April 22, 1891: Beaneaters start championship run in first game in new Polo Grounds

The Atlanta National League team traces its history through two previous cities and several nicknames. The franchise was a charter member of the National League in 1876, as the Red Stockings (or Reds, since Cincinnati reclaimed their original name), which also had played five seasons in the National Association prior to that, winning the last four pennants in that organization.

With some of its National Association players still on the roster, the Red Stockings of the National League continued their winning ways, taking two of the first three pennants. Boston finished first again in 1883 but then, often nicknamed the Beaneaters, went through a drought the rest of the decade.

The 1891 Boston team had hopes for improving on the 76-57 record of the previous year, which was good for only a fifth-place finish. The Beaneaters opened their quest on Wednesday, April 22, in New York in what was a new stadium for the National League.

New York also had an entry in the National League in 1876, but its team, the Mutuals, were expelled for not completing their schedule. And it really wasn’t a New York team; the Mutuals played their games at the Union Grounds in the still-separate city of Brooklyn. The Union Grounds had another National League tenant in 1877, a team that had moved from Hartford, Connecticut, and retained the name Hartford Dark Blues. New York fans were understandably reluctant to support a team still identified with a city in a neighboring state, and the Hartford team disbanded after the 1877 season.

When the major leagues returned to New York, it came in the form of two teams: the Metropolitan, which played in the American Association, and a National League team that eventually adopted the nickname Giants. Both teams played on a long field to the north of Central Park that had been used for polo. The Polo Grounds, as this and other stadiums in New York became known, initially had diamonds at opposite ends, sometimes with games going on at the same time.

The Giants outlived the Metropolitan and won the World’s Series in 1888.1 However, it also marked the final games on the original Polo Grounds. Early in 1889 New York City decided to move ahead with plans to extend 111th Street, which at this point had been interrupted by the Polo Grounds between Fifth and Sixth avenues, through the site occupied by the Giants.

The Giants opened 1889 as an itinerant bunch, playing first in New Jersey and then on Staten Island before owner John B. Day found a site just off the Harlem River in the southern half of Coogan’s Hollow in Manhattan, beneath the 155th Street viaduct and along Eighth Avenue. Day was concerned about confusion that might be present with fans as the team prepared for its third home of the season. He knew that New Yorkers associated the name Polo Grounds with his baseball team, so—to send an unambiguous message as to where the Giants would be headquartered—he christened the quarters the New Polo Grounds.2

In 1890 the National League had a neighbor in New York as a new league—the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players—formed. Backers of the New York team in what became the Players’ League leased the northern section of Coogan’s Hollow and built a stadium, Brotherhood Park, next to the Polo Grounds.

The Players’ League lasted only one season, and the Giants moved into the northern space, carrying the name Polo Grounds with them again.

The Giants prepared for the 1891 season with a final exhibition tuneup in Albany, where a new stadium brought out a large crowd, and the same happened the next day in New York.

For Opening Day, the Boston and New York players assembled at 1:00 PM at Wall Street and Broadway and “were driven to the grounds in tallyho coaches. The line of parade was crowded with people, and the players got a royal reception all along the line, and also when they appeared at the grounds.”3

The teams did not play in a brand-new stadium—it had already been used for a season under a different name—but it was the first game with the name Polo Grounds. Attendance of between 15,000 and 20,000 was predicted, and the New-York Daily Tribune reported that “several wagers were made yesterday that the crowd would exceed 20,000.”4

Although the attendance didn’t reach that mark (it was 17,835), a huge crowd was on hand. Before the game, Giants who had remained with the National League team lined up on one side of the field with those who had gone to the Players’ League on the other. The two sides then came together to indicate that past differences were settled and that they were one team again.

The game began at 4:00, the Giants batted first, and they took the lead as George Gore reached base on an error and later scored on a sacrifice bunt by Jim O’Rourke.

Boston tied it quickly in the first as Herman Long hit a long fly into the overflow crowd in left and made it all the way around the bases. Exactly what happened on the play is subject to the newspaper reports and rules of the time. The New York Times description: “Long hit the ball to deep left field amid the spectators. It was a ‘blocked ball,’ and before it could be handled by pitcher Amos] Rusie in his position and sent home Long had scored. It was a close call, however.” The Boston Globe reported, “Herman Long opened well for Boston by hitting the ball into the crowd in left field and scoring, as Rusie failed to remain in his position to receive the dead ball on the return.”5

The play was scored as a triple by Long and an error on Rusie. Quizzed on what may have transpired on the play, John Thorn, the historian of Major League Baseball, wrote, “My guess about the 4/22/91 incident is that Long made three bases cleanly on the ball hit into the overflow crowd and that when the ball was returned to the infield Rusie was not in the box to receive it—an error that permitted Long to continue homeward.”6

The score continued to seesaw as well as the pattern of players following a bad play with a good one—or vice versa.

The Giants took the lead in the third, with Roger Connor singling home O’Rourke, who had gotten aboard when Marty Sullivan lost his fly ball to left in the sun. Sullivan got the run back in the bottom of the fourth as he led off with a walk, stole second, and scored when Mike Tiernan dropped Billy Nash’s two-out fly to right.

The game stayed tied until the ninth when Rusie grounded to short and was safe on first when Long’s throw was wild. Rusie went to second on a passed ball (an error charged on the play to catcher Charlie Bennett, one of five made by the Beaneaters that day), and scored on Gore’s single to left.

Gore undid the good of his hit in the bottom of the inning. Boston had two on and one out when Herman Long sent a fly to center. “Gore started after it, and to the great discomfiture of the vast throng he lost his footing and fell,” reported the Times.7

The Boston Globe provided a different perspective: “Long came up with his long bat and hit the ball hard, but it sailed high and George Gore started to get under it, having plenty of time. He misjudged, however, and then made a muff of it, high over his head, the ball rolling along the field as Gore lay in a heap on the ground, having tangled himself up in reaching for the ball.”8

The New York Tribune had a more scathing slant: “In plain English he [Gore] tried to win applause by making a difficult play out of an easy one, and his bungling caused him to make an error and lose a game in the last inning.”9

The newspapers differed on whether Gore was charged with an error or Long credited with a triple; in either case, two runs scored to give Boston a 4–3 win. The Boston Globe account treated the final play as an error on Gore rather than a triple, but it appears based on the opinion of the Globe writer. Other reporters give Long a triple, albeit a dubious one, and it appears from them that the official scorer did not charge Gore with an error.

The pitchers were a pair of future Hall of Famers. John Clarkson of the Bridegrooms was nearing the end of his career while Amos Rusie was in the early stages of his. Both pitchers would be credited with more than 30 wins in 1891.10 Boston won its first six games, finished 87-51, and went on to win the National League pennant for the first of three straight seasons. And five pennants in eight years.

For the remainder of their time in New York, through 1957, the Giants remained on this field. However, the wooden grandstand burned in 1911 and was rebuilt with a steel and concrete structure. The Polo Grounds name remained and is as synonymous with the National League team in New York as is the name Giants.

Notes

1 The 1888 World’s Series between the Giants and St. Louis Browns of the American Association, was set at 10 games. The fifth game, on October 20, was the final game on the original Polo Grounds. The Giants won that game and went on to win the series, six games to four. Until the Atlanta Braves closed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium with a World Series game in 1996, the Polo Grounds on 110th Street was the only stadium to finish its history with a World’s/World Series game.

2 “A New Baseball Field: The Giants Will Play Games in This City Again: Grounds Secured on the West Side of Town in a Convenient Place,” New York Times, June 22, 1889: 2; “The Giants New Grounds: A Home for Them on Manhattan Island at Last,” New York Tribune, June 22, 1889: 7.

3 “The Ball Is Set Rolling,” New York Daily Tribune, April 23, 1891.

4 “To Open the Baseball Season,” New York Daily Tribune, April 22, 1891.

5 Boston Defeats New-York: Over 17,000 Persons Witness the Opening League Game: The Giants Looked Like Winners to the Ninth Inning, but Lost by an Accident—Brooklyn Defeats Philadelphia. New York Times, Thursday, April 23, 1891: 2; “Grand Send Off: League Teams Begin the Battle for the Pennant: Over 17,000 People See the Game in Gotham: Boston Plays in Luck and Wins in the Ninth.” Boston Globe, Thursday, April 23, 1891: 1.

6 Email correspondence between author and John Thorn, December 31, 2016.

7 “Boston Defeats New-York: Over 17,000 Persons Witness the Opening League Game: The Giants Looked Like Winners to the Ninth Inning, but Lost by an Accident,” New York Times, April 23, 1891: 2.

8 “Grand Send Off: League Teams Begin the Battle for the Pennant: Over 17,000 People See the Game in Gotham: Boston Plays in Luck and Wins in the Ninth,” Boston Globe, Thursday, April 23, 1891: 11.

9 “The Ball Is Set Rolling,” New York Daily Tribune, April 23, 1891.

10 Clarkson is listed with a 33-19 record and Rusie a 33-20 record in 1891 by baseball-reference.com; these numbers have changed through the years. The win in the opener was the 221st of Clarkson’s career (according to the baseball-reference.com accounting). Clarkson is now credited with 328 pitching victories in his career. The Thompson-Turkin baseball encyclopedia, 1963 edition, had each with 34 wins in 1891.