The Polo Grounds was the name given to 4 different stadiums in New York City used by Major League Baseball's New York Giants from 1883 until 1957, and by the New York Mets in their first two seasons of 1962 and 1963.

The original Polo Grounds was built in the 1870s for the sport of polo, thus accounting for its name. It was converted to a baseball stadium in 1880, and the name stuck for each subsequent stadium of the Giants. The fourth and final Polo Grounds, which the Giants used until they moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, and which the Mets used until Shea Stadium was completed in 1964, was the most famous, and the one most people mean when they refer to the Polo Grounds.

The original Polo Grounds was located at 110th Street and Sixth Avenue (now Lenox Avenue), just outside the north edge of Central Park. The other three were all located at 155th Street and Eighth Avenue. The latter site, on which a public housing project now stands, is overlooked to the north and west by a steep promontory known as Coogan's Bluff.

The New York Yankees sublet the fourth Polo Grounds from the Giants during 1913-1922 after their lease on Hilltop Park expired. After the 1922 season, the Yankees built a stadium of their own directly across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds.

In football, both the New York Giants and New York Titans/Jets also used the Polo Grounds.

The final stadium was demolished in 1964.

Timeline and teams

• Polo Grounds I
  • Giants (National League), 1883-1888
  • Mets (American Association), 1883-1885
• Polo Grounds II
  • Giants (NL), 1889-1890
• Polo Grounds III
  • Giants (Players League), 1890
  • Giants (NL), 1891-1911
• Polo Grounds IV
  • Giants (NL), 1911-1957
  • Yankees (American League), 1913-1922
  • Giants (NFL), 1925-1955
  • Titans/Jets (AFL), 1960-1963
  • Mets (NL), 1962-1963

External links

• Project Ballpark, Polo Grounds I (http://www.projectballpark.org/history/nl/polo1.html)
• Project Ballpark, Polo Grounds II (http://www.projectballpark.org/history/nl/polo2.html) (covers second through fourth Polo Grounds)
• San Francisco Giants : History : Ballparks (http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/sf/history/ballparks.jsp)
• Map and History of the Polo Grounds (http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/PoloGrounds.html)