As we watch, little by little, Shea Stadium being taken apart, you should know that in the city of New York, there were other ballparks that were torn down too.

Washington Park is where the Brooklyn Dodgers played long before they were known as the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers, then known as the Superbas, played at Washington Park from 1898 to 1912. The ballpark only held 18,800 people and it was the third park to be erected on that site. I was unable to find information on the previous ballparks at that location. Washington Park was located on 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street in Brooklyn. From left to center to right, the dimensions were 335ft, 445ft, and 300ft respectively. There was a 42 foot fence in right field, a 13 foot brick wall topped by a 29 foot canvas. Part of the brick wall still stands today. The Superbas played there until they moved to Ebbets Field in 1913.

Long before there was a Yankee Stadium, the Yankees, first known as the Highlanders, played at a field called Hilltop Park. Its capacity was 16,000 but held up to 30,000 when including standing room. The ballpark was made of wood and Hilltop’s field dimensions were huge. Left field was 365ft, center was 542ft, and right field was 400ft. The ballpark was located on the west side of Manhattan at 168 Street and Fort Washington Avenue. The Yankees played at Hilltop Park until 1912 then moved into the newly rebuilt Polo Grounds with the New York baseball Giants. Hilltop Park was ripped down in 1914. The Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center stands on the site today.

Did you know there were three different Polo Grounds? Actually there were three sites but four different Polo Grounds structures. The original site just north of Central Park in Manhattan was used, oddly enough, for Polo. You know, the game with horses? Polo was played during the 1870s at this location. Hence it was called the Polo Grounds. From 1883 through 1888, New York Giants baseball was played at one corner on this site. The opposite corner was used by the American Association’s New York Metropolitans, the original Mets.  In 1889, the Giants moved to a larger field further north in Manhattan near an area called Coogan’s Hollow. Fans continued to refer to this new location as the Polo Grounds even though no polo was played there. The Giants played there for two seasons before moving to the North side of Coogan’s Hollow to play in a wooden park that seated more people. Half way through the 1911 season, the Polo Grounds, made of wood burned down forcing the Giants to finish their season at Hilltop Park, the Yankees home.

The Polo Grounds was rebuilt for the 1912 season on the same site as the last one. This time the park was constructed using steel beams and concrete to prevent a fire from destroying the place once again. It actually took a few seasons for the Polo Grounds to take the shape that we are familiar with from photographs. Also the Yankees moved in with the Giants and played at the Polo Grounds until Yankee Stadium was built in 1923. After the Yankees moved out, the Giants continued to play at the Polo Grounds until they moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season.

In my opinion, the Polo Grounds has to be one of the ugliest ballparks every built. I say that with total objectivity because I was only one year old when the Giants left New York. But to those who feel I’m too harsh, I apologize because I actually liked Shea Stadium. I know what it means to feel a certain way about a ballpark regardless of its architectural shortcomings.

The Polo Grounds dimensions were ungodly. The foul lines were short and center field was a mile away. The two decked stadium was shaped like a horse shoe (polo grounds? Hmm). Its seating capacity was 55,000 which was a lot for a two tiered stadium. It was only 279ft down the left field line, 250 down the line to the upper deck in left field which hung over the lower level. So when Bobby Thompson hit the shot heard around the world, he didn’t have too far to drive it. Center field was 483 feet away, not too many homers hit to dead center. The right field line was 257 ft.

The Polo Grounds remained standing and served after the Giants left to be the home park of the expansion New York Mets for the 1962 and 1963 season. The park was torn down in 1964, a week before Shea Stadium opened its doors for the first time. The same wrecking ball that was used to demolish Ebbets Field was used to take apart the Polo Grounds.

The most famous of all New York ballparks to be demolished was Ebbets Field. Built and named for Charles Ebbets, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, it opened in 1913. The Dodgers played there until they moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

Perhaps more than any other baseball park, Ebbets Field represents the classic park to play baseball. It was small and intimate. The two level park brought the fans closer to the action then any other. Brooklyn Dodger fans, who I have talked to, all say that you could hear the players on the field talking, even when it was a full house. A full house at Ebbets Field was 32,000. The ballpark was right in the middle of the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Like Wrigley Field, it was a true neighborhood ballpark.

The stands wrapped around the field from the right field foul pole clockwise to center field. There was a wall in right field with nooks and crannies and a hand operated scoreboard. On the field, the left field line was 348ft. Center was only 393ft, not deep by today’s standards. Right field was only 297 feet down the line. The wall in right was 38 feet tall, half of which was concrete and the other half a large screen. There was an Abe Stark sign on the right field wall that offered the possibility of winning a suit if the batter could hit a ball off of it on the fly. Lights were installed with the first night game played on June 15, 1938. What made Ebbets Field most memorable architecturally, more that other parks of the time were its arches on the outside façade and the famous rotunda behind home plate.

Another first for Ebbets Field included the first televised game in history. It happened in August of 1939 against the Cincinnati Reds. But the most famous thing about Ebbets Field was the fact that the first black man, Jackie Robinson, broke the color line playing there.

Ebbets Field was razed in February, 1960. Its deteriorating condition led the Dodgers to move out of Brooklyn. Walter O’Malley wanted to build a new stadium for the Dodgers in Brooklyn but city planner Robert Moses wanted it in Queens where Shea Stadium was eventually constructed.

Shea Stadium follows in a long line of New York baseball parks that have met the wrecking ball. But unlike the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field, there will be no wrecking ball for Shea. She will be dismantled piece by piece over a five month period. Soon Yankee Stadium, the renovated one from 1976, will be torn down too. Most likely, that will not happen till May of next year. In Yankee and Shea’s place will be too shiny new baseball palaces that blend the best of the old with the best of the new. It’s hard to believe but some day many years from now, they will likely be replaced too.