May 29, 1882: Metropolitans’ Jack Lynch christens Polo Grounds southeast diamond by ‘Chicagoing’ the White Stockings

On New Year’s Day 1882, Columbia University law school student Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was sworn in to the New York State Assembly, the first step in a political career that took him to the White House.1 That same day, the New York Sun reported that the Metropolitan Base Ball Club had secured a three-year lease for the ballpark that it had been subletting, a few avenues east of the Columbia campus: the Polo Grounds.2

That lease replaced an agreement reached 16 months earlier between the Manhattan Polo Club and tobacco magnate John B. Day that allowed his Metropolitans to play baseball on spacious grounds located between 110th and 112th Streets, just north of Central Park.3 (The polo club held a lease for the use of that land from owner James William Beekman, Jr.4) Day’s agreement gave the Metropolitans access to the field four days a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays) but required that Day hand over 20 percent of all gate receipts.5

After workers hastily prepared a baseball diamond, constructed a grandstand, and enclosed a ballpark area, the Metropolitans hosted the Nationals of Washington D.C. on September 29, 1880, in what was the first professional baseball game in New York City.6  Professional teams had long played in neighboring Brooklyn, then a separate city, but none had ever competed in what had long been the nation’s largest city.

Day was invited to join the American Association for its inaugural 1882 season but declined. He preferred to have his Metropolitans play in the League Alliance, a two-team incubator for the National League, with ample opportunities to play exhibitions against NL, AA, collegiate and amateur clubs. That level of independence allowed Day’s Metropolitan Exhibition Company to set Polo Grounds admission prices, schedule opponents, and negotiate the split of gate receipts as it saw fit.

Having secured control over property usage with its new lease, Day’s company committed to a number of capital improvements, all aimed at boosting attendance and growing revenue.7 A new diamond was fashioned in the southeast corner of the grounds, atop the buried bed of Harlem Creek, accompanied by a surrounding grandstand with a capacity of 2,000 (projected to cost $5,000 [$164,000 in 2026 dollars]).8 A “free stand” (bleacher) was also built along Fifth Avenue to accommodate another 3,000 spectators, free of charge.9 The existing grandstand, adjoining the southwest diamond and sitting deep along the left field line of the new diamond, was earmarked “for the accommodation of ladies and those accompanying them.”10

Initially expected to be completed by April 15, the new stands and playing field were finally ready for use on Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day), May 29, two months into the Metropolitans season.11 By that date, the team had already played 38 games on the southwest diamond. Against NL competition, Day’s charges had won five and lost 11, including two of three in late April against the two-time defending NL champion Chicago White Stockings. Led by 30-year-old Cap Anson, the White Stockings were back in New York to help christen the Polo Grounds’ new southeast diamond. Coming off a two-game series split in Detroit, the White Stockings were tied for third place with the Troy Trojans, 3½ games behind the first-place Providence Grays.

The Metropolitans had also been on the road, absorbing a May 27 blanking in Philadelphia by that city’s League Alliance affiliate, in what was just the Mets’ fifth game away from home.12 The Mets could count on larger Polo Grounds gate receipts than most competitors could muster at their facilities, giving New York the financial leverage to schedule nearly all their matches at home.

The New York Tribune put the Polo Grounds holiday crowd at “over 8,000,” and the New York Times claimed a Polo Grounds record attendance of “fully 8,000,” with the New York Sun estimating only 6,000 were on hand.13 Both new and old grandstands were packed, as were the free sections. Spectators lined the diamond in rows five deep, making it a challenge for police to keep the field clear.

Of that field, the New York Times wrote, “This new playground is laid out in first-class style, and is a great improvement over the old one.”14 A more succinct report from the New York Sun noted simply that “[t]he new ‘diamond’ looked finely from the grand stand.”15

Chicago won the opening toss and elected to take the field first, behind 22-year-old hurler (and Brooklyn-native) Larry Corcoran. A 31-game winner the year before, Corcoran was coming off an ugly May 25 loss in Detroit in which he allowed eight runs on 11 hits and four seven-ball walks.16

The Mets took advantage of batting first by scoring the new diamond’s first run. Veteran shortstop Jack “Candy” Nelson drew a one-out walk, then reached third on a throwing error by Anson, the team’s everyday first baseman who was filling in across the infield for regular third baseman Ed Williamson.17 Nelson scored “amid great cheering” when Anson made another error on a ball hit his way by center fielder Tom Mansell.18 The Chicago captain recovered his wits (and the ball) in time to throw out former White Stocking Frank Hankinson, the beneficiary of Anson’s first error, as he tried to come around to score behind Nelson. Applying the tag was jack-of-all-trades Mike “King” Kelly, who on this day was catching.19

For his starting pitcher, Mets manager and co-founder Jim Mutrie chose Jack Lynch, a New York-native who 20 months earlier had thrown the first professional pitch at the Polo Grounds—as a member of the Nationals. A change (backup) pitcher for the NL Buffalo Bisons in 1881, Lynch shared Mets mound duties with first-year pro Tip O’Neill, destined for stardom as an outfielder.20 The losing pitcher two days earlier in Philadelphia, Lynch was 10-8 overall, but had won only one of his seven starts against NL competition. In an April 28 home loss to Chicago, he had surrendered three runs on four hits in the first inning,  but this time Lynch set the White Stockings down in order.21 

Neither side found a way to score in innings two through five, as both Lynch and Corcoran baffled batters, each delivering the ball “with telling effect.”22 Lynch kept his fielders busy, as none of the outs he secured in this game came via strikeout.

The Mets pushed across a second run in the top of the sixth during a rally that began with Lynch’s leadoff single. An error by Chicago right fielder Hugh Nicol on a ball hit by New York right fielder Steve Brady allowed Lynch to advance to third. Nelson followed with a single, bringing Lynch home.

Chicago finished the 1882 season as the NL’s highest scoring team (7.2 runs per game) but failed to score in the innings that followed. Thrilled at seeing the champs get “Chicagoed” (shut out), fans carried Lynch from the field on their shoulders, “evok[ing] great applause.”23

“New York Goes Crazy,” read the headline of the next day’s game summary in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Metropolitan stock is to-day quoted above par.”24

Lynch was credited by the New York Sun with allowing only a pair of singles, to Corcoran and shortstop Tom Burns, as a high wind kept well-struck fly balls from sailing over the heads of his outfielders. The newspaper chided Chicago for “not knowing how to bat scientifically” against Lynch’s offerings, suggesting that the visitors spent much of the game swinging from their heels.25 The New York Times box score listed three White Stocking singles—two by Corcoran and one by Burns—while noting “several difficult running catches” made by Mets’ left fielder Ed Kennedy.26

Staggered perhaps by their defeat at the hands of the Mets, Chicago lost four of its next five NL contests, then went on a 16-4 tear that put the White Stockings in first place. They successfully defended their NL crown, holding off Providence to register the league’s first three-peat. The Mets handily captured the League Alliance pennant over Philadelphia, paving the way for their admission into the American Association for the 1883 season.

Lynch built on his Decoration Day success by winning six of his next 11 games against NL opponents and finished the year 19-27 against major-league competition in 48 starts; 16-25 versus NL teams and 3-2 versus AA teams. He earned wins against all eight NL clubs, but none were as impressive as this one, his only shutout against a major-league opponent.

The Mets were one of two Day-owned clubs to join the major league ranks in 1883. The other was a newly minted NL entrant (the Gothams) that was also based at the Polo Grounds. A dozen times over the balance of the 1883 season, the southwest and southeast diamonds hosted major league ballgames at the same time,27 each time with the Gothams playing on the newer southeast side and the Mets on the original diamond—the two outfields separated by a flimsy canvas-covered fence.28

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: Jack Lynch, Trading Card Database.

Sources

Metropolitans win-loss records and Lynch’s individual statistics were based on a game log compiled by the author from contemporary box scores and game summaries published in the Boston Globe, Brooklyn Eagle, Buffalo Express, Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Leader, Detroit Free Press, New York Clipper, New York Sun, New York Times, New York Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Philadelphia Times. In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted the following websites: familysearch.com, Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, and Statscrew.com.

Notes

1 “Assembly,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, January 2, 1882: 2.

2 “To Alter the Polo Grounds,” New York Sun, January 1, 1882: 1.

3 “Base Ball Notes,” New York Mercury, September 11, 1880: 8.

4 Beekman, whose family first settled in New York in the mid-1600s when it was the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, is identified as the property owner in an 1884 atlas of New York City. E. Robinson and R.H. Pidgeon, Atlas of The City of New York: Volume II (New York: E. Robinson, 1884), Plates 18, https://wardmaps.com/collections/atlas-of-new-york-city-vol-2-1884.

5 “Sporting Notes,” Buffalo Express, September 11, 1880: 4; “Base-Ball Prospects,” New York Times, March 18, 1882: 8. The agreement also gave the polo club priority access to the grounds in the event of a conflict.

6 “Base Ball in New York,” New York Sun, September 30, 1880: 4; Richard Hershberger, “September 29, 1880: Metropolitan club opens new Polo Grounds with a win,” SABR Games Project,https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/september-29-1880-metropolitan-club-opens-new-polo-grounds-with-a-win/, accessed July 13, 2026. The field and grandstand were in place less than three weeks after the agreement to use the Polo Grounds had been reached.

7 “Sporting News,” Buffalo Post, February 16, 1882: 3; New York Clipper, February 18, 1882: 792.

8 “Sporting News,” Buffalo Express, March 16, 1882: 3. Cost escalation based on CPI inflation calculator at https://www.in2013dollars.com/

9 “In and Out-Door Sports,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 13, 1882: 5; “The Metropolitan Club,” New York Clipper, February 11, 1882: 773; Robinson and Pidgeon, Atlas of The City of New York: Volume II, Plates 18 and 21. The free stand was said to “block up the free-peepers” who had been able to peer at games through gaps in the fencing there.

10 “The Metropolitan Club.” Less than three years since Thomas Edison invented the first long-lasting, incandescent light bulb, the New York Sun reported in April 1882 that the renovated ballpark would be “illuminated with the electric light,” but it was not. Fifty-eight years passed before a Polo Grounds game was played under the lights, and when it was, it was at the fourth instantiation of the Polo Grounds, in Coogan’s Hollow. “Base Ball Yesterday,” New York Sun, April 7, 1882: 3; Michael Nowels, “History travels west as Polo Grounds light towers illuminate Arizona State’s baseball stadium,” Sports Illustrated, April 1, 2015, https://www.si.com/mlb/2015/04/01/arizona-state-baseball-polo-grounds-light-poles.

11 “City and Suburban News,” New York Times, March 11, 1882: 8.

12 “The Philadelphia Wins Another Game,” Philadelphia Times, May 28, 1882: 2. Count based on game log compiled by the author from contemporary game summaries and box scores published in various New York City, Brooklyn and Philadelphia newspapers.

13 “Baseball Games,” New York Tribune, May 30, 1882: 3; “Base Ball Yesterday.”; “A Fine Game In Which the Metropolitans Beat the Chicagos,” New York Times, May 30, 1882: 3. The Times appeared to have forgotten having twice reported crowds of 8,000 at Metropolitans Polo Grounds games the season before. See “The Metropolitans Defeat the Atlantic Club,” New York Times, May 31, 1881: 8 and “Base-Ball at the Polo Grounds,” New York Times, July 26, 1881: 8.

14 “A Fine Game In Which the Metropolitans Beat the Chicagos.”

15 “Base Ball Yesterday.”

16 “The White’s Waterloo,” Chicago Inter Ocean, May 26, 1882: 7. For three seasons beginning in 1881, the NL required seven pitches outside of the strike zone for a batter to draw a walk. That threshold was dropped to six in 1884 and eventually four. Stew Thornley, “Baseball Playing Rules Changes Year by Year Before 1950,” Retrosheet.org, https://retrosheet.org/rules/PlayingRulesYearbyYearPre1950.pdf, accessed July 13, 2026.

17 “New York Goes Crazy,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 30, 1882: 5. The reason for Williamson’s absence from the lineup was left unreported in contemporary game accounts.

18 “A Fine Game In Which the Metropolitans Beat the Chicagos.” One year earlier, Tom was a regular outfielder for the Eastern Association Albany (New York) nine, alongside younger brothers Mike and John. All three reached the major leagues.

19 During the 1882 season, Kelly played 42 games at shortstop, 38 in the outfield, 12 behind the plate, three at third base and one at first base.

20  Converted into a full-time outfielder in 1885 by the American Association St. Louis Browns, O’Neill won back-to-back AA batting titles in 1887 and 1888.

21 “The Metropolitans Beaten by the Chicagos,” New York Times, April 29, 1882: 8.

22 “A Fine Game In Which the Metropolitans Beat the Chicagos”; “Base Ball Yesterday.”

23 “A Fine Game In Which the Metropolitans Beat the Chicagos.” The term “Chicagoed” was first used to describe a shutout in 1870, after the Chicago White Stockings became the first team held scoreless in an National Association championship (regular) season contest. See Rich Bogovich and Mark Pestana, “July 23, 1870: The first “Chicago’ game,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-23-1870-the-first-chicago-game/, accessed September 29, 2026.

24 “New York Goes Crazy.”

25 “A Fine Game In Which the Metropolitans Beat the Chicagos.”

26 “A Fine Game In Which the Metropolitans Beat the Chicagos.”

27 Bill Lamb, “Metropolitan Park (New York), SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/metropolitan-park-new-york/, accessed July 13, 2026.

28 On at least one occasion, the canvas-covered fence negatively affected the home teams playing on either side of it. During games on August 30, the Boston NL nine, playing on the southeast field, was credited with a pair of home runs off the Gothams on balls that landed beyond the fence, while the AA St. Louis Browns earned three runs on a Mets wild throw that rolled under the canvas. “Boston-New York,” Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 31, 1883: 3.