Clipping:A history of the original Polo Grounds
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| Date | Wednesday, May 1, 1889 |
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| Text | [from Chadwick's column] So it is good-bye to the Polo Grounds after all. And thereby hangs a tale. The plot of ground bounded by One Hundred and Tenth and One Hundred and Twelfth streets and Fifth and Sixth avenue in this city was enclosed by the Westchester Polo Club in 1879. This club was composed of a choice lot of wealthy representatives of the upper ten—the exclusive “four hundred” were not in existence then—who made a specialty of that very costly sport, polo. They had flourished at Jerome Park, and had created such a stir among New York's fashionable circles that they became ambitious of having a club ground of their own; and so they leased the ground above referred to and it became known as the Westchester Polo Club's grounds and eventually the Polo Grounds. The club opened the grounds in style with a band of music and a crowd of fashionables, with lots of tally-ho coaches and carriages with liveried servants, etc. all in English style, “don't yer know.” As long as the entertainment was free it was crowded by the invited guests, but when half a dollar entrance fee was charged the attendance fell off. In fact, the enterprise as an investment became a pecuniary failure and the club found the grounds an elephant on their hands. Just at this time the Metropolitan Club—a gate-money professional organization which Mr. Day established with his money in September, 1880, and made James Mutrie its manager—finding that it was not profitable to play any more on the old Union grounds, induced the Westchester Polo Club to allow them to use their field on off days, when Polo was not played, and this being agreed to—the Polo people being glad to have a part of their rent paid in this way—the Metropolitan Club began its New York season there on September 15, 1880, and they played their first regular match at the Polo Grounds, on Sept. 29, they having the Nationals as opponents, and they defeated them 4 to 2. the Mets had previously played on the old Union grounds, beginning there on Sept. 15, when they played the Union nine—a picked gate-money team. During their first fall campaign at the Polo Grounds, they played twelve games, of which they won five, including victories over the Chicago, Worcester, Troy, and Cleveland nines, two of their defeats there being at the hands of the Chicago team. [continuing on through 1882] |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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