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It was the final game of the 1957 season, but in a way it was the end of an era.
Many months before, New York baseball fans were shocked by the news that their beloved Giants and their archrival Brooklyn Dodgers were moving to greener pastures on the West Coast.
But many of the die-hard fans clung to the hope that it wasn't so.
Only 11,606 die-hards turned out for the Giants' farewell at the Polo Ground.
And somehow their feelings were summed up in a sign in the left field bleachers. It read,
Stay, Team, Stay. But the team didn't stay, and a year later the Giants and Dodgers were calling San Francisco and Los Angeles their homes.
In the final game in the Polo Ground, the Giants bowed to the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1. But the real action came after the final out.
The fans swarmed onto the field, dug up home plate, and carted away. Others took big chunks out of the outfield, and still others sought off grandstand seats to take home as souvenirs.
If Giants owner Horace Stoneham had made an appearance, they would have hauled him away too.
Some chased the players across the field and into the clubhouse. Others waited nearby and hollered for one last look at Willie Mays.
Mays admitted that he was so nervous when he came to bat in the night inning that his hands were shaking.
Willie said, It never happened to me before, not even in the World Series or in the All-Star games.
One of the Giants all-time pitching great, Kyle Hubbell, summed it up most eloquently when he said,
It doesn't matter where we go, this place, this stadium, will always be home to me.
But the Giants did return to the Polo Grounds in New York in 1962, and I'll tell you those circumstances in just 60 seconds.
Yes, the Giants returned to the Polo Grounds in 1962, but this time they were the visiting team,
and the fans jammed the historic old Polo Grounds for the first series with the newly formed New York Mets to get a glimpse at their old heroes.
Casey Stengel was at the Mets helm, but it wasn't the same. Five years is a long time to be away from home,
and now a new generation of fans were cheering, and they weren't cheering the Giants.