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Who am I and the Creation of Butterball Field

batmagadanleadoff

By batmagadanleadoff
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batmagadanleadoff wrote:
Another aerial view.

[fimg=555]http://www.russmattbaseball.com/data/b-tb/images/venues/HugginsStengelField.jpg[/fimg]


Is that a practice field, or is that where they had the spring games? Looks like there are small stands behind home plate.


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batmagadanleadoff

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Mets Guy in Michigan wrote:
batmagadanleadoff wrote:
Another aerial view.

[fimg=555]http://www.russmattbaseball.com/data/b-tb/images/venues/HugginsStengelField.jpg[/fimg]


Is that a practice field, or is that where they had the spring games? Looks like there are small stands behind home plate.



I don't see the stands, but that's a recent photo. The remaining field (Clendenon) is currently used for local High School baseball games, so that would explain the stands.


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batmagadanleadoff

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[fimg=955:1vbc42fq]http://www.crescentlake.net/uploads/1/0/3/4/10343399/162632_orig.jpg[/fimg:1vbc42fq]

This one's confusing. It's not Butterball Field because there's no water tower out in left field, among other things also missing. But if it's the Clendenon side, why are there residences beyond the left field wall?


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batmagadanleadoff

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batmagadanleadoff wrote:
[fimg=955]http://www.crescentlake.net/uploads/1/0/3/4/10343399/162632_orig.jpg[/fimg]

This one's confusing. It's not Butterball Field because there's no water tower out in left field, among other things also missing. But if it's the Clendenon side, why are there residences beyond the left field wall?


Unless that picture pre-dates 1923, when the water tower was built. That could work.

http://www.crescentlake.net/water-tower.html


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Zvon

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batmagadanleadoff wrote:
Another aerial view.

[fimg=555]http://www.russmattbaseball.com/data/b-tb/images/venues/HugginsStengelField.jpg[/fimg]


These are great photos Mags. You can see the faint outline of what was Butterball Field in this one.


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batmagadanleadoff wrote:
batmagadanleadoff wrote:
[fimg=955]http://www.crescentlake.net/uploads/1/0/3/4/10343399/162632_orig.jpg[/fimg]

This one's confusing. It's not Butterball Field because there's no water tower out in left field, among other things also missing. But if it's the Clendenon side, why are there residences beyond the left field wall?


Unless that picture pre-dates 1923, when the water tower was built. That could work.

http://www.crescentlake.net/water-tower.html


This one I'm not so sure about. Only because the Yankees began wearing uniform numbers in 1929.


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Mets Guy in Michigan wrote:
batmagadanleadoff wrote:
Another aerial view.

[fimg=555]http://www.russmattbaseball.com/data/b-tb/images/venues/HugginsStengelField.jpg[/fimg]


Is that a practice field, or is that where they had the spring games? Looks like there are small stands behind home plate.



I must've overlooked the first part of your question. That's an aerial of Stengel Huggins Field, renamed so in 1963, where the Mets mainly practiced since their inception. Before 1963, the field was named Miller Huggins Field, in honor of the Yankees skipper. The Yankees had trained there forever and you could look that up if you need an exact date or year. That park was originally known as Crescent Lake Field.

The Mets played their home exhibition games -- at least the games against other franchises -- at Al Lang Field, which they shared with the St. Looey Cards.

In 1969, the Joan Payson Field complex opened, providing the Mets with a modern facility. The Mets trained there and also at Stengel-Huggins simultaneously. We referred to the Joan Payson complex as The Forbidden Zone in the original and now archived Butterball thread.


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https://www.google.com/maps/@27.785275,-82.640055,3a,75y,204.11h,90.95t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sb2glBcGY2vYvQMWAJ0v1mw!2e0

Use that link as a starting point to navigate the Butterball Field neighborhood with Google Maps. The water tower's in the initial photo view as a reference point.


There's garbage cans where my google girl used to be.
[fimg=300]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-v0hx_rnnrOE/UkdLL8qSu7I/AAAAAAAAFPs/76XIPV27VvU/s1024/girl4cMEwgooglegirl.jpg[/fimg]
*sob

I went searching for anything I could find back when we first got into this. These were in my Sadecki Spot folder.





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batmagadanleadoff

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Jesse Owens?



Yes it is.
"Coach" Jesse Owens leading the Mets in a jog around Stengel Huggins where the Crescent Lake side fence shortens, a few years before the Mets'd add a white sign there. Case and Yogi are up front and center. It appears that some Mets are already gassed.
[fimg=555]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSBInLve-Npgy6TK7ZGxTAJmFJFALoq-ciu9b4NVq9FRhaTqm20[/fimg]

I1583adUqSg





Extra credit: Who's the feller in the backgound with a cigarette dangling from his mouth?
[fimg=303]http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/costello_07/Stubbys%20Scans/JesseOwensMets1.jpg[/fimg]


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batmagadanleadoff

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Looks like a young Howard Cosell.


It is. Was.

[fimg=803]http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/costello_07/Stubbys%20Scans/JesseOwensMets1.jpg[/fimg]

Check out this personal note from Cosell to "Bill" about a Mets game happily recapped here by forumite Prince.

[fimg=524]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8593/16470237840_685ab6714d_o.jpg[/fimg]

ALSO QUITE HAPPY: On August 21, 1962, the Mets learned the most Marvelous way to break yet another mammoth losing streak was with more Marv Throneberry, not less.

The legend of Throneberry as avatar of laughable failure in the franchise’s inaugural season is littered with everything that went wrong for his disaster of a team. Some of it was even true. Just as true, though, is that these fellows were human, and no human being likes to be laughed at…or provide anybody watching them a reason to snicker.

The Mets, however, were their own worst enemies in that regard. Their record wasn’t making up that they’d just lost their 13th consecutive game (their third losing streak of ten or more games) to start a doubleheader versus the Pirates at the Polo Grounds. They really were bad enough to have entered this Tuesday twinighter 51 games out of first place. Maybe the stress of it all got to be too much for third base coach Solly Hemus, for Solly argued a call with umpire Frank Walsh and got tossed from the nightcap for his troubles. In those days, there weren’t bench coaches and batting coaches filling the dugout, so Casey Stengel needed someone from the ranks of his players to fill in at first after he shifted first base coach Cookie Lavagetto to the third base box. His original choice was veteran Gene Woodling, but then he used Woodling to pinch-hit, so he needed somebody else to pat fannies and handle helmets.

Who else for such a delicate assignment but Marv Throneberry?

Well, why not? The Mets were a mere 65 games under .500 at the moment Stengel required a volunteer and Richie Ashburn volunteered Throneberry. The 4,184 who trekked to Coogan’s Bluff in search of a full evening’s entertainment were tickled to death. They cottoned quickly to the concept of Marv Throneberry, first base coach.

But not as much as they adored the notion of Marv Throneberry, pinch-hitting hero.

The Mets were three outs from their 14th consecutive loss when Ashburn led off the Mets’ ninth with a single to right. After Buc starter Harvey Haddix walked Joe Christopher, Pittsburgh skipper Danny Murtaugh opted to bring in relief ace Roy Face. Face fanned Charlie Neal for the first out of the bottom of the ninth, but then allowed a run-scoring single to Felix Mantilla. After Frank Thomas flied to center and the Mets were down to their last out, Casey wanted a lefty batter to face the righty Face. Thus, to pinch-hit for the righthanded Jim Hickman, he chose the people’s choice of 1962.

“We want Marvelous! We want Marvelous!” the fans cried, as remembered in The Amazing Mets by Jerry Mitchell. So Ol’ Case gave ’em what they wanted.

So did Marvelous. Throneberry blasted a three-run homer to right. The Mets won 5-4 — the same score by which Bobby Thomson’s three-run homer won the pennant for the Giants in the very same inning in the very same ballpark eleven years earlier.

Hard to decide which was the bigger miracle under Coogan’s Bluff.


Edited by Guest
Guest Mets Guy in Michigan

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batmagadanleadoff wrote:
batmagadanleadoff wrote:
Another aerial view.

[fimg=555]http://www.russmattbaseball.com/data/b-tb/images/venues/HugginsStengelField.jpg[/fimg]


Is that a practice field, or is that where they had the spring games? Looks like there are small stands behind home plate.



I must've overlooked the first part of your question. That's an aerial of Stengel Huggins Field, renamed so in 1963, where the Mets mainly practiced since their inception. Before 1963, the field was named Miller Huggins Field, in honor of the Yankees skipper. The Yankees had trained there forever and you could look that up if you need an exact date or year. That park was originally known as Crescent Lake Field.

The Mets played their home exhibition games -- at least the games against other franchises -- at Al Lang Field, which they shared with the St. Looey Cards.

In 1969, the Joan Payson Field complex opened, providing the Mets with a modern facility. The Mets trained there and also at Stengel-Huggins simultaneously. We referred to the Joan Payson complex as The Forbidden Zone in the original and now archived Butterball thread.



Ah! I didn't realize these were current photos. Makes sense! I'm glad the field is still being used.


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G-Fafif

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batmagadanleadoff wrote:
So who was the first base coach when Marvelous was hitting his HR? I can't tell from Cosell's note or from Prince's Happy Recap.


Y'know, it crossed my mind both while writing the version you posted and the slightly revised one that wound up in the book, but then I decided to not wonder about it too much. I figured bottom of the ninth, two out...maybe they left the post unoccupied, the game was going to be over in a sec anyway.

And it was -- though not the way it usually was.

Thinking about it now reminds me of my beef with Todd Pratt slowing down approaching first base when hits the ball to center in the tenth inning of Game Four of the '99 NLDS. Somehow in his and everybody's mind it's either an out or a home run. How did it not occur to him (or us) that maybe it hits the top of the wall and bounces around in play and Finley picks it up and fires it to second to nail a loafing Tank and the Diamondbacks win in eleven and they fly to Arizona and Randy Johnson is death in those weird BOB shadows...

But it doesn't happen that way in 1999 despite Pratt's trudge or 1962 with (in my mind) a vacated coach's box.


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batmagadanleadoff

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Writers covering the Yankees group together for a photo at the Sadecki Spot at Butterball Field, 1959, including a younger Jack Lang, Stan Isaacs and Joe Trimble. Also in the shot is Len Schecter who wrote Ball Four and a great book about the Polo Grounds Mets, Once Upon the Polo Grounds. Schecter wrote for the NY Post and deserves as much credit as anyone for crafting the Mets early image of inept but lovable losers.

Ol 'Case is front and center.



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batmagadanleadoff

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Casey sez to ignore Jenny McCarthy and get your measles shots.




I don't know exactly where Casey was when that photo was shot, but those are definitely Butterball trees in the background. My bet is on right in front of the water fountain.


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