And what would a "Chinese" home run be? Well, it's hardly an adjective that's now used, but it used to mean a homer that didn't travel very far before it went over the fence, usually a "short porch." Old baseball stadiums had very much asymetrical configurations. The old Yankee Stadium was famous for its short right field porch of 296 feet. The Polo Grounds in Manhattan where the New York Giants played had a right field line of 258 feet, and just as famously a center field that was 483 feet as seen in the photo of the famous Mays over-the-shoulder catch. (You can see monuments in the outfield.)
The Old Yankee Stadium with its short porch right field was compensated by a 487 foot center field fence. Ball parks of the older era were not the cookie cutter parks that came into vogue in the 1970s as the old ones were demolished. I don't know if its true, but I once heard that the cock-eyed dimensions were a result of ball parks of the older era that had to be built on a singular lot, often very odd shaped; streets were not appropriated for clearing the way for a ball park's construction.
The new parks gave up far fewer inside-the-park-homers and triples where the ball could roll and almost disappear. The Old Yankee stadium had the monuments deep in center and left center field and were in play. If a ball got back there and started bouncing around those monuments, easy triples and inside-the-park-homers resulted.
Fenway Park has the Green Monster in left field, only 310 feet from home plate, but of course you have to hit it over the 37 foot Green Monster.
My father grew up in Manhattan and was a New York Giants fan. I never saw a Giants game there, but I did see New York Met games there while they were waiting for what would be Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadow Park.
We went to some night games at the Polo grounds and perhaps it was my imagination but the games didn't seem to be well lit. Night games now in comparison seem much brighter. Maybe they didn't have as much candle power illumination in the early 60s, or it was the general gloom of the Polo Grounds itself that made you think you were in he dark. The stadium looked like a bombed out battleship, all steel girders. I saw a New York A.F.L. Titans game there was well.
I probably got to see Willie Mays play once when the Giants were in the World Series against the Yankees in 1962. I don't remember which game it was. My father and I sat in the center field bleachers, a day game, of course, and I'll swear admission was 75¢. Bleachers were considered general admission, with no seat assignments. Right field bleachers were preferable, but were the first to get filled up because of their relative short distance from home plate.
Joan Whitney Payson, sister of John Hay (Jock) Whitney, who owned The Herald Tribune (the paper I still miss), was a "sportswoman." She owned Greentree Stables, and her horse Stage Door Johnny won the 1968 Belmont Stakes, keeping Majestic Prince and the jockey Bill Hartack from achieving the Triple Crown. It was my first day at the races.
She was big baseball fan, and adored Willie May, and as soon as the Giants decamped for California she set out to get a National League ball club back in New York. She did. The New York Mets, whose blue and orange colors are evocative of Dodger blue and Giants orange.
Mrs. Payson lived long enough to see her favorite ball player back in a New York uniform when Willie Mays was on the 1973 New York Mets roster and in the World Series. The Mets didn't win the World Series. Mays, like a lot of other superstar ballplayers only had one World Series win. Ted Williams had none.
Of course that didn't diminish Mays's numbers. They were outstanding. One story that Mays liked to tell was when he faced Satchel Paige toward the end of Satchell's career in the Negro Leagues.
Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal relates the story that Willie told him of facing Satchel, hitting a double off him and then coming up to the plate later in the game. Paige purposely walked halfway from the mound to home plate and told Willie: "I'm going to throw you three fastballs and you're going to go sit down." after the at-bat.
Willie swung at the first wo pitches. Two strikes. According to Willie's telling, Satchel threw the third pitch and before it hit the catcher's mitt Satchell was walking off the mound for what he knew would be strike three, and you're out.
Willie swung, and did sit down.
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