Title/Author:
“The Giants of the
Polo Grounds: The Glorious Times of Baseball’s New York Giants” by Noel Hynd
Tags:
Baseball, professional,
history, Giants
Publish date:
October 1, 2018
Length:
636 pages
Rating:
5 of 5 stars
(outstanding)
Review:
The baseball team currently known as
the San Francisco Giants started its baseball life in New York City, moving
west in 1958. During its stay in the Big Apple, which spanned over eighty
years, the team had a rich history and played in a famous ball park, the Polo
Grounds. This excellent book by Noel Hynd captures that colorful time the
Giants played their home games in the borough of Manhattan.
Probably the most famous man to wear
a New York Giants baseball uniform was John McGraw, the firey manager who first
made a name for himself as a player with the original Baltimore Orioles
franchise. Hynd dedicates a significant
portion of the book detailing the McGraw years of the team and explains in
great detail how the franchise was really his team, even though he wasn’t the
sole owner. Practically every detail one
would want to learn about Mr. McGraw and some of his star players like Christy
Matthewson can be found in this book.
This isn’t to say that other eras
and people important to the history of the Giants are overlooked either. This is especially true for the team in the
1800’s as a reader will learn much about not only the Giants, but the entire
game itself during that time. Hynd talks about the 1890 players’ revolt, the
Giants using other celebrities to entice fans to come to games, such as
Gentleman Jim Corbett and even talks about other teams in New York City throughout
the book. One item this reader learned
in this section of the book was that the current team playing in Queens was not
the first baseball team named the New York Mets. A professional team was formed
in the 1870’s called the New York Metropolitans, but that name was deemed too
long and was shortened to Mets.
Coverage of the team after John
McGraw retired is just as comprehensive, especially for the 1951 and 1954
seasons when the Giants were involved in one of the most famous pennant races
ever (1951) and then engineered one of the bigger upsets in World Series
history up to that point (1954) with the aid of a catch by Willie Mays. It is one that a reader may have heard about
before. Just like with the early history
and the McGraw years, Hynd writes with great detail about the ups and downs of
the Giants, the key personnel and even about some of the other New York
teams.
The detailed writing doesn’t stop at
just baseball as readers will learn about many famous events that took place at
the Polo Grounds, such as legendary boxing matches. Legendary actors and
actresses who either had some type of connection to the team or had other
important connections to New York also received some mention in the book. This makes the book that is an excellent
source for information on anything remotely associated with the Giants and
should be one that is included in the library for readers who are interested in
the New York Giants at any time in their rich history.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
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