14 years old. The manager of the Factoryville ball club asked him to pitch in a game with a team in Mill City. Mathewson helped his team to a 19-17 victory, but with his batting rather than his pitching. He continued to play baseball during his years at Bucknell, pitching for minor league teams in Honesdale and Meridian, Mathewson was selected to the Walter Camp All-American football team in 1900. In 1899, Mathewson signed to professional baseball with Taunton of the New England League. The next season, he moved on to play on the Norfolk team of the Virginia-North Carolina League and he finished that season with a 20–2 record. He continued to attend Bucknell during that time period, in July of that year, the New York Giants purchased his contract from Norfolk for $1,500. Between July and September 1900 Mathewson appeared in six games for the Giants and he started one of those games and compiled a 0–3 record. Displeased with his performance, the Giants returned him to Norfolk, later that month, the Cincinnati Reds picked up Mathewson off the Norfolk roster
4.
Fred Tenney
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Over his career, Tenney compiled a batting average of.294,1,278 runs scored,2,231 hits,22 home runs, and 688 runs batted in in 1,994 games played. Born in Georgetown, Massachusetts, Tenney was one of the first players to enter the league after graduating college, signing with the Beaneaters, Tenney spent the next 14 seasons with the team, including a three-year managerial stint from 1905–1907. After retiring from baseball, Tenney worked for the Equitable Life Insurance Society before his death in Boston on July 3,1952, Tenney was born in Georgetown, Massachusetts, the third of five children to Charles William and Sarah Lambert Tenney. Charles Tenney attended Dummer Academy from 1850 to 1853, and served for the 50th Massachusetts Regiment in the Civil War, growing up, Fred led his class in drawing and sketching. He reportedly started playing baseball around 1880, in 1892, Tenney played his first professional game for the Binghamton Bingos of the Eastern League, going 1 for 4 with a single. He played as Brown Universitys catcher for the 1893 and 1894 seasons, in 1894, the team had a 23–8 record and were selected as national champions by Harpers Weekly. In his MLB debut on June 16,1894, Tenney had to be removed from the game in the fifth inning due to a finger on his throwing hand from a foul tip. After Tenney had his finger addressed, James Billings, an owner of the Beaneaters, Tenney, later writing about the day, stated, I thought they were trying to have a little joke with me, and I concluded that I could do a little kidding myself. So I thought I would call their bluff by asking for some advance money, I screwed up my courage and asked Mr. Billings whether, if I signed the contract at once, I could get some advance money. He asked how much I wanted, and I thought I would mention a big sum in order to call their bluff good and strong. He consulted with Mr. Conant, another Director, and said that I could have the money all right and he returned to the team a month later, and finished the year batting.395 in 27 games. The following season, Tenney moved to the due to an erratic throwing arm behind the plate. For the season, he hit.272 in 49 games, in 1896, Tenney again caught and played outfield, offensively, however, Tenney hit.336 in nearly double the games from the previous year despite playing in the minors for the Springfield Ponies. In 1897, Tenney moved to first base to replace the aging Tom Tucker, according to Alfred Henry Spink, within two weeks of the move it was evident that Tenney had become one of the finest first sackers that the game ever seen. On June 14,1897, in a game against the Cincinnati Reds, Boston again won the NL in 1898 while Tenney hit.328 with 62 RBIs. In 1899 he collected 209 hits, fifth most in MLB, in 1900 Tenney, at age 28, batted.279 over 112 games played. He began a streak of seven seasons where he led the NL in assists in 1901, he holds the record for most seasons leading a league in assists, with eight. For the season, he hit.313, with 41 RBIs, in 1904, Tenney again led his team in walks and on-base percentage, as he tied for the team lead in runs with Ed Abbaticchio
5.
Cy Seymour
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James Bentley Cy Seymour was an American center fielder and pitcher in Major League Baseball. From 1896 through 1913, Seymour played for the New York Giants, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, primarily a center fielder, Seymour retired with 1,724 hits and a lifetime batting average of.303. He was a pitcher for his first five seasons, ending his MLB career with a 61–56 win–loss record, only Babe Ruth retired with more combined wins and hits. Seymour is the Reds career leader in batting average and holds the Reds single-season record for batting average, Seymour played semi-professional baseball in Plattsburgh, New York, receiving a monthly salary of $1,000. He began his career in minor league baseball with Springfield Ponies of the Class-A Eastern League. Seymour signed with the New York Giants of the National League during the 1896 season, a sometimes wild pitcher, The New York Times described him as having a $10,000 arm and a $00,000 head. Seymour set a MLB record with three errors in one inning, a record tied by Tommy John. However, he pitched to an 18–14 win–loss record in 1897, with a 3.37 earned run average, while recording 149 strikeouts, good for second in the NL. In 1898, he won 25 games, had a 3.18 ERA, during the season, Seymour pitched three games in two days against the Baltimore Orioles. Orioles manager John McGraw later said that Seymour deserved the title of Iron Man more than Joe McGinnity. Seymour held out from the Giants for the first month of the 1899 season in a dispute, eventually signing for $2,000. He finished second in the NL in strikeouts with 142, Seymour was briefly demoted to the minor leagues after walking 11 batters in a victory against the St. Louis Perfectos on June 7,1900. Due to injuries and the ineffectiveness of the Giants outfielders, the team began to play Seymour in the outfield, Seymour last pitched for the Giants that season, at which point he converted into an outfielder full-time due to injury from throwing the screwball. With the formation of the American League as a competitor to the NL, McGraw, remembering Seymours toughness in previous seasons, signed Seymour to his team, the Baltimore Orioles, before the 1901 season. Seymour batted.303 with the Orioles that year, by 1902, the franchise began to fall into significant debt. Joe Kelley, star player for the Orioles and son-in-law of part-owner John Mahon, unable to afford that debt, Mahon purchased shares of the team from Kelley and player-manager McGraw, who had resigned from the team and signed with the Giants. With this, Mahon became the majority shareholder, on July 17,1902, Mahon sold his interest in the Orioles to Andrew Freedman, principal owner of the Giants, and John T. Brush, principal owner of the Cincinnati Reds, also of the NL. That day, Freedman and Brush released Seymour, McGraw, Kelley, McGinnity, Roger Bresnahan, Jack Cronin, and Dan McGann from their Oriole contracts
6.
John T. Brush
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John Tomlinson Brush was an American sports executive who is primarily remembered as the owner of the New York Giants Major League Baseball franchise from 1890 until his death. He also owned the Indianapolis Hoosiers in the late 1880s, under his leadership, the Giants were revived as a franchise after a decline during the 1890s. Brush was also a leader in the formation of the rules that govern the modern World Series and he was one of 11 executives honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame on a Roll of Honor in 1946. Born in Clintonville, New York, Brush was orphaned at age 4 and was raised by his grandfather until he left to business college at age 17. During the Civil War he enlisted in the First New York Artillery in 1863 and he moved to Indianapolis in 1875, eventually opening a department store, and became involved in local baseball as a means of promoting his store. When the National League put the St. Louis Maroons franchise up for sale after the 1886 season, Brush bought it and relocated the team to Indianapolis. He renovated his ballpark, adding a special celebrity box which attracted such figures as President Benjamin Harrison, poet James Whitcomb Riley, in 1888 he offered a tryout to Bud Fowler, but ultimately decided not to challenge the sports color line. Brush also devised a salary scale system which was designed to curtail player salaries, instead of relocating, he kept the team in Cincinnati, and survived a challenge from a short-lived American Association competitor, the Cincinnati Kellys Killers. Freedman left baseball shortly thereafter, with Brush taking over as majority owner and team president, brushs health deteriorated quickly after becoming majority owner in 1902, as he suffered from locomotor ataxia, a nervous system affliction, as well as rheumatism. The Giants won another pennant in 1911, the year in which he oversaw the reconstruction of the Polo Grounds. His funeral was held at St. Pauls Episcopal Church, with accompanying Masonic rites and he was succeeded as Giants president by his son-in-law, Harry Hempstead. In 1913, the Giants organization constructed a stairway from the ticket booths on Coogans Bluff to the Polo Grounds below, Brush Stairway still stands, and was restored by the city in 2013. Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide, baseballLibrary SABR biography New York Times obituary John T. Brush Collection, 1912–1975, Indiana Historical Society John T, Brush – A Power in Baseball
7.
1909 Pittsburg Pirates season
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Led by shortstop Honus Wagner and outfielder-manager Fred Clarke, the Pirates scored the most runs in the majors. Wagner led the league in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss opened the Pirates’ new ballpark, named Forbes Field, on June 30,1909. The Pirates’110 wins remain a record, a record they set in the last game of the season by beating the Cincinnati Reds 7–4 in muddy conditions on October 5. It is in fact the best regular season win percentage by any World Series winning team, may 28,1909, Ward Miller and cash were traded by the Pirates to the Cincinnati Reds for Kid Durbin. Note, Pos = Position, G = Games played, AB = At bats, H = Hits, = Batting average, HR = Home runs, RBI = Runs batted in Note, G = Games played, AB = At bats, H = Hits, Avg. The matchup was billed as one between the major leagues’ two superstars. Wagner thoroughly outplayed Cobb, and rookie Babe Adams won all three of his starts, as the Pirates won in seven games
8.
Road (sports)
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A road game or away game is a sports game where the specified team is not the host and must travel to another venue. Most professional teams represent cities or towns and amateur sports teams often represent academic institutions, each team has a location where it practices during the season and where it hosts games. When a team is not the host, it must travel to games. Thus, when a team is not hosting a game, the team is described as the team, the visiting team, or the away team. The venue in which the game is played is described as the stadium or the road. The host team is said to be the home team, major sporting events, if not held at a neutral venue, are often over several legs at each teams home ground, so that neither team has an advantage over the other. Occasionally, the team may not have to travel very far at all to a road game. These matches often become local derbies, a few times a year, a road team may even be lucky enough to have the road game played at their own home stadium or arena. This is prevalent in college athletics where many schools will play in regional leagues or groundshare. The related term true road game has seen increasing use in U. S. college sports in the 21st century, while regular-season tournaments and other special events have been part of college sports from their creation, the 21st century has seen a proliferation of such events. These are typically held at sites, with some of them taking place outside the contiguous U. S. or even outside the country entirely. In turn, this has led to the use of true road game to refer to contests played at one home venue. In some association football leagues, particularly in Europe, the teams fans sit in their own section. Depending on the stadium, they will either sit in a designated section or be separated from the home fans by a cordon of police officers. However, in the leagues in England, supporters may be free to mix. When games are played at a site, for instance the FA Cup final in England which is always played at Wembley Stadium. This results in each team occupying one half of the stadium and this is different from other sports, particularly in North America, where very few fans travel to games played away from their home stadium. Home and away fans are not separated at these games
9.
Rube Marquard
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Richard William Rube Marquard was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 1910s and early 1920s. He achieved his greatest success with the New York Giants and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. Rube Marquard was born in Cleveland, Ohio to German immigrant Fred Marquard, Marquard claimed an 1889 date of birth, but 1900 census data and a birth certificate show an 1886 date of birth. Lena Marquard died of an infection in 1899 and Rubes grandmother took responsibility for raising him. Marquard quit school after the grade, biographer Larry Mansch writes that he simply refused to attend any longer. Newspaper reports first mentioned Marquard in 1905 when he played with a team in Cleveland. Though pitching for a team that had a 1-15 win-loss record at one point. He broke a City League record with 16 strikeouts in a game against a known as Brittons Printing. In September, the City League season finished and he signed with the semipro Telling Strollers and he started his minor league baseball career in 1906. Despite his nickname, he was a city kid, as he told it in The Glory of Their Times, a writer in his minor league days compared him favorably with Rube Waddell, and very soon Marquard was being called Rube also. In 1907, he went 23-13 with a 2.01 earned run average, in 1908, he went 28-19 with a 1.69 ERA and led the American Association in wins. From 1911 to 1913, Marquard won at least 23 games each season, in 1911, he led the league with 237 strikeouts. In 1912, he led the league with 26 wins and he also made baseball history by winning 19 decisions in a row. Marquard allegedly celebrated by buying an opal stickpin to reward himself, upon being told by a friend that opals were a jinx, he threw the pin into a river, but apparently the curse had already done its work, as he lost his next decision. In 1914, Marquard went 12-22, and in 1915, he joined the Brooklyn Robins and he helped the team win pennants in 1916 and 1920. He then played for the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves, Marquard finished his major league career in 1925 with a record of 201–177 and a 3.08 ERA. His 1,593 strikeouts, at the time, ranked third in league history among left-handers. He later pitched and managed in the leagues until 1933
10.
Larry Doyle (baseball)
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Lawrence Joseph Doyle, nicknamed Laughing Larry, was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball from 1907 to 1920 who played almost his entire career for the New York Giants. The National Leagues outstanding second baseman during the 1910s, he was awarded the 1912 Chalmers Award as the leagues best player, and won the 1915 batting title with a.320 average. Born in Caseyville, Illinois, Doyle was a third baseman in the minor leagues before his contract was purchased by the Giants for a then-record $4,500. He debuted with the Giants on July 22,1907, arriving late after taking the boat across the Hudson River, he cost his team the game with a ninth-inning error. Doyle moved to Breese, Illinois, where his family owned a motel next to the current city hall.308 average,1910 saw a slight dropoff, though he was still third in the NL in home runs and fourth in runs scored. Doyle also led the league with 25 triples, the most by an NL player since 1899 and he stole 30 bases for the third consecutive year, and finished fourth in the league in home runs and fifth in runs. He again doubled and scored for a 1–0 lead in the first inning of Game 6, but the Giants lost the game 13–2, and with it the Series. Doyle then had a 1912 season which was even better. In the 1912 World Series against the Boston Red Sox he only hit.242, though he scored the first run in a Game 6 victory and was 3 for 4 with a home run in an 11–4 rout in Game 7. But he was 0 for 5 in Game 8 as the Red Sox won 3–2 in ten innings, after New York took a 2–1 lead in the top of the 10th, to capture the title. In 1913 the Giants won their third straight pennant, although he batted only.280 and that year, he became the first player to hit a home run out of the Polo Grounds. He had a more dismal 1913 World Series, hitting only.150 against the Athletics as the Giants lost in five games. In 1914 he slipped to a.260 average, but was fourth in the league in runs, on July 17, he hit a home run in the top of the 21st inning to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3–1. He enjoyed renewed success in 1915, however, winning the crown with a.320 average. He also led the league in hits for the second time, Doyle was also second in the NL in runs and fifth in slugging. He hit.261 in his return to the Giants before having his last outstanding season in 1919, that year he again was league runnerup in slugging with a.433 average, and was fifth in home runs. He batted.285 in his season in 1920, and was granted his release so he could manage the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League. At the time, he was within five games of Johnny Evers league record for games at second base
