When the Yankees move into their new ballpark next year, the one that they’re leaving behind will never be far from anyone’s mind. People will always be able to say that it was just across the street that legends played for 85 years. Fans will still take the subway to 161st St., still go to the same souvenir shops, still even watch games at a place called Yankee Stadium.
The same cannot be said of the Yankees’ two previous homes, the places they played in Manhattan before they became the Bronx Bombers.
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The reason that the Yankees crossed the Harlem River to play at The House That Ruth Built is that the Polo Grounds was The House That Ruth Was Evicted From. As the famous story goes, the Yankees had been playing at the Polo Grounds since 1913 when they got Ruth from the Red Sox before the 1920 season. That year, their attendance went from 619,164 to 1,289,422. After two more years of being outdrawn in their home park, the Giants told the Yankees to take a hike.
So the Yankees did, with a classic bit of New York attitude, right in the Giants’ backyard. And with Ruth as the drawing card in the Bronx, 161st and River was a much more popular address for baseball than 155th and 8th, where the Giants didn’t draw a million fans in a season until 1945.
Today, the Polo Grounds Towers, a public housing complex consisting of four high-rise buildings, occupies the site of a stadium that was once also home to the Mets as well as both the Giants and Jets (when they were called the Titans). But at a site so rich with the city’s sporting history, only one team is recognized, and barely so.
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“Welcome to the Polo Grounds Towers,” reads a very faded sign on the side of the building at 2971 8th Ave. “This development was built on the location that Willie Mays and the Giants made famous. Let’s keep it beautiful … NYCHA.”
For a couple of young men who have lived at the Polo Grounds their entire lives, the closest connection to baseball is that the buildings rattle on Opening Day during the ceremonial military flyovers, and that on some nights you can hear a sold-out crowd in the Bronx cheering the Yankees’ big hits.
Ronnie, a middle-aged man sitting on a bench outside the 155th St. subway station, has lived at the complex for 32 years, and knows all the history.
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“Some of the older guys still remember, and you hear stories about this being a baseball field, so it’s not really forgotten,” Ronnie says. “They used to have a field back there called the Willie Mays Field before they built the (community) center there.”
While the Yankees’ past isn’t a point of particular focus at the Polo Grounds Towers, their present and future can be seen by climbing more than 100 steps to reach the 155th Street Bridge. From there, both Yankee Stadiums are visible, and a garage at 155th and St. Nicholas Place encourages drivers to park there for Yankee games.
Even having climbed those steps to reach the top of Coogan’s Bluff, walking a mile that’s almost entirely uphill to the Yankees’ original home at 168th St. tells you exactly why they originally were called the Highlanders.
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Appropriately, the Highlanders played at a place called Hilltop Park, which occupied the space from 165th-168th Sts. between Broadway and Fort Washington Ave. Today, the land is still one parcel, all used by New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
While a skybridge over Fort Washington Ave. is adorned with giant banners proclaiming the New York-Presbyterian’s current affiliation with the Yankees as their official hospital, the only commemoration of the site’s baseball history is a home plate-shaped plaque tucked away in a courtyard.
The plaque is currently obstructed by a green mesh screen as part of a construction site, but the screen does not extend all the way to the ground, allowing a hand with a camera to pass underneath and capture the inscription: “Dedicated to Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and the community of Washington Heights by the New York Yankees to mark the exact location of home plate at Hilltop Park, home of the New York Highlanders from 1903 to 1912, later renamed the New York Yankees.”
Jason, a resident of Washington Heights, can’t imagine baseball having been played there.
“I thought it was a joke when someone told me that,” he says. “But they showed me the picture, and I guess they did play here. There’s the proof.”
As the famous story goes, the Yankees had been playing at the Polo Grounds since 1913 when they got Ruth from the Red Sox before the 1920 season. That year, their attendance went from 619,164 to 1,289,422. After two more years of being outdrawn in their home park, the Giants told the Yankees to take a hike.
So the Yankees did, with a classic bit of New York attitude, right in the Giants’ backyard. And with Ruth as the drawing card in the Bronx, 161st and River was a much more popular address for baseball than 155th and 8th, where the Giants didn’t draw a million fans in a season until 1945.
Today, the Polo Grounds Towers, a public housing complex consisting of four high-rise buildings, occupies the site of a stadium that was once also home to the Mets as well as both the Giants and Jets (when they were called the Titans). But at a site so rich with the city’s sporting history, only one team is recognized, and barely so.
“Welcome to the Polo Grounds Towers,” reads a very faded sign on the side of the building at 2971 8th Ave. “This development was built on the location that Willie Mays and the Giants made famous. Let’s keep it beautiful … NYCHA.”
For a couple of young men who have lived at the Polo Grounds their entire lives, the closest connection to baseball is that the buildings rattle on Opening Day during the ceremonial military flyovers, and that on some nights you can hear a sold-out crowd in the Bronx cheering the Yankees’ big hits.
Ronnie, a middle-aged man sitting on a bench outside the 155th St. subway station, has lived at the complex for 32 years, and knows all the history.
“Some of the older guys still remember, and you hear stories about this being a baseball field, so it’s not really forgotten,” Ronnie says. “They used to have a field back there called the Willie Mays Field before they built the (community) center there.”
While the Yankees’ past isn’t a point of particular focus at the Polo Grounds Towers, their present and future can be seen by climbing more than 100 steps to reach the 155th Street Bridge. From there, both Yankee Stadiums are visible, and a garage at 155th and St. Nicholas Place encourages drivers to park there for Yankee games.
Even having climbed those steps to reach the top of Coogan’s Bluff, walking a mile that’s almost entirely uphill to the Yankees’ original home at 168th St. tells you exactly why they originally were called the Highlanders.
Appropriately, the Highlanders played at a place called Hilltop Park, which occupied the space from 165th-168th Sts. between Broadway and Fort Washington Ave. Today, the land is still one parcel, all used by New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
While a skybridge over Fort Washington Ave. is adorned with giant banners proclaiming the New York-Presbyterian’s current affiliation with the Yankees as their official hospital, the only commemoration of the site’s baseball history is a home plate-shaped plaque tucked away in a courtyard.
The plaque is currently obstructed by a green mesh screen as part of a construction site, but the screen does not extend all the way to the ground, allowing a hand with a camera to pass underneath and capture the inscription: “Dedicated to Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and the community of Washington Heights by the New York Yankees to mark the exact location of home plate at Hilltop Park, home of the New York Highlanders from 1903 to 1912, later renamed the New York Yankees.”
Jason, a resident of Washington Heights, can’t imagine baseball having been played there.
“I thought it was a joke when someone told me that,” he says. “But they showed me the picture, and I guess they did play here. There’s the proof.”
